Telemedicine Opioid Treatment Center Sued, Medical Director Indicted

The center was formed under the auspices of a church.

The founder of a drug treatment clinic in North Carolina affiliated with a church has been sued by a former employee, who acted as a whistleblower. And the clinic’s medical director is under a federal indictment for distribution of controlled substances.

Bupe.me is a telehealth business started by Douglas Randall Smith as a nonprofit entity associated with Church Ekklasia Sozo, according to reporting by The Post and Courier. Its purpose is to treat patients with opioid addictions with a drug called buprenorphine through telemedicine.

Church Ekklasia Sozo Inc. was founded in 2017 in Charlotte as a nonprofit corporation, although a search of its employer identification number on the IRS website produces no results.

According to its founding documents, Church Ekklasia Sozo exists to “teach and preach the gospel to all people, conduct evangelistic activities, license and ordain ministers of the gospel, provide religious, charitable, and humanitarian services, and provide programs and assistance in fighting opioid addictions.”

Smith told The Post and Courier that he formed the business as a church in order to take advantage of exemptions and grow the business more easily across state lines.

With the growth of telemedicine during and after the pandemic, the patient load of the church and its clinic Bupe.me grew also. According to internal company documents obtained by The Post and Courier, the telemedicine company had grown to more than 4,000 patients in 25 states in 2022 and had $5.5 million in revenue last year.

“We’re above board, doing good work. Some would say we’re doing God’s work,” Smith said.

Edmund Brown served as a consultant for Smith’s treatment center after being convinced it provided a valuable service to those with opioid addictions. He claims to have used his network of contacts to benefit the business, helping it secure telemedicine opioid treatment grants.

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But when the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation began investigating Bupe.me’s patient practices for possible fraud, Brown didn’t think Smith was honest in his responses to the investigators. Smith gave them “incorrect and conflicting information,” the court documents state.

Brown then “made reports to appropriate legal entities and has cooperated with governmental agencies in their investigations of Defendant Smith,” the lawsuit states.

He sued Smith, Church Ekklasia Sozo, and Bupe.me for backpay, claiming Smith withheld compensation in retaliation for his whistleblowing and cooperation with investigators.

Smith is dismissive of Brown’s lawsuit, claiming he has no knowledge about the drug treatment center’s operations, adding that he hasn’t even hired a lawyer to defend him in the case.

Brown claimed that Smith masks his company’s activities from federal officials under its nonprofit status then uses the revenue for his own benefit.

In response, Smith claimed the drug treatment center only meets its payroll and pays for its research. However, bank records reviewed by The Post and Courier show $50,000 in questionable expenditures, including at grocery stores near Smith’s Virginia home and on horse care and transportation. Smith’s wife is an equestrian.

When Smith was reminded that the Church Ekklasia Sozo founding documents prohibit the use of its revenue for personal benefit, Smith apparently told The Post and Courier he’d repay the money.

In addition to the questionable spending practices of Bupe.me, the drug treatment center has come under scrutiny over its prescriptions.

Henry Ronald Emery Jr. served as the medical director for Bupe.me and wrote many prescriptions for buprenorphine. According to Medicare prescription data analyzed by The Post and Courier, Emery was prescribing buprenorphine more than any other doctor in North Carolina.

After a federal investigation, Emery was indicted on 11 counts for “allegedly engag[ing] in the illegal distribution of buprenorphine on multiple occasions and while acting and intending to act outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said in a press statement.

His trial was scheduled to begin in January, but has been continued until February.

Smith defends Emery against the charges, claiming the Drug Enforcement Agency wants to stop his “revolutionary research” about opioid addiction, the Post and Courier reported.

“There’s no such thing as opioid addiction,” he told the outlet. “It doesn’t exist. It’s a fairytale.”

Smith and Bupe.me is not without its supporters. One of its patients, Bobby Ray Whidden, praised the clinic for helping him with his opioid addiction. “They’ve really turned things around for me. Hands down this has been the most human program I’ve been a part of,” Whidden told The Post and Courier.

Main photo: Douglas Smith, in one of a series of videos called The Opioid Monologues / Video screenshot