Canton Physician Suspended After Health Care Fraud Conviction

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), has immediately suspended the medical license of Fatima Hassan of Canton, based on her felony conviction in May on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to a news release from LARA.

According to court documents, Hassan paid kickbacks to recruiters who obtained Medicare beneficiary information and signatures needed to create fictitious physical and occupational therapy files, according to a news release in May 2012 from the U.S. Department of Justice. According to the Department of Justice news release, the Medicare beneficiaries pre-signed forms and visit sheets that were later falsified to indicate that they received therapy services that were never provided.

Hassan and the co-owner of Jos Campau Physical Therapy hired and paid an occupational therapist and an uncertified occupational therapy assistant to falsify medical files, the Department of Justice news release indicated. The occupational therapist created patient evaluation forms for beneficiaries whom she had never met, seen or evaluated. The uncertified therapy assistant fabricated and signed patient notes for occupational therapy visits, according to the release, and the uncertified therapy assistant did not provide the services reflected in the fictitious patient notes.  

Additionally, the Department of Justice indicated, Hassan’s colleague, a physical therapist, falsified patient evaluation forms and fictitious patient notes for physical therapy services that were never rendered.  

Hassan admitted that, between June 2005 and May 2007, she and her co-conspirators at Jos Campau Physical Therapy submitted or caused the submission of approximately $1.9 million in fraudulent claims to the Medicare program for physical and occupational therapy services that were never rendered, the Department of Justice indicated.

On May 17, Hassan was convicted and sentenced to the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for 48 months and ordered to pay $855,484 in restitution, the LARA news release indicated. 

On Sept. 10, LARA issued an order summarily suspending Hassan’s license pursuant to the Public Health Code, which provides for the mandatory summary suspension of a health professional upon the conviction of a felony, a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for a maximum term of two years, or a controlled substance-related conviction.