Pain physician, practice to pay $3.5M to settle fraud allegations

A pain management physician and his medical practice will pay $3.5 million, among other penalties, to resolve allegations of billing for medically unnecessary testing and pre-signing opioid prescriptions.

Kamal Kabakibou, who operates pain-management clinics in Atlanta and Blue Ridge, Ga., allegedly performed medically unnecessary and duplicative laboratory tests on patients and submitted claims for those tests to federal health insurers, according to a Jan. 23 news release from the Justice Department. 

Dr. Kabakibou also allegedly pre-signed prescriptions, including those for Schedule II controlled substances, and left them for his nurse practitioners to dispense during his frequent international travels.

As part of the settlement, Dr. Kabakibou and his practices have agreed to submit regular monitoring reports to the Drug Enforcement Administration for the next five years. Additionally, they have entered into a three-year integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

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