A New Hampshire doctor was arraigned in federal court in Vermont this week on charges that he wrote unnecessary prescriptions in exchange for cash, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Grantham’s Adnan S. Khan, M.D., 48, orchestrated the alleged prescribing and health care fraud conspiracies through New England Medicine and Counseling Associates (NEMCA), which operated a network of clinics located in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
Through NEMCA, prosecutors allege, Khan prescribed drugs to people outside the usual course of professional practice and “without a legitimate medical purpose,” federal prosecutors said in a news release. Khan allegedly required that patients pay cash in exchange for their prescriptions, despite many of his patients having insurance through Medicare and Vermont Medicaid.
‘Medically unnecessary’
“Khan allegedly prescribed the drugs knowing that at least some of his patients were abusing and diverting the drugs,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont said in a news release. “In addition, Khan allegedly ordered medically unnecessary definitive urine drug testing while soliciting kickbacks and bribes from laboratories, knowing that federal health care programs would be billed for the medically unnecessary tests.”
Khan is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, 12 counts of illegal distribution of a controlled substance, one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and two counts of health care fraud.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the illegal distribution counts and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each of the health care fraud counts.
As a condition of Khan’s release pending trial, he is prohibited from writing prescriptions for controlled substances, prosecutors said.
