An initial appearance was conducted today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas at Marshall before United States Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham IV. Hancock was released on bond pending his initial appearance in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on September 24, 2008, at 9:00 a.m. before the Honorable Dennis H. Inman, United States Magistrate Judge.

A federal grand jury in Greeneville, Tennessee, returned a superseding indictment against Hancock on September 9, 2008. The indictment alleges that Hancock, while licensed to practice as a medical doctor by the State of Tennessee, operated a medical business known as "Hancock Family Medicine" and Dr. John

T. Hancock Family Medicine" in Mooresburg, Tennessee. Hancock is alleged to have improperly written prescriptions for controlled substances, to include methadone, morphine, oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone, and benzodiazepines, for patients without performing physical examinations and without determing a sufficient medical necessity for the prescriptions. Hancock, who is alleged to have charged patients $80 to $100 in cash for each visit, continued to prescribe drugs having high risks of abuse and addiction even after he received information that particular patients were abusing their drugs, were selling their drugs, and were "doctor shopping." Hancock is alleged to have prescribed excessive and inappropriate quantities and combinations of drugs outside the course of professional practice. Hancock is also alleged to have written prescriptions with the agreement that the patients would bring all or part of the drugs back to Hancock, usually for his personal use.

The indictment further alleges that Hancock, after agreeing to surrender his registration with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to prescribe controlled substances in December 2003, enlisted another doctor to issue prescriptions for controlled substances for Hancock's patients.

Because most of the drugs prescribed were paid for through the TennCare program, Tennessee's program for indigent medical care, the indictment charges that Hancock engaged in a scheme to defraud the TennCare program by providing the medically unnecessary prescriptions to his patients for them to have filled at area pharmacies at TennCare's expense. The indictment identifies five patients who are alleged to have died as a result of Hancock's prescribing practices.

Hancock is also charged with engaging in financial transactions in criminally derived property, that is, money obtained through health care fraud and the unlawful dispensing of controlled substances. The offenses charged involve the exchange of $16,480 in cash in February 2005 and the exchange of $18,552 in cash in April 2005.

Finally, the indictment alleges that Hancock willfully evaded payment of income taxes which he owed for 1994 and 1995 by concealing the nature, sources, and extent of his income and assets. Hancock is also alleged to have willfully failed to file income tax returns from 2002 through 2005 when he had gross income of over $1 million during that period.

If convicted, Hancock faces up to life imprisonment and fines of over $2.5 million.

United States Attorney Dedrick said: "The abuse of prescription drugs has become one of the most significant public health problems in Tennessee today. Tennessee leads the nation in the number of controlled substance prescriptions per capita and Tennessee's prescription drug overdose rate is 26% above the national average. Deaths from prescription drug overdoses increased 53% between 2002 and 2006 and, in 2006, deaths from prescription drug overdoses far exceeded those from illicit drugs (323 to 73). The top ten prescription drugs listed on death certificates in Tennessee in 2006 were: methadone, morphine, alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl, carisoprodol (Soma), propoxyphene, and amitriptyline (Elavil). TBI, with the support of U.S. Attorney's Offices and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, has created the Tennessee Drug Diversion Task Force whose mission is to combat this growing problem through education and enforcement."

The investigation was conducted by special agents of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Members of the public are reminded that these are only charges and that every person is presumed innocent until their guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

For additional information, please contact United States Attorney Russ Dedrick, 865-545-4167, AUSA Neil Smith, 423-639-6759, or Public Information Officer Sharry Dedman-Beard, 865-545-4167.