I'm a patient of Dr F., I did a F2F on April 3, 2009. Dr Troy was my attenting PA, did a Great job. I filled my RX near the clinic. I just received my refill today (watson 10/325 #120) with (1) refill left. Pharmacy= Walgreens.
I wish everyone the best of luck!

I went to the Tampa clinic, as it was posted here that they were opening this week, and the clinic was closed. I called their telephone number in Tampa and it was disconnected. I then called the telephones for Dr. Jeffrey Friedlander in Lakeland and Jacksonville and they were disconnected. I called the Orlando and Sarasota numbers and just got a recording, so I left massages, but did not get a reply. Are they open and if so what days and hours. Also, does anyone have a phone number that is answered and a contact name other than Troy Wubbena or Dr. Friedlander?

There were two other people arrested with the doctor and his PA. Look back at the news coverage of his arrest to find the names.
You might try them as contacts.

A friend needed a referral and they were closed Friday as always. Try the office in the morning. If you still cant get anyone post up and let me know. I would send you a pm with the # but cannot for some reason. Figures! Ha I wish i could help you out I know whats its like when you need advice and cant get help.

Hi everyone..well i thought i would let you all know that the Dr is doing reconsults again,,, but has to modify prescriptions untill his case gets settled,,but is trying to help his patients the best he can for now,,, which is great news,,, it really shows that he does still care about us and is trying his hardest to keep us as comfortable as he can,,, iam due for my reconsult ..well late really because i have been stuck in bed sick,,, very painful.. but anyway i will let you all know how it turns out ,, and i hope the dr and his team pull through this hard time,, take care everyone.. just thought i give a brief update for anyone interested.. sincerely Faith

Anything new on the dr and Troy? I needed a referral from the dr a couple weeks ago for the new dr I am using but his office was closed on Friday. If anyone tries to get in touch with them only one of the numbers still works. I called 6 of them before getting thru in Orlando or Tampa. I cannot recall which one. I was just wondering if anyone knew how things were going. People can talk as much $hit as they want to about Troy. He is a really good guy. Met him several times.

It seems they are down to one clinic, the Orlando Clinic. A friend of mine who has decided to keep with them, despite my recommendation that she see a new doctor, said Dr. Friedlander did not show up to see patients at her last scheduled visit and they had to cancel her appointment at the last minute. I will be posting a complete update after their motions hearing on the 12th.

big bro is cracking down on ALP prescriptions also as of recent. but i do agree that 6 milligrams of ALP is a lot to take each day. docs will get watched if they are writing this much unless they are a shrink. especially if a doctor is prescribing a pain med/alp combo and most believe that one should only use anxiety medication temporarily. (don't take that the wrong way, i do not mean that to be negative. i do realize some people may need this much) but at that amount a long acting med may be better with a small amount of short acting med for bad panic attacks. although i am not sure many docs will write say valium or klonopin for daily use and then maybe 30 xanax per month along with it. (again, many docs see it as if you need this medication daily you should be under the care of a psychologist or psychiatrist (which ever one can write prescriptions, i forget)

at least dr f is still trying to help his patients until he gets through this rough patch (or loses his license) but i think it shows a lot in the way of his compassion and character.

JMO

Here is todays update on NEW CHARGES FOR Troy Wubbena:

I sincerely doubt that you will ever see these clinics ever again.

DOH Issues Emergency Suspension Order For Troy Wubbena
POSTED: 1:43 pm EDT June 3, 2009
UPDATED: 2:04 pm EDT June 3, 2009


ORLANDO, Fla -- An Orlando physician's assistant was suspended Wednesday for allegedly selling a narcotic pain reliever.

The Florida Department of Health said Troy Wubbena dispensed roxicodone pills to someone outside his professional practice and later sold that person pills.

The emergency suspension prevents Wubbena from practicing as a physician assistant in Florida until final action by the Florida Board of Medicine.

Wubbena has 30 days to dispute the suspension order.

If the Florida board finds that Wubbena has violated his license, he could face probation, revocation of his license and fines ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 for each offense.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TROYARTHURWUBBENA
LICENSE NUMBER: PA9104389 Printer Friendly Version

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Profession
PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT

License/Activity Status
Emerg. Suspens./ACTIVE

Qualifications
Prescribing

License Expiration Date License Original Issue Date
1/31/2010 10/01/2007

Address of Record
1525 E. AMELIA ST.
ORLANDO,FL32803
UNITED STATES

Unbelievable - Must Read

http://ww2.doh.state.fl.us/imageappnet/r...u55hlpbvm55.pdf

Per the DOH: Troy Wubbena was selling 3000.00 worth of Roxicodone a day on the streets through his son's (who was only 17 at the time) friend (who was first introduuced to and got addicted to Roxicodone by Troy Wubbena) on the streets. This street money was then Funneled to Troy. This was only one of Troy's street dealers.

