Pennsylvania Board Suspends License of Psychiatrist Altaf Kasmani on Prescription Fraud Charges

November 14, 2020

A state medical board has temporarily suspended the license of a Pocopson psychiatrist after criminal charges accusing the doctor of fraudulently writing prescriptions for his wife and son were lodged by the state Attorney General’s Office, according to documents filed last month.

The state Board of Medicine ordered that Dr. Altaf Suleman Kasmani surrender his all certificate, wallet cards, and renewal certificate that allow him to practice in the state, following a petition by an attorney with the Department of State asking that he be prohibited from practicing while the case against him in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court proceeds.

Prosecuting Attorney Mark Zogby said in his filing that the 24 false prescriptions that Kasmani wrote between 2016 and 2019 makes him “an immediate and clear danger to the public health and safety” if he continues to practice medicine.

Kasmani, who had been a partner at the Advanced Behavioral Treatment Center in Royersford, Montgomery County, specializing in addiction therapy, could not be reached for comment.

He was arrested on Sept. 1 and charged with multiple felony violations of the state’s controlled substances, drug, device and cosmetics act, as well as forgery and identity theft.

In a Sept. 22 petition to the state board, Zogby said that Kasmani admitted that he used the identities of a certified nurse practitioner and fellow doctor in his practice to write the prescriptions for Phentermine, Vyvanse, Adderal and Adzenys, all controlled substances under state law, for himself, his wife and their son, even though they were not being treated by the pair at the time.

The nurse, identified as Agata Kaminska, and the doctor, Dr. Onilda Herran, both told the investigator for the state Attorney General’s Office, Agent Robert Semach, that they had not written the prescriptions, with the single exception of a prescription for Vyvanse that Herran wrote for Kasmani’s son in an emergency.

When he was interviewed by the investigators, Kasmani admitted that he did not have the permission to use the pair’s signatures to authorize the prescriptions. He said he wrote them “because he wanted to save time and money by not having doctor’s visits,” and “because he believe that he could not use his own (Drug Enforcement Administration) number on prescriptions for family members,” according to the criminal complaint.

The suspension order was signed by members of the state board’s Screening Panel on Sept. 22. Kasmani can fight the decision to suspend his license to practice at a preliminary hearing before the medical board. It is not clear whether that date has been set.

A preliminary hearing for the criminal charges is scheduled for Nov. 20 before Magisterial District Judge Richard Welsh of Limerick. Kasmani, who is free on bail, is represented by defense attorney Joseph Kelley III of Philadelphia.

Source: Michael P. Rellahan, “License suspension for doctor accused of forgery,” Press Reader (West Chester, PA), October 25, 2020, URL: https://www.pressreader.com/usa/daily-local-news-west-chester-pa/20201026/281530818519133