The Good Doctor

Oh yeah. Doc Adams is fucked. Big time. WTAJ (CBS 10) in Altoona is reporting that Dr. Larry Adams, prominant local physician and would-be hospital owner, is under investigation by PA's Attorney General.

We learned of the story on Thursday, more or less as the initial raid by PSP was in progress. A friend of ours noted on a short trip through town that Philipsburg was crawling with cops. There are busts and such occasionally (we've even had a meth lab go down in Sunny Slopes), so having most of the Philipsburg (and probably some of Woodland's) barracks in town isn't really big news.

And then came the phone call. Doc Adams' office was crawling with agents, and something big was going down. With the scanner on, we were able to hear a little, but nothing overtly important, probably due to on-scene raido silence when it came to major discoveries. We figured either he was going down for supplying pills, or his office (flush with samples and such) was broken into. A later theory also involved possible embezzlement.

A few minutes after that, we learned that both his house and his office were taped off as crime scenes, pretty much ensuring that it wasn't just a robbery, but an inside job run by the Good Doctor himself. Later on that night came word of the McDonald's bag mentioned in the WTAJ article, and we knew that he was screwed.

While the embezzlement hasn't been mentioned, it's still a very good possibility, and might just be the reason that the undercover agent mentioned. After all, Doc Adams had to get the money SOMEWHERE to buy and reopen Philipsburg Hospital. But where did that money come from? Let's take a look at that now, shall we?

First of all, Doc Adams may have a highly successful practice, but his personal life isn't the greatest. He's got a small collection of ex wives, and quite the brood of kids ranging in age from mid-teens to mid-20s. Divorces and Child Support probably suck quite a bit out of his paycheck, even on a private practice salary. Let's face it: Centre and Clearfield Counties - not to mention the State of Pennsylvania as a whole - LOVE to heap on the child support, and enforce it with jail time if you don't pay up.

Sure, he got a group of investors together, which would explain where a good majority of the money for the hospital's purchase came from. But what about the Good Doctor's share? With what has to be a personal financial nightmare straight out of a Lifetime movie, how did he get his share of the capital together, much less be able to spearhead the effort and be the public figure? Mario Lemieux he ain't, folks.

No, that money had to come from somewhere. The drugs? Sure. It's no big secret that Philipsburg and the surrounding area has a per capita pill addiction that rivals that of any major city on the map. But even if he were offing Hillbilly Heroin (Oxycontin) on top of the narcs he was nabbed with, he wouldn't be able to raise the money necessary to purchase and reopen something like a hospital.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it. If the money didn't all come from the drugs, where DID it come from? It's very possible that Doc Adams was embezzeling funds from Mid-State Medical. It's also possible that he used the practice to launder his drug profits. The fact that there's something deeper to this mystery (snigger Fred Jones snigger) is clear, and these are just some possibilities.

The reopening of Philipsburg's ER remains in doubt, which isn't good, because it's needed BADLY. With the closest ER being Clearfield, even a helicopter ride is a bit more than necessary sometimes, and not only complicates the emergency, but also ups the bill to the patient and/or their family. Local emergency medical care is an absolute must. Someone needs to step up and take the Good Doctor's place, and soon.

In the meantime, though, I'd worry more about a pillhead uprising. If I were CVS, Grattan's, and other local drug stores, I'd hire armed guards 24/7, because the supply couldn't meet the demand, even with Doc Adams' drugs on the street. What's it going to become now that the supply is WAY off?