There should be no more postings on this website about Troy Wubbena being a GOOD PERSON!!!!!!!

Lakeland Pain Doctor Faces New Charges
Allegations of Medicare fraud heaped on physician accused of improperly distributing painkillers.
By Robin Williams Adams
The Lakeland Ledger

Published: Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, October 19, 2009 at 12:15 a.m.

LAKELAND | A federal grand jury has lodged additional charges against Dr. Jeffrey Friedlander and three staff members arrested with him in April on charges of conspiring to dispense addictive painkillers.

They worked at the Neurology and Pain Centers in Lakeland, Tampa, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville and Orlando. A hearing is scheduled Oct. 29 for arraignment on a "superseding indictment," basically taking the place of the earlier one, that adds accusations of Medicare fraud and retains the previous allegations of improperly distributing painkillers.

The arraignment is scheduled for Friedlander, physician assistant Troy Wubbena and employee Sarah Ehresman, according to court documents.

A fourth defendant, Carl Ehresman, an emergency medical technician, has accepted a plea agreement.

The agreement calls for him to plead guilty to conspiracy to "knowingly and intentionally distribute and dispense, and cause the distribution and dispensing of" the prescription drugs. Several charges against him would be dropped and he would testify in ongoing federal proceedings in that case.

A hearing on the plea agreement is scheduled Thursday in Tampa before Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson, who also scheduled to preside at the Oct. 29 hearing.

Friedlander - board certified in internal medicine, neurology, pain medicine and vascular neurology - was the only one legally allowed to prescribe the controlled substances named in the indictment.

But the indictment contends the defendants used pre-signed, blank prescription forms on which people other than Friedlander filled in the controlled substances and dosages being prescribed.

Oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone and alprazolam are the drugs they mostly used, according to the indictment filed earlier this month. The first three are powerful, highly addictive painkillers. Alprazolam, better known as Xanax, is for anxiety caused by depression and for anxiety and panic disorders.

A jury trial once set for Nov. 9 for all defendants has been rescheduled for February.

The indictment accuses Friedlander and Wubbena of conspiring with others to defraud Medicare by filing claims for services that weren't given. It says they billed for procedures with higher payment rates when lower-paid, less complex procedures actually had been done.

That type of billing, called upcoding, results in health providers' receiving more money than they're eligible for under Medicare. The indictment says they began committing Medicare fraud about 2006, through methods such as:

Using massage therapists to do "physical therapy" that they weren't licensed to do, while billing Medicare for legitimate physical therapy done by licensed physical therapists under the supervision of a physician.

Billing for more extensive office visits than actually occurred, requesting the higher rate for medical evaluation and management for established patients when unlicensed, nonmedical people saw patients without supervision by the physician.

Routinely billing for a procedure called facet joint block injection that needs fluoroscopic guidance with imaging equipment into a point in the vertebrae when they actually gave "trigger point" injections into painful areas of muscle. Unlicensed, nonmedical people did the trigger-point injections without a doctor's presence and supervision, the indictment charges.

The new Federal Grand Jury 47 Felony Count Superceding Indictment is now available on the internet. You can find it by doing a Google Search of Troy Wubbena or Jeffrey Friedlander. For your convenience, I have made a download available below. It is so long that it required to seperate PDFs. They are both now facing, in essence, life in prison.

DO YOU IN JOY THIS?
How about joining us here with some thing positive for once.

Life in Prison I think NOT!!!
Why don't you listen to the Poster above Me??

Thank God ......You are Not on the Jury

Guilty ...Until Proven Innocent?

APAININTAMPA....You Must be a Politician , a Government Official Or who knows what!!

You certainly have Made up your mind!!

