Dr. Thomas Ballard confessed to overprescribing last year. His Jackson clinic was raided this week.

The clinic of a Tennessee doctor who has admitted to writing unjustifiably large prescriptions without a clear diagnosis was raided by state and federal law enforcement this week.

Dr. Thomas Ballard III, an owner of the Ballard Clinic in downtown Jackson, confessed to worrisome prescribing and agreed to have his medical license put on probation for two years in a settlement with the Tennessee Department of Health in November.

Health investigators found that Ballard gave some of his patients large dosages of addictive medicines to treat “chronic pain” without actually documenting the pain in their medical records, board documents state. Investigators studied the records of 22 of Ballard’s patients, but it isn’t clear how many were found to be problematic.

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The state settlement appeared to resolve Ballard’s case until Wednesday, when agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the federal Office of Inspector General raided his clinic.

Footage of the raid, broadcast by Jackson news station WBBJ 7, showed agents searching the clinic and shipping containers behind the building. A handwritten note pasted on the door said the clinic was closed.

Calls to the clinic were left unanswered on Thursday. Ballard's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ballard is at least the second downtown Jackson medical professional to be criminally investigated and accused of overprescribing in recent years. The Drug Enforcement Administration raided the clinic of nurse practitioner Jeffrey Young in 2017. Health Department investigators later accused Young of prescribing dangerous levels of opioids. His nursing license was put on two years of probation through a settlement, although Young admitted no wrongdoing in the agreement.

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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.

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