Lexington Doctor Sentenced for Kickback Conspiracy

LEXINGTON, Kentucky—A Lexington doctor, Amr Mohamed, 55, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell to two years in prison for a kickback conspiracy.

Mohamed was a licensed physician with a specialty in nephrology practicing in Lexington and working for various telemedicine companies that arranged for physicians to prescribe a variety of medical equipment, topical creams and genetic testing for Medicare beneficiaries. According to his plea agreement, from March 2018 and April 2019, Mohamed entered into an agreement with RediDoc, to provide the telehealth services, and to order medically unnecessary medical equipment, topical creams and genetic testing, for which he received $20, on average, per beneficiary from RediDoc. The orders were unnecessary because Mohamed did not have a physician-patient relationship with the beneficiaries, did not use the results of the testing in his treatment, and because he was receiving a kickback for each beneficiary.

Between March 2018 and April 2019, Mohamed received $261,054 in kickbacks from RediDoc for ordering unnecessary medical equipment and services for more than seven thousand Medicare beneficiaries, and caused Medicare to pay $14,150,764.60 for medically unnecessary items. Mohamed was also ordered to pay $14,150,764.60 in restitution.

Under federal law, Mohamed must serve 85% of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.