U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey has sentenced Dr. Stanley L. Librach to five years in prison for healthcare fraud and ordered him to repay $2.87 million. The 64-year-old Chesterfield doctor pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy, illegally prescribing controlled substances, paying illegal kickbacks for referrals, and healthcare fraud.
Dr. Librach admitted to participating in schemes involving kickbacks and the illegal prescribing of controlled substances. In one scheme, he collaborated with Dr. Asim Muhammad Ali and chiropractor Jerry Dale Leech to send urine samples for testing to Central Diagnostic Laboratory (CDL) in exchange for illegal kickbacks directed to business entities owned by Leech and Denis J. Mikhlin. CDL sought reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for these tests.
In another scheme, Drs. Librach, Ali, and Leech wrote prescriptions for oxycodone and other controlled substances without legitimate medical purposes or proper patient examination at associated pain clinics. They pre-signed prescriptions used for patients’ future visits without examining them or reviewing their charts.
“This provider was involved in multiple elaborate healthcare fraud schemes that involved accepting kickbacks and illegally prescribing dangerous and addictive opioids for financial gain,” stated Linda T. Hanley from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG). Michael A. Davis from the Drug Enforcement Administration highlighted doctors’ responsibility to prescribe medications lawfully due to opioids’ addictive nature.
Eleven defendants were indicted in 2020, including three doctors, their staff, and purported patients; a twelfth was added in 2022—all have pleaded guilty.
Dr. Ali is scheduled for sentencing in August after pleading guilty to similar charges as Dr. Librach in May 2024. Leech will be sentenced in September following his 2021 guilty plea on related charges, while Mikhlin received a nine-year sentence in 2021 with an order to repay $181,265.
The investigation involved HHS-OIG, DEA, Missouri Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, FBI, Defense Criminal Investigative Service with prosecution by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Sestric, Derek Wiseman, and Jonathan Clow.
