Columbia, Missouri Doctor Arrested, Accused of Health Care Fraud, Illegally Prescribing Drugs

Columbia, Missouri Doctor Arrested, Accused of Health Care Fraud, Illegally Prescribing Drugs

ST. LOUIS - A medical doctor and owner of an urgent care clinic in Columbia, Missouri was arrested Wednesday on an indictment that accuses him of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid and providing prescription drugs to friends, people suffering from substance use disorders and those with whom he had sexual relationships. Dr. Jonathan Wayne Morris, 46, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on April 8, 2026, with 15 counts of illegal prescribing of controlled substances and 23 counts of health care fraud. Dr. Morris has owned Columbia Urgent Care since at least 2019. From at least May 1, 2019, through April 8, 2025, Dr. Morris caused Medicare and Medicaid to be billed for medical services as if they had been provided by him instead of the assistant physicians (APs) that he employs, the indictment says. APs are medical school graduates who have not entered a residency program and therefore require training and supervision by a fully licensed physician. Rather than teaching the APs, Morris allowed the APs to train each other, the indictment says. He left the APs unsupervised when he left the clinic for domestic and international travel, and to work at a different clinic in St. Louis, it says.

Read more on https://www.justice.gov