In a recent episode of the Clearly Podcast titled, “The Complex World of Healthcare Law,” Nashville-based healthcare fraud defense attorney Meggan Sullivan joined Clearly podcast host Sean Martin to discuss her remarkable path from a public defender and her background in training law enforcement to becoming one of Tennessee’s most prominent healthcare criminal defense attorneys. Of Counsel with Chapman Law Group, Meggan defends physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other medical professionals accused of unlawful prescribing, drug trafficking, healthcare fraud, and other federal offenses.
What began as a career defending individuals charged with traditional narcotics crimes evolved into something much more complex: protecting medical professionals caught in the government’s widening network of opioid-related enforcement.
“The same statute that applies to someone selling fentanyl on the street is being used against doctors who are authorized to prescribe it under the DEA”, Meggan explains to Sean. “The only difference is whether their prescribing was for a legitimate medical purpose and within the course of professional practice.”
Since relocating to Nashville in 2011, Meggan has dedicated her practice exclusively to criminal defense work. Six years ago, she joined Chapman Law Group, shifting her focus from defending individuals accused of drug-related crimes to defending healthcare professionals facing similar allegations.
In the podcast episode, Meggan explains that many of the cases involving doctors who are accused of over prescribing, are often prosecuted under federal statutes 21 U.S.C. § 841 and 21 U.S.C. § 846.
The government extends this language to doctors through additional federal regulations, arguing that if a prescription isn’t for a “legitimate medical purpose,” it’s illegal.
Many prescribers charged in such cases are older, often in their 60s. And as Meggan notes, when the government seeks 15 to 20 years in prison for older physicians, that’s essentially a life sentence.
Meggan’s defense of neuropsychiatrist Dr. Thomas Sachy, M.D. is an interesting case. Dr. Sachy was indicted in 2018 on charges of:
This stands out as one of Meggan’s most challenging and rewarding cases. When Dr. Sachy first approached Chapman Law Group, he had already served more than two years in prison after pleading guilty on the advice of prior counsel, who was a reputable criminal defense attorney in the area but unfamiliar with the nuances of healthcare law and how cases like Dr. Sachy’s are tried.
Drawing on the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Ruan, which clarified that a doctor’s intent at the time of prescribing is critical, Meggan and the federal criminal defense lawyers at Chapman Law Group successfully moved to withdraw the guilty plea. Meggan explained that U.S. v. Ruan recognized that what matters is what a particular doctor’s intent was when writing a prescription.
After uncovering judicial improprieties and filing a successful motion to recuse the original judge in Dr. Sachy’s case, Meggan and the healthcare defense attorneys at Chapman Law Group helped secure a new trial in which they mounted an unyielding defense strategy in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, meticulously challenging the government’s case against Dr. Sachy.
Just days into the new trial, the government conceded it lacked key toxicology evidence, resulting in the dismissal of major counts including distribution resulting in death and the return of more than $1.2 million in seized assets.
When Dr. Sachy walked free, his family felt the relief. “That moment,” Meggan recalls, “was why we do what we do.”
While cases like U.S. v. Ruan have reshaped the legal standard, Meggan warns that systemic issues persist. Many prosecutions on the government side start with data mining.
Meggan explains that the DEA uses algorithms to identify outliers in their data and launch investigations without understanding the story behind the data. In one case, involving Tennessee physician Dr. Gilbert Ross Ghearing, agents flagged prescriptions simply because one patient drove “long distances” for treatment and filled a prescription at a pharmacy that was 45 minutes away from their house. This was an already established patient of Dr. Ghearing’s who needed to be seen the same day and drove to a different medical practice than they normally went to in order to be seen by him. In this specific case, the government failed to recognize that Dr. Ghearing had multiple clinics where he practiced out of on certain days and ultimately charged him with overprescribing.
There are also cases where the government has overlooked rural hospital closures in Tennessee which have left many communities without local care resulting in many patients driving unusually long distances to get the treatment they need.
The result is a troubling trend where compassionate doctors serving underserved populations end up accused of criminal conduct for doing their jobs. “Doctors aren’t law enforcement,” Meggan emphasizes. “They’re trained to trust patients, not suspect them.”
For Meggan, effective healthcare defense requires more than legal skill, it demands fluency in medicine and empathy for those who practice it. “If you’re leaving the medical understanding to your experts, then it is likely that you will lose the case,” she says. When defending these cases, the attorney must know the medicine better than the prosecutors.
Meggan’s cases reveal a justice system still grappling with finding a balance between regulation and overreaching. As rural hospitals close, enforcement tactics intensify, and statutes blur professional judgment with criminal liability, attorneys like Meggan and the healthcare fraud defense team at Chapman Law Group stand at the intersection of law, medicine, and morality. Meggan’s mission as a healthcare defense lawyer is clear: ensure that doctors acting in good faith aren’t treated like criminals and have experienced counsel that understands how the government tries cases against physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and medical clinics and can defend them accordingly.
Individuals depicted or heard in the foregoing media appearance or images may no longer be current attorneys, employees, members or affiliates with Chapman & Associates, PC or The Chapman Law Group (the “Firm”), including Ronald W. Chapman, II who is no longer affiliated with the Firm. For a current listing of the attorneys and services available with the Chapman Law Group, please see https://chapmanlawgroup.com/team.
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Meggan B. Sullivan
Attorney
White Collar Defense & Government Investigations
Nashville Office (Satellite)
Tennessee
Phone: (877) 234-5911
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