Infectious Disease Physicians License Suspended for Illegal Kickback

New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, MD, has used his emergency powers to summarily suspend the license of a Brooklyn physician who allegedly conspired to pay kickbacks and rebates to Medicaid patients in order to obtain medications. A summary suspension precludes him from caring for any patients pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing.

Dr. Muhammad Ejaz Ahmad, 52, of Albertson, N.Y., specialized in infectious disease, including the treatment of AIDS/HIV patients. Ahmad allegedly paid an illegal kickback of $40 to patients at office visits and then referred these patients to one of three pharmacies he owned. The pharmacies then billed Medicaid for medications that were never dispensed, generic versions, or black-market medications.

Ahmad also was sentenced in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District to 21 months in prison followed by three years supervised release, a $100 fine, and ordered to make restitution of $1.7 million.

A summary suspension is based on the commissioner's determination that the continued practice of medicine by the physician constitutes an imminent danger to the health of the people of New York.

Source: New York State Department of Health