PA Psychiatrist Bassam El-Borno Will Plead Guilty To Fraud, Drug-Related Charges

August 29, 2020

A Manheim Township psychiatrist accused of issuing prescriptions without properly evaluating patients — including not seeing some at all — and insurance fraud intends to plead guilty.

The state attorney general’s office charged Bassam El-Borno on June 18 after a grand jury investigation that included testimony from former patients.

He is charged with drug violations, fraud, theft, failing to keep required records and wiretapping.

El-Borno, 64, is scheduled to plead guilty in Lancaster County Court on Sept. 3. Court documents don’t specify what charges he’ll plead to.

An attorney general’s spokesman declined comment and a phone message left for El-Borno’s attorney Thursday wasn’t immediately returned.

El-Borno, of the 1000 block of Bluestone Drive, had a practice at 160 North Pointe Blvd.

In announcing El Borno’s arrest, the attorney general’s office said he joked to one patient about being a “drug dealer” and called his patients “addicts.”

El-Borno also billed Medicaid and other insurance for office visits that did not occur, the office said.

The wiretapping charge was filed because investigators said El-Borno illegally recorded a phone conversation with pharmacists who wanted to talk to him about the amount of drugs he was prescribing.

The state temporarily suspended his medical license on June 30, but he had not been seeing patients for some time.

Source: “Manheim Twp. psychiatrist to plead guilty in improper prescribing, fraud case,” Lancaster Online, August 28, 2020, URL: https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/manheim-twp-psychiatrist-to-plead-guilty-in-improper-prescribing-fraud-case/article_7e02089c-e8a1-11ea-a764-b7780bb3e245.html