Medscape Excerpts: New York surgeon Syed Imran Ahmed, MD, was sentenced in federal court in Brooklyn to 13 years in prison for multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

He was also asked to pay $7.3 million in restitution, forfeit $7.3 million, and pay a $20,000 fine. 

Ahmed, of Glen Head, New York, who specialized in wound care and weight loss, was convicted in July 2016 on one count of healthcare fraud, three counts of making false statements related to healthcare matters, and two counts of money laundering.

"Dr Syed Ahmed treated Medicare like a personal piggy bank, stealing over $7.2 million by making fraudulent claims for medical procedures he never performed," 

"Dr Ahmed will now pay the price for violating the trust that Medicare places in doctors. His 13-year prison sentence and the heavy payments imposed should send a powerful message of deterrence to other medical professionals."

Evidence presented at the 11-day trial by the government showed that from January 2011 through December 2013, Ahmed billed Medicare approximately $85 million for wound debridement procedures and incision-and-drainage procedures that he didnt perform.

"Ahmed wrote out lists of phony surgeries and sent the lists to his billing company in Michigan with instructions that they be billed to Medicare. Ahmed also directed that the surgeries be billed as though they had taken place in an operating room so as to increase the payout for the fraudulent scheme,"

In some of the claims, Ahmed billed for multiple procedures on the same patient on the same day for several days in a row.

Comment: Criminalisation of medical practice is now a routine all over the world.