Mechanicsville, MD – On Dec. 20, 2016 every room in both his home and office were raided by the FBI. There were no formal charges stated at the time Dr. Ahmed H. Kafaji (pictured, right) posed the question: what exactly am I being accused of? The FBI dropped the case recently in its entirety. According to rumors, patients that had been arrested for possession of drugs claimed they were getting prescriptions from Dr. Kafaji. The doctor says this was only rumor and he had heard that as well.
The only thing he was told about this case by investigators was that it was based on information that was given to them. Dr. Kafaji really has no idea what the basis was, or who would have made these allegations to the FBI. The FBI ran a thorough investigation regarding narcotics and how he runs his office. This included: prescriptions and specifically how they are prescribed, what occurs during a typical work day, how money and payments are handled, and how insurance companies are billed. They also looked into whether Dr. Kafaji had ever had any suspicious insurance claims, charges filed against him, and whether he has ever gone to court for anything. The answer to these questions are: no, none and never.
The FBI asked Medicare to “look for overcharges,” in 20 patient charts that were sent for review. The charts in question were regarding individual patients whose claims Dr. Kafaji had submitted. Per Dr. Kafaji, Medicare came back and said 11 were not billed enough; and they were undercharged. Seven of the charts had nothing wrong with them and were subsequently reported as such by Medicare
Additionally, the FBI asked the medical board to investigate for abuse of over-prescribing; in particular: pain management prescription drugs. Upon the medical board’s investigation, they came back and said that nothing had been found per Dr. Kafaji. No disciplinary action has ever been taken against Dr. Kafaji, nor do authorities plan on taking any.
Currently, Dr. Kafaji is working three days a week and spending the rest of his time helping his wife. He is so busy right now due to his wife’s diagnosis and illness that half of the time he is at the hospital. One week after the FBI dropped their case against him, his wife was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer.
At his practice, he is giving epidural shots, trigger points and other treatments for pain management. His plan is to go back full time into pain management, although this is now put on hold until he gets through this crisis. As time permits, he will add more time back into his practice.
Now that the investigation has ended, the doctor will be asking for compensation. He will also demand to know who provided the FBI with these false allegations. These falsifications have had significant negative impact on his reputation, practice, staff and health.
The FBI sent an email to his attorney explaining they are not continuing any further prosecution. Furthermore, the case has been dropped with no letter of apology; it was simply an e-mail sent to Dr. Kafaji’s attorney as a notification. The reason Dr. Kafaji did not shut down his practice is he knew he was innocent and it would be found as such.
Dr. Kafaji is known and respected by many in Southern Maryland. For the last couple of years, he has continued operating his practice despite the constant stress of scrutiny and suspicions by the FBI. He has managed to keep his office open through the entirety of the investigation and now he has applied to get his prescription license back; which should be arriving soon. He would like to assert that he has every intention of practicing full time but must make every effort to take care of his wife, first.
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