Former Paintsville Doctor Sentenced in Federal Court; Son scheduled for sentencing in June
By Roberta Cantrell
BSN Editor
Don Bryson was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, after he pleaded guilty to a federal drug conspiracy charge.
The former Paintsville doctor pleaded guilty in June of 2024, to one count of conspiracy to distribute Schedule II controlled substances.
Don V. Bryson, a 1979 University of Kentucky graduate of Medicine surrendered his license in 2012 after a consultant raised concerns about prescribing practices, according to the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.
Also, in that earlier case, Bryson agreed in 2013 to pay the federal government $200,000 to settle allegations of improper billing to Medicare and Medicaid.
Federal authorities had alleged that between 2008 and Dec. of 2011, Bryson didn’t keep proper documentation for the bills he submitted to the federally funded programs.
In the current case, Bryson, even though he was not a licensed physician was acting as a consultant for a company called The Talmadge Group Inc., which did business under the name Appalachian Family Medicine.
The business was not registered as a pain clinic however, a significant number of people went there for opioid pain medication.
The clinic would use physicians from a temp agency, usually on a short-term basis but Bryson and the owner of the clinic, which under state records has Jeremy Talmadge Bryson listed as the incorporator, would maintain control of the practice, restricting the doctors from the use of urine tests or pill counts and discouraging the doctors from reducing the patient dosages.
After one doctor left in Sept. of 2021, a new doctor was brought in who did not have a DEA registration number that would allow him to write prescriptions for controlled substances.
Bryson admitted to authorizing the new doctor to use the previous doctor’s registration number to write prescriptions.
Over a four-day period, the new doctor wrote a total of 76 prescriptions for more than 6900 pills using the previous doctor’s registration number.
In U.S. District Court Bryson agreed to forfeit his 10th Street Building where his office was located in Paintsville, and not to contest seizure of his 2020 Dodge Ram pickup truck and nearly 125,000 from four separate bank accounts.
Don Bryson currently remains free. He has been ordered to self-report to prison on July 14.
Jeremy Bryson was later charged in connection with the clinic. In March, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to use the DEA registration of another, monetary transaction derived from unlawful activity and six counts of distributing controlled substances, following an eight-day trial in Frankfort. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2.