A doctor, a patient recruiter and four pharmacists in metro Detroit have been indicted on charges ranging from the unlawful overprescribing of opioids to healthcare fraud.
The state stripped Hamtramck doctor Asm Akter Ahmed of his medical license for allegedly overprescribing commonly abused drugs such as the muscle relaxer called carisoprodol (also sold under the brand name Soma), and promethazine codeine syrup, according to a Monday news release from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
Ahmed was a top prescriber of the drugs last year and he "failed to conform to minimal standards of acceptable practice," LARA said.
Samir Berri, a pharmacist from West Bloomfield Township, and Fouzi Ramouni, of Madison Heights, are facing charges of conspiring with Ahmed to distribute opioids, the U.S. Department of Justice announced late last week.
Pharmacists Anthony Cole of Wyandotte, Shamimur Rahman of Clinton Township and Ghassan Hamka of Dearborn, were also charged with multiple health care fraud offenses, the DOJ said in that same announcement.
All four of the pharmacists fraudulently billed Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield for medications — some of which were never dispensed — in a scheme that netted more than $5 million from 2011 through 2017, the indictment alleges.
Medicare detected the fraud, in part because insurance companies were being billed for providing medications to people who were dead, the indictment alleges. It also alleges that some of the fraud was connected to a conspiracy involving Berri, Ahmed and Ramouni to prescribe pills to patients who did not need them.
If convicted of fraud, the defendants face a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum fine of $250,000.
"Metro Detroit doctor, pharmacists indicted in $5 million health fraud conspiracy" originally appeared in Crain's Detroit Business.
