Lexington doctor pleads guilty to taking kickbacks to order medically unnecessary equipment, tests

LEXINGTON, Ky.--Amr Mohamed, a nephrologist in Lexington, Kentucky, admitted in a federal plea agreement Thursday that he engaged in unlawful activities with telemedicine companies, including RediDoc L.L.C., to prescribe unnecessary medical equipment and services to Medicare beneficiaries.

According to the plea agreement, from March 2018 to April 2019, Dr. Mohamed ordered unneeded durable medical equipment (DME), topical creams, and genetic tests without a valid physician-patient relationship, receiving an average of $20 per beneficiary.

These actions led to over $14 million in Medicare charges for more than seven thousand beneficiaries. Mohamed admitted to receiving $261,054 in kickbacks from RediDoc. His actions included ordering unnecessary medical braces for a patient, despite being informed the patient couldn't use them, resulting in Medicare being billed $1,695.29.

The statutory penalties for these actions include imprisonment of up to five years, fines up to $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, and up to three years of supervised release.

Photo byDALLE/Lexington Times