A former Newton doctor has pled guilty to health care fraud and the illegal distribution of prescription medication. A new release from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa says 64-year-old Lafayette James Twyner, Junior pled guilt under an agreement where he would serve 5 years in prison and 3 years of home and/or community confinement.
According the release: “The indictment, filed October 23, 2012, charges Twyner with prescribing controlled substances in a manner likely to cause, and that did cause, dependence, addiction, and in one case, death, as well as failing to change his prescribing practices, even after being made aware of obvious signs of patient drug abuse and diversion. Additionally, the indictment alleges he caused various insurance companies to be billed for prescriptions and services that were not for a legitimate medical purpose.”
Twyner surrendered his registration to prescribe controlled substances to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in April 2011, shortly after a federal search warrant was executed at the location of now-defunct Urgent Care Clinic in Newton, where he then practiced medicine.
According to public records from the Iowa Board of Medicine, Twyner, who was first licensed in Iowa in 1976, surrendered his license to practice medicine in 2012, and agreed to pay a $10,000 fine. Twyner was cited by the Iowa Board of Medicine for “engaging in a pattern of willful and repeated violation of the laws and rules governing the practice of medicine in Iowa, placing patients at risk of serious harm, when he prescribed excessive controlled substances to numerous patients, including patients with known drug histories.”