Four Louisiana physicians wrote hundreds of bogus prescriptions that powered multimillion-dollar health-care frauds in the Baton Rouge area, according to evidence amassed by the nearly two-year-old local Medicare Fraud Strike Force.
Yet all four physicians remain licensed to practice medicine, including two who pleaded guilty and a third convicted at a jury trial in August. The fourth doctor, who had previous probations of his license, is fighting the charges in his indictment.
In a similar case that dates from before creation of the Strike Force, the Advocate reports a Louisiana physician in 2009 retained his medical license even though he was convicted of health care fraud.
Officials of the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners declined to comment on the targeted physician s— three of whom had their licenses suspended or placed on probation for questionable prescription practices before being charged in the Medicare fraud cases. Doctors can continue practicing medicine while their licenses are on probation, but cannot during a suspension.
The Medicare Strike Force fraud cases are not related to the medical board’s previous disciplinary actions against the four physicians, court and board records show.
The license of Dr. Sofjan Lamid, 82, of Mandeville, was twice suspended in the 1990s for alleged over-prescription
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