Kentucky doctor fined $10,000 after admitting prescribing opioid pills improperly
A Floyd County doctor has been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs.
Mohammed A.H. Mazumder will not serve a prison sentence, however.
Instead, U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove sentenced Mazumder to six months on home incarceration followed by six months of home detention.
For the first six months, Mazumder will only be allowed to leave for emergency medical care or reasons approved by the court. In the second six-month period, he can leave home to work, according to the judgment.
Mazumder, 44, admitted he left signed prescription slips at the clinic where he worked so that others could fill them in for patients while he was away, including times he traveled to his native Bangladesh to visit family in 2015 and 2016.
Federal law requires that a prescription be signed the day it is issued, and only after a proper examination, according to a court document.
Mazumder’s attorney, Andrew L. Sparks, said the owner of the clinic told the doctor to sign the blank prescriptions.
He went along so his patients could get their medication and because of a “misplaced sense of loyalty” to the clinic owner, Sparks said in a sentencing memorandum.
Court documents identify the owner only as a co-conspirator who hasn’t been indicted.
The prescriptions at issue included opioid painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone.
The charge against Mazumder carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, but Sparks sought home confinement only. He argued that the doctor didn’t profit from the crime, and that aside from signing blank prescriptions, he didn’t prescribe drugs improperly.
“Dr. Mazumder has practiced medicine ethically and has otherwise lived a law-abiding life,” Sparks said.
Patients submitted letters describing Mazumder as a caring, dedicated physician.
Mazumder came to the United States in 2001 and received additional medical training before moving to Floyd County to work at All Family Health in Prestonsburg, according to the sentencing memo.
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure suspended Mazumder’s license in April 2019. A consultant’s review had raised concerns about his prescribing practices, including the combinations of drugs he prescribed, according to the order.
The board said in a recent order that Mazumder can seek to get back his license after two years on suspension, but he won’t be allowed to prescribe controlled substances.
Mazumder drove for Uber to support his family after his license was suspended, according to his sentencing memo.
Mazumder was included in dozens of health providers in seven states charged last year in an investigation of alleged healthcare fraud and improper prescribing.
The charges included several other providers in Louisville and Appalachian counties in Kentucky.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 9:27 AM.
