The owner of an east Alabama pain clinic pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to conspiring to commit health care fraud and pay kickbacks in connection with a multi-million-dollar scheme, prosecutors said Wednesday.

David Lyle Shehi, 42, of Rainbow City, owned Etowah Pain. Between 2016 and 2018, he conspired with others to commit health care fraud and receive kickbacks in exchange for his clinic ordering items or services that would be billed to Medicare or other health insurance programs, according to his plea agreement and the indictment against Shehi.

Among the services Shehi ordered was electro-diagnostic testing provided by Huntsville-based QBR.

QBR paid Shehi, through the medical practice, a per-patient fee for tests ordered from QBR and reimbursed by insurance, prosecutors said.

The payments were disguised as hourly payments for the ordering physician’s time and staff’s time, but in actuality, Shehi’s practice was paid on a per-patient basis.

Shehi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pay kickbacks and conspiracy to commit health care fraud Tuesday in federal court in Tuscaloosa before U.S. District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler.

Shehi’s case is the latest in a string of cases involving multi-million-dollar health care fraud and kickback conspiracies, said U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Carlton L. Peeples, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Special Agent in Charge Tamala E. Miles.

Also Tuesday, Coogler sentenced Dr. Eric Beck, 64, of Huntsville, to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty in 2022 to health care fraud conspiracy for his role in the QBR scheme.

In February, John Alan Robson, 40, of Trussville, was indicted in a related case for health care fraud conspiracy, kickback conspiracy, and kickbacks.

And in March 2022, a jury convicted Dr. Mark Murphy, 66, and his wife Jennifer Murphy, 66, both of Lewisburg, Tennessee, of drug distribution, fraud, and kickback crimes.

The Murphys operated North Alabama Pain Services, which closed its Decatur and Madison offices in early 2017. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the Murphys took kickbacks from QBR of more than a million dollars. In return, Dr. Murphy ordered electro-diagnostic tests from QBR for his patients, regardless of whether there was a medical need for those tests. D