Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit led a multi-agency investigation that has resulted in the arrest of a former Fentress County medical doctor.

At the request of then-8th District Attorney General Paul Phillips and the Jamestown Police Department, TBI Special Agents, working in conjunction with the Jamestown Police Department, Fentress County Sheriff’s Office, Monterey Police Department, Tennessee Medical Board and TN Pharmacy Board, began investigating Vijaya Patibandla in August 2009. At that time, Patibandla was a medical doctor with a practice at 114 North Duncan Street in Jamestown. A large percentage of Patibandla’s patients were TennCare recipients. During the course of the investigation, Agents found that from November 2007 through December 2010, Patibandla was writing illegal prescriptions for controlled substances and was charging TennCare for patients’ visits to get those prescriptions. Patibandla subsequently closed his Fentress County practice and moved to New York, where he has an active medical license. He voluntarily surrendered his Tennessee medical license in 2012.

On December 11, 2014, a Fentress County Grand Jury returned indictments against Vijaya Patibandla, charging the 68-year-old with 40 counts of TennCare Fraud and two counts of Theft of Property. Today, Patibandla was arrested at his home in Valley Stream, New York, by a deputy with the U.S. Marshals Office and a detective with the Nassau County Police Department. At the time of this release, Patibandla was in the process of being booked at the Nassau County Correctional Center, where he will be held on a $150,000 bond pending extradition to Tennessee. The investigation continues with the assistance of current 8th District Attorney General Jared Effler.