West Virginia Doctor Probed Over Workers’ Compensation Prescriptions

Investigators have seized a small fortune from a Mingo County, West Virginia doctor in a case that parallels a previous raid of a Williamson pain clinic, court filings show.

The U.S. District Court papers disclose that prosecutors are negotiating a plea deal with the physician, Dr. Diane Shafer, whom they suspect the same improper pill prescriptions that led to the March 2 search of the Mountain Medical Care Center.

A state-federal probe tracked hundreds of people who entered the storefront clinic daily, paid between $150 and $450 cash, and left with pain drug prescriptions. No charges have been filed, and a lawyer for the clinic says it treated legitimate patients.

One court filing alleges Shafer’s illegal activities yielded more than $1.36 million last year alone. The emerging federal case against her could end a medical career that has often brought her unwelcome headlines over the past several decades.

Shafer, 57, has repeatedly run afoul of the licensing boards in both West Virginia and Kentucky over her prescribing practices and treatment of workers compensation patients, among other reasons. She was convicted of bribery in 1993 after secretly marrying and giving $42,500 to the Kentucky official overseeing one of those ethics cases, which he then had dismissed. Her conviction was later overturned.

More recently, Shafer turned to politics. After running for West Virginia’s Legislature as a Democrat in 1996, 1998 and 2002, she switched to the GOP. Following a failed 2004 House of Delegates bid under that banner, she was elected to the Republican State Executive Committee in 2006. She also is the state GOP’s top individual donor this election cycle, giving a total of $9,000, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

The court filings and West Virginia Board of Medicine records show she surrendered her license in that state in December.