MEDIA
Mikhail Presman, Brooklyn Psychiatrist, Sentenced
Mikhail Presman PRESS RELEASE Former Veterans Affairs Psychiatrist Sentenced To 18 Months’ Imprisonment For Medicare Fraud Thursday, March 13, 2014 For Immediate Release U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York Dr. Mikhail Presman Falsely Claimed To Provide At-Home Services While Employed Full-Time At A VA Hospital BROOKLYN, NY – Dr. Mikhail L. Presman, a licensed psychiatrist employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), was sentenced today by Judge I. Leo Glasser in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, to 18 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release for Medicare fraud. As part of [...]
Richard Sofinowski, Austin psychiatrist, Suspended
Austin American-Statesman Medical board suspends Richard Sofinowski, psychiatrist accused in Austin drug ring --Excerpt A Texas Medical Board panel has suspended the license of Austin psychiatrist Richard Edward Sofinowski who was indicted on drug charges last month, the board announced Monday. The panel took the action Feb. 6 saying that Sofinowski’s medical practice posed a continuing threat to public welfare. In November, he was arrested at his residence by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office after authorities searched his home and discovered 11.5 grams of methamphetamine and several hundred tablets of controlled substances, according to [...]
David Brizer, NY Psych, Sentenced
LOHUD Former Nyack psychiatrist gets probation for selling oxy scripts --Excerpt A psychiatrist once associated with the Nyack Hospital drug-treatment program has been sentenced to probation, community service and fined $5,000 for selling drug prescriptions worth millions of dollars. Dr. David Brizer, 60, received the non-jail sentence Monday on the prosecution by the state Attorney General’s Office, which brought the 55-count indictment. Brizer faced up to one to three years in prison under a plea agreement before Rockland County Court Judge William Nelson at the County Courthouse in New City. Brizer, who was last affiliated with Nyack Hospital in [...]
Jackson Dempsey, Oregon psychiatrist, sabotaged biking trails
The Columbian Psychiatrist who vandalized trails says he regrets actions, is building practice --Excerpt MEDFORD, Ore. — The former Jackson County psychiatrist who vandalized mountain biking trails in the Ashland watershed says he regrets his actions and is moving forward with a new psychiatry practice. Jackson Tyler Dempsey, 58, was charged in August 2012 with fourth-degree assault and two counts of recklessly endangering another person after he admitted to stringing nylon cord and laying nails and vegetation across trails in the Ashland watershed in summer 2012. Dempsey told a Forest Service arresting officer that he vandalized the trails because [...]
The Inexorable Push for Psychiatrist Records
Daily Republic News OUR VIEW: Leaders need to educate others about transparency by Jeff Schweers January 1, 2014 We’d been feeling pretty good lately about the degree to which South Dakota’s government has opened up. Law changes in recent years, including a presumption of openness for state government records, and better leadership have generally made public information in our state easier to get. Sadly, a recent fight between a South Dakota official and a Florida man have once again proved that when openness is given a true test — by a private citizen against a bureaucrat [...]
Florida man pries records away from SD officials
The Daily Republic (now known as the Mitchell Republic) December 26, 2013 Florida man pries records away from SD officials By Chris Mueller It took nearly five months, but a Florida man has been allowed to view records about doctors excluded from Medicaid in South Dakota. In July, Ken Kramer, of Clearwater, Fla., asked the South Dakota Department of Social Services for the names of every doctor terminated or excluded from Medicaid, a federal-state health care program for the poor, since 2010. Individuals or companies may be excluded from federal medical programs for various reasons, including health care fraud, overcharging [...]
Ali Salim, Ohio Psychiatrist, Sentenced
Ali Salim The Columbus Dispatch Doctor sentenced to 36 years for killing pregnant woman --Excerpt DELAWARE, Ohio — A doctor who admitted to killing a pregnant woman and her unborn daughter in the summer of 2012 was sentenced today to serve 36 years and 4 months in prison. Ali Salim, 44, pleaded guilty in October to killing 23-year-old Deanna Ballman after she answered a Craigslist ad he’d placed for a prostitute. Ballman was nine months pregnant at the time of her death. Her unborn daughter, whom she’d planned to name Mabel, also was killed... Until his arrest, Salim was an [...]
Mark Greenbain, Michigan Psychiatrist, sentenced
Mark Greenbain Propublica ‘Let the Crime Spree Begin’: How Fraud Flourishes in Medicare’s Drug Plan --Excerpt In early 2011, federal investigators wiretapped the phones of Babubhai Patel, the owner of several Detroit-area pharmacies. They suspected him of improperly dispensing narcotics and other controlled drugs. The investigators learned that Patel wasn’t just peddling painkillers. The 51-year-old pharmacist had a stable of doctors willing to write Part D prescriptions for any drug he wanted, any time he wanted. In return, the doctors got cash, a flock of new patients and, in at least one case, a down payment for an office building, [...]
David Gudeman, California Psychiatrist, license revoked
Ventura County Star Medical board revokes Simi Valley psychiatrist's license --Excerpt State regulators have told a Simi Valley psychiatrist he can no longer practice medicine and that his request for a rehearing has been denied, an attorney said Monday. The Medical Board of California agreed in October to an administrative judge’s ruling that Dr. David Gudeman’s license should be revoked because he negligently prescribed painkillers and kept inadequate records. That decision was put on hold when Gudeman challenged it by requesting a review. But the delay ended Friday. James Studer, Gudeman’s lawyer, said he was told Monday that the [...]
Abhishek Shah, Connecticut Psychiatrist, Sentenced
Abhishek Shah Hartford Courant PSYCHIATRIST PLEADS NO CONTEST --Excerpt A psychiatrist accused of sexually assaulting a woman in West Hartford a year ago was sentenced to probation Monday after he pleaded no contest to reduced charges. Abhishek Shah, 32, who was a second-year general psychiatry resident at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington at the time, was sentenced in Superior Court to two years of probation. He pleaded no contest to charges of third-degree assault and second-degree unlawful restraint, both misdemeanors, minutes before his sentencing. His original charges were first-degree sexual assault, second-degree unlawful restraint, third-degree assault and [...]