The Pulaski County doctor's office that was raided by federal agents Tuesday is under investigation for allegations of health care fraud and illegal prescribing of painkillers, according to a federal affidavit.

Investigators executed a search warrant at New River Medical Associates in Dublin on Tuesday afternoon, seizing such things as medical files, billing statements, financial records and a pre-signed prescription pad, the search inventory shows.

But Linda Cheek, the physician who operates the facility, said she is innocent and can explain all of the allegations against her.

"They look at things with blinders on," she said of the investigators.

Neither Cheek nor any of her employees has been charged with a crime in connection with the investigation.

The warrant states federal authorities believe that two family nurse practitioners employed at the office billed for services using Cheek's Medicare and Medicaid provider numbers. Although law requires the physician's direct supervision during treatment that is billed to federal health care programs, investigators think Cheek was not even on premises at the time.

In addition, investigators believe Schedule II narcotics such as OxyContin and methadone were prescribed by family nurse practitioners, who are not allowed to prescribe such drugs under state law, the document shows.

Medicare and Medicaid require each provider to obtain a provider number through which billing is performed. According to the affidavit, neither Dennis Cotellese nor MaryEllen Cotellese, both nurse practitioners in Cheek's office, has a Medicare provider number, and only Dennis Cotellese has a Medicaid provider number.

The document states that all Medicare services from 2001 through 2005 were billed under Cheek's number, although they believe the nurse practitioners alone treated some of those patients. And very few services were billed to Medicaid through Dennis Cotellese's number.

According to the document, investigators verified that Cheek was out of the country when some of those treatments were performed. In addition, they staked out the office one day in October and noted that she was not on premises, but billing to the programs occurred that day.

An undercover investigator posed as a patient for the investigation and noted that although Cheek did not examine him, his visit was billed to Medicaid. However, the investigator was denied treatment because he was suspected to be a drug-seeker, the affidavit says.

On Thursday, Cheek did not deny that the billing occurred but said Medicaid and Medicare representatives told her it was OK.

As a primary care physician who also practices pain management and alternative medicine, Cheek says she has patients who need high-level painkillers.

But investigators believe the Cotelleses were prescribing such drugs when Cheek was out of the office, which is illegal. The affidavit states that agents reviewed pharmacy data that indicated a number of narcotics prescriptions were written when Cheek was traveling.

"This suggests either the prescriptions were pre-signed or forged," the document states.

Cheek said Thursday that the pharmacy data is misleading. She said pharmacists entered prescriptions filled out and signed by her under the Cotelleses' names, creating the illusion that the nurse practitioners had prescribed drugs they shouldn't have.

She added that she has signed prescription pads and left them while she was out of town because she knew she would have patients who would need their medications. Just such a pad was found in her office Tuesday, she said, because she knew she would be gone Wednesday.

Cheek has said that although accusations of health care fraud were the basis of the search, she thinks "the hidden agenda is pain management."