Florida Seeks to Revoke License of Psychiatrist Zoya Kosman after Fraud Conviction

December 4, 2019

On October 18, 2019 the Florida Department of Health (“Department”) issued an administrative complaint against Illinois psychiatrist Zoya Kosman, who is also licensed to practice medicine in Florida. The Department seeks to have the Florida medical board revoke, suspend, or otherwise discipline Kosman’s license.

The Department’s complaint lays out the reasons it is seeking such disciplinary action:

• Kosman was convicted of a crime which relates to the practice of medicine. On November 27, 2018, she pleaded guilty to social security fraud.
• The Illinois professional licensing authority refused to permit Kosman to renew her medical license following her conviction.
• The California Department of Consumer Affairs revoked Kosman’s California medical license, relative to her criminal conviction and Illinois action against her medical license in that state.
• Kosman failed to report her conviction to the Florida medical board within 30 days.
• Kosman failed to update her Florida practitioner profile within 15 days with information about the actions taken upon her Illinois and California medical licenses.

Kosman, who was employed at North Shore University Hospital in Skokie, Illinois, was charged in 2016 "as part of the largest Medicare fraud takedown in history," according to a June 22, 2016 U.S. Department of Justice press release: 

“Dr. Zoya Kosman, a physician with an office in Skokie, allegedly caused the submission of false medical evidence to help a claimant obtain federal disability benefits to which the claimant was not entitled,” the release states. “Dr. Kosman knowingly lied about the claimant’s complaints, symptoms, and functional abilities in documentation submitted in support of the claimant’s application for benefits….”

Kosman’s conviction was related to an incident which occurred on or about July 31, 2012, in which she submitted a false medical report to the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHR) in connection with a claimant’s application for federal disability benefits, listing reported patient complaints, symptoms, and functional abilities of the claimant. Kosman attested that the claimant “can’t work at the present time due to severe depression, anxiety, worries, inability to tolerate stresses, poor concentration, inability to follow instructions, fatigue, and medical conditions,” Kosman wrote in the functional capacity report she submitted to the DHR. Kosman thus helped the claimant obtain federal disability benefits when she knew that the claimant was not disabled.

However, unbeknownst to Kosman, the person who she examined was an Illinois resident who was cooperating with law enforcement.

Kosman faces up to 10 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000 when she is sentenced.

Source: Administrative Complaint, Department of Health v. Zoya Kosman, DOH case no. 2018-17794, Florida Department of Health, October 18, 2019; Plea Agreement, USA v Zoya Kosman, Case No. 16-CR-403, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, April 2, 2018; Default Decision and Order in the Matter of the Accusation Against Zoya Kosman, M.D., Physician’s and Surgeon’s Certificate No. A82420, Case No. 800-2018-046406; and “Two North Suburban Doctors Charged as Part of Largest National Medicare Fraud Takedown in History,” press release of the U.S. Dept. of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Illinois, June 22, 2016.