A New Hampshire doctor who ran a chain of addiction treatment clinics in the Twin States, including one in Grantham, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to unlawfully distribute drugs.
Dr. Adnan S. Khan, who prosecutors identified earlier this year as a resident of Grantham, potentially faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine when he is sentenced after pleading guilty to his role in demanding cash payments before prescribing the opioid painkiller buprenorphine to people he was aware were “diverting” the drug for sale, according to court documents.
The plea deal on a single count is nonetheless significantly lighter than the original 16 counts — which included charges alleging Khan participated in a multi-party scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid out of at least $6.9 million for unnecessary urine tests — and 20 years in prison that Khan faced when he was indicted in April.
An attorney for Khan did not respond to an email for comment on Tuesday.
Khan owned and operated New England Medicine & Counseling Associates, addiction treatment clinics that were shut down earlier this year following his indictment on federal charges.
Khan was associated with Dr. Steven Powell, former chief medical officer at New London Hospital, who pleaded guilty last year to health care fraud for bilking Medicare through telehealth companies by prescribing unnecessary medical devices for beneficiaries, most of whom he neither consulted nor communicated with.
In his now-deleted LinkedIn profile, Powell, now residing in Georgia where he is awaiting sentencing, identified himself as chief executive of NEMCA from January 2019 to May 2020.
Powell, who also told Grantham town officials in 2016 that he would be providing psychiatric services at NEMCA’s Sawyer Brook Plaza office, was never charged with unlawful distribution of drugs.
The two doctors medical licenses have either been revoked, suspended or relinquished in states where they were licensed to practice, according to online records.
Khan and an associate identified as “co-conspirator 1” were aware that the bulk of the patients coming through NEMCA’s doors were in turn peddling their buprenorphine prescriptions on the black market, according to Khan’s plea agreement entered at U.S. District Court in Burlington on Sept. 12, 2024.
Khan and his associate’s alleged scheme went back at least to 2017 when they exchanged emails about economically disadvantaged patients not being able to afford the $250 cash payment for office visits to receive prescription drugs, the plea agreement details.
If a patient could not afford NEMCA’s $250 at-the-door policy, Khan suggested they would reduce the patient’s buprenorphine prescription by half to 4 milligrams, to which co-conspirator 1 via email replied, “Cool.”
When co-conspirator 1 emailed Kahn to suggest NEMCA could offer $100 “scholarships” to patients who owed money. Khan emailed back “Stuck on ‘who’ should get them. S—bag patients owe me so much that $100 won’t even put a dent in their account and they probably wouldn’t appreciate it. Maybe the borderline ones who are just over the $250 threshold? They would probably get on their knees in gratitude.”
The scheme showed signs of cracking as early as 2018 when co-conspirator 1 sent an email with the subject line “scared” after learning pharmacies would no longer fill NEMCA’s prescriptions for buprenorphine, the plea agreement details. Co-conspirator 1 told Khan that he hoped that they could keep the “honest” patients by switching their prescriptions to other drugs but stood to lose the “dishonest” patients who were “selling their meds.”
But Khan responded that honest patients were “unfortunately the smaller part of our clientele … it’s the diverters we need to try to figure out a way to retain.”
The plea agreement further states that Khan admits that from 2017 to 2022, he prescribed a total of 11,917 8-milligram tablets of buprenorphine to five different NEMCA patients. On “multiple occasions” he deposited amounts of $10,000 in cash received from NEMCA’s $250 cash patient fee at a “financial institution,” it said.
Khan diverted money from NEMCA “for his personal use and benefit,” the plea agreement stated, including the purchase of “multiple properties in New England,” in addition to a Piper Cherokee airplane.
By 2022, Khan and co-conspirator 1 realized they could be in trouble when Khan emailed his associate a press release announcing the formation of a New England Strike Force by the U.S. Department of Justice to target illegal opiod prescriptions, to which co-conspirator 1 responded: “They do not mention bup(renorphine), but it is clear that ‘making a profit off of patients’ is geared towards folks like us. Curious where this will lead.”
The next day Khan emailed NEMCA staff about the Strike Force’s formation, warning them that its purpose was to be “on the lookout for medical professionals who are prescribing scheduled meds irresponsibly, etc.,” and directed staff that when investigators showed up they were “NOT to engage or discuss anything about NEMCA, what we do, what we offer, fees, etc.,” according to the plea agreement.
Khan’s change of plea hearing is scheduled for Nov. 4 at U.S. District Court in Rutland.
This article is being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
