Connecticut psychiatrist Naimetulla Syed has agreed to stop practicing medicine and will pay more than $455,000 to settle accusations of healthcare fraud.
Syed, who had offices in New Haven and Danbury where he was the sole practitioner, allegedly issued medically unnecessary prescriptions, including ones for controlled substances, from 2016 to 2021. These purportedly false claims were submitted to Medicaid and Medicare by Cornerstone Pharmacy, Inc., acting under the name “Whalley Drug,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office. Syed also billed Medicaid and Medicare for medically unnecessary visits related to these prescriptions.
The allegations go further: Syed supposedly wrote prescriptions for unsafe amounts of benzodiazepines. He was investigated for prescribing them to people who showed “red flags of abuse, addiction, or diversion,” including to patients who received the high-risk combination of an opioid, benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant—what the Attorney General’s Office describes as a dangerous “holy trinity.” Syed is accused of giving one patient a synthetic opioid while this person was receiving oxycodone and hydrocodone from other providers.
To top it all off, Syed did not maintain adequate treatment records, the Attorney General’s Office accuse.
Syed cannot work with patients on any federal health care program, including Medicaid and Medicare, nor the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program, for the next 20 years, as a part of his settlement agreement, the press release states.
These aren’t the first allegations against him.
Syed received his license more than 40 years ago, according to the state licensing portal. He has been disciplined by the Connecticut Medical Examining Board multiple times for various types of insurance fraud and not keeping proper documentation of patient care, among other alleged offenses.
His first run-in with the Medical Examining Board happened in 1998, when he was accused of prescribing medication, including controlled substances, using the name of one person, and then giving those drugs to another person—a crime he was accused of repeating in 2010.
In 2016, he agreed to pay $422,000 in a settlement to resolve federal and state allegations that he submitted false claims for psychotherapy services to Medicaid and Medicare. Then, in 2021, Syed agreed to surrender his controlled substance license over these allegations.
Syed has never admitted wrongdoing but consented to be punished for these alleged offenses.
In November 2024, as a part of the most recent settlement, Syed agreed to stop practicing, according to the press release. His license is up for renewal at the end of this month, but he will let it lapse.
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