A Fairhope, Ala.-based pain management physician who pled guilty to healthcare fraud and unlawful distribution of a controlled substance will be asked to pay over $14.7 million in restitution to the companies he defrauded, AL.com reports.
Here are four things to know.
1. According to FBI court documents, Rassan Tarabein, MD, defrauded five healthcare providers over a 13-year time span. He will be asked to pay $12.2 million for fraudulent procedures and $2.5 million for fraudulent prescriptions.
2. Dr. Tarabein fraudulently sought payments from benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, Humana, UnitedHealthcare and other private insurers. He entered a plea agreement with prosecutors, admitting that from 2004 to 2017 and ran an insurance scam, convincing patients to visit his clinic so he could bill for medically unnecessary tests and procedures.
3. According to AL.com, financial documents showed that Dr. Tarabein sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Syria and his ex-wife in Morocco.
4. Dr. Tarabein is scheduled to be sentenced in June. He could face up to 30 years in prison.
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