Thank God I don't Live in Tampa!!

they may be able to fight the charges relating to the prescriptions but, now that mr. ehrsman is going to testify against the others in the case, it is quite feasible he will say ''anything'' damaging to those being charged in order to save his own tail.

as far as them not performing an adequate diagnosis, they did much more than any so-called ''legitimate'' doctor i have been too. i was asked more questions, given a thoro physical exam, asked questions about addiction, etc. but that is only my experience. that is not to say they werent doing the opposite in another room. anyways...

its the medicare charges they may have an extremely tough time fighting. it appears they are being charged with a significant amount of ''upcoding'' which is just what it sounds like, submitting claims to medicare which were not done. gotta be careful when defrauding the government. many times medicare patients do not review their explanation of benefits bc if they arent paying anything out of pocket, or have a set copay each time, what doesnt it matter to the patient if $5 was charged or $5,000, they have to pay the same $X copay each time (that is of course if they even have a copay.)

an interesting thing to note is that the amount they are alleged to have schemed looks like to be roughly $1,100 total. it is VERY conceivable that the billing person erroneously posted those charges since they occurred over the course of approx. one year throughout 2007-2008. it is very very rare the doctor themselves will post charges as that is why they have a biling dept./billing person to post charges, submit claims, etc.
its very interesting bc if the doctors did in fact try to scam the medicare system, why did they not do it prior to 2007 and why stop after only so short a time. further, it appears this couldve been done with only one or a few patients when they were undoubtedly seeing many more. so why try to scam for only $1,000 and not go for so much more as doctors who conciously scam are prone to do. that is why you read about million dollar scams being perpertrated bc its done on every single patient. it doesnt look like the case here.

however, the court system sucks and even if they are innocent, they obviously are facing some super serious charges and its going to take some time and be very expensive to get through all this.

hey steve, it is interesting what apainintampa's deep interest in the case is. they are either LE seeking some info from the board, a former employee, or someone else who has intimate knowledge regarding the matter. but the act of posting the info here is to elicit reponses from board members.

and that is what i am curious about.

Snippets, I wonder as well. But what I can't get is, IF you're going to commit medicare fraud why do it for only 1,000 dollars? That's the equivalent of robbing a bank with a gun for 1 dollar lol. It's just stupid.

Poster: APAININTAMPA

You're The Pain In Tampa!
Good luck finding new doctors.

i totally agree. thats why i wonder with that if it was some sort of billing error done by an employee. im aware the document states the billing was done via the doctors specific code numbers, well thats how it works in doctors offices, the billing office uses the doctors codes to bill procedures.

but, it is possible they may have done it willingly. thats what the public will find out from the trial. it just stinks that if the charges do get knocked down or off, all their reputations are screwed, its the patients who have lost out, and its going to cost them a lot of money to fight the charges.

if i recall correctly something like $300,000 was seized, as well as a house. thats not a lot. those baltimore doctors with newcare (i think was the name) had millions and multiple homes, as did the saran fellow.

its going to be an interesting trial and i cant wait for the ''fox news'' version from apainintampa.

i do want to add that even though she is obviously super biased bc she believes she was ripped off and has been posting what i would consider to be too much personal info of theirs as a form of retaliation, it is of benefit to the db community that the legal documents are being presented, as well as other news stories that have been published, on the entire matter.

I never think personal info should be posted on a open forum.

Ohhhhhhhhhh my god. You are really starting to get on my nerve's.

Would you please go away and never come back !!
C

All that personal info that was posted is a matter of PUBLIC record though.

I know Stacy. But this poster seems to have a personal vendetta. Take it some were else . I am getting a little tried of it. We know all ready.
C

Oh I know this poster does Chuckee. I was just addressing the personal info that is being posted. It is out there for all to find.

Has everyone googled their own name just to see what comes up? It is amazing!

Update - Sarah Ehresman agreed to a Plea Deal on 11-16-2009. She is pleading guilty to one count of felony conspiracy to illegally distribute Controlled Substances. All other charges against her will be dropped per the Plea Agreement. She will still be facing a maximum of 20 years in prison, 3 years of parole and 1 million in financial penalties. There could also be restitution to victims. Sentencing will be made at a later date by the Federal Judge and she has given up her right to contest the sentence that the judge determines is appropriate. This is all dependent on the acceptance by a Federal Judge and her cooperation with Testimony against Troy Wubbena and Jeffrey Friedlander. As part of her testimony in the Plea Agreement, she acknowledges that she knowingly committed the crimes and frequently saw patients when Dr. Jeffrey Friedlander was not even in the facility. She is stating that she did this at the direction of Troy Wubbena.

Carl Ehresman had previously agreed to a very similar Plea Agreement on 10-16-2009.

It is stated as fact in the Plea Agreement that an undercover detective made six seperate visits to the clinics over a 2 year period and that each time he/she was prescribed Controlled Substances. It also states that he/she never, at any time, saw a doctor. It states that each of the six visits were recorded and that there are a total of 12 seperate undercover recordings.

This information is available to the public upon request through the Middle District of Florida Federal Courts.

Do you even read the post others make to this thread?

Just curious
Besides wanting to keep us informed... what is your motivation for posting all this info?

admin, that is a question we have all been speculating about here in regards to that posters history.