Doctor gets house arrest for medical kickback scheme

BATESVILLE — A Batesville doctor has been sentenced to home confinement for his role in a medical kickback scheme.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports Dr. Robert Corkern was sentenced to two years’ house confinement and three years’ post-release supervision.

Corkern pleaded guilty to bribing a former Panola County administrator to use public funds as part of his earnest money to buy Tri-Lakes Medical Center in 2005.

Prosecutors say Corkern used Kaizen Inc., a nonprofit consulting entity owned by then-hospital administrator Ray Shoemaker, to facilitate the purchase. Prosecutors say Corkern told investigators that then-County Administrator David Chandler told him of $400,000 of hospital-owned money in county custody and agreed to transfer it to the hospital but that Chandler threatened to ruin the hospital unless Corkern paid him $25,000.

— Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal