Dickerson, R-Nashville, is one of the owners of Comprehensive Pain Specialists.

Federal prosecutors say the defraud the government with unnecessarily expensive drug testing.

Dickerson's attorney insists senator is 'an honest man.'

Correction: This story originally included an incorrect amount that federal prosecutors said Comprehensive Pain Specialists defrauded from the government.

Federal prosecutors have sued Nashville Sen. Steve Dickerson and several Tennessee doctors on allegations they defrauded the government and taxpayers out of at least $25 million as owners of one of the largest pain management chains in the nation.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, accuses Comprehensive Pain Specialists, or CPS, of submitting “thousands of false claims to federal and state funded health care programs.”

UPDATE:Dickerson made an estimated $6.5M from fraudulent pain clinics, feds say

Many of the fraud allegations stem from billing the government for urine sample drug testing that was unnecessary and overpriced. In some cases, CPS never actually checked the results of the drug tests, the lawsuit says.

“This testing was commonly referred to as 'liquid gold' — leaving no doubt that profit was Defendants’ primary objective in performing urine drug testing,” the lawsuit states.

The company is also accused of “upcoding” billing records and intentionally billing the government for acupuncture that it knew was not covered by government health programs, court records show. Some of the allegedly fraudulent bills were sent to TennCare, so the state of Tennessee is a co-plaintiff on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks to recover $50 million in damages. All of the allegations are civil. Prosecutors have not revealed any plan to pursue criminal charges.

Dickerson's attorney, Ed Yarbrough, declined to discuss the lawsuit.

"I would have only one comment: Dr. Dickerson is an honest man. We will prove that in court," Yarbrough wrote in an email.

FRAUD:State Sen. Steve Dickerson cooperating with feds to 'minimize his exposure,' attorney says

CPS had 60 clinics, lab in Franklin

Dickerson, R-Nashville, an anesthesiologist, co-founded and co-owned CPS in the early 2000s with three other Nashville-area doctors — Peter Kroll, Richard Muench and Gilberto Carrero. Muench is not implicated in the lawsuit, but the three other doctors are all named as defendants.

The suit also targets former CPS CEO John Davis, who was convicted of health care fraud earlier this year, and Russel Smith, an east Tennessee chiropractor who allowed CPS to operate his clinic.

The lawsuit combines allegations from seven whistleblowers who filed complaints against CPS over the past three years. At least five of the whistleblowers say they are former employees who were fired after they reported wrongdoing to their bosses.

CPS once operated a large drug testing lab in Franklin and about 60 pain clinics across 12 states. The company abruptly shut down last summer, giving little warning to patients and employees and stranding some patients without access to their medical records, making it very difficult to find new doctors.

The federal lawsuit states that much of the company’s fraud was centered around the Franklin lab and the kind of drug tests performed on a daily basis.

Generally, pain clinics give new patients a drug test that checks for many substances, called a “qualitative test,” to ensure they aren’t already taking opioids or some other powerful drug. Qualitative tests are a screening tool but they are expensive, so many clinics transition to “point of care” testing to test for one drug at a time. Point of care testing is faster, cheaper and doesn’t require a lab, so it is used by most clinics on most patients.

But not at CPS. According to the lawsuit, the company had a strict policy of boosting profits by always performing qualitative testing on every patient at every visit. Employees were given financial incentives to order as many tests as possible, and eventually the Franklin lab was performing “upwards of 600 tests per day,” the lawsuit says.

And when the tests were over, CPS didn’t check the results, the lawsuit states.

“CPS lacked any medical necessity to perform the majority of these tests and did not have the requisite medical documentation to support the testing,” the lawsuit states. “CPS providers often ignored or overlooked the testing results in making decisions on whether to prescribe opioids on follow up visits."

One whistleblower, Scott Steed, said CPS executives once took him on a tour of the lab, during which Steed commented on the “overpowering and unpleasant smell of urine.”

“To me, it smells like money,” an executive responded, according to Steed’s whistleblower complaint, which was partly incorporated into the federal lawsuit.

Federal authorities also argue that CPS expanded this strategy of billing the government for unnecessary and excessive testing to psychological tests, genetic tests and “specimen validity” tests, which are performed to ensure that urine samples haven’t been diluted or tampered with.

The lawsuit also says:

Kroll, who was the CPS medical director, submitted more than 15,000 false claims, including about 2,500 claims in which he treated patients but was actually on vacation outside of the United States.

Davis intentionally billed the federal and state government for acupuncture despite knowing that these programs did not cover this procedure. CPS owners were aware of this scheme, the lawsuit states.

Dickerson and Carrero submitted about 750 and 800 false claims, respectively, including claims for acupuncture.

Since being first elected in 2012, Dickerson has used his knowledge as an anesthesiologist while discussing legislation on health care and the opioid crisis. Dickerson is also one of the strongest advocates for medical marijuana legislation in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Dickerson is up for re-election next year.

Attorneys for CPS did not respond to request for comment. Dan Martin, an attorney for Kroll, said in a brief statement that his client "did not engage in any wrongdoing whatsoever."

Brett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @brettkelman.