A doctor and officer manager at a Brighton Beach medical clinic have been charged for allegedly defrauding healthcare administrators out more than $700,000 over a four year period, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Friday.
The pair are accused of allegedly selling prescriptions for narcotics, opioids, and other controlled substances to patients they were not treating as well as billing providers for sessions that never occurred, according to prosecutors.
Dr. Alexander Ivanov and officer manager Svetlana Kozlovskaya were arraigned on charges including grand larceny and healthcare fraud before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun, who released both individuals without bail.
“As the opioid epidemic continues to claim the lives of thousands of New Yorkers each year, it is unconscionable that these medical professionals allegedly endangered their patients’ health, trafficked in controlled substances, and stole hundreds of thousands from Medicaid,” Gonzalez said.
“Anyone who contributes to the growth of prescription drug abuse, imperils the health and safety of Brooklyn residents, or rips off the taxpayers will be held accountable.”
According to prosecutors, 66-year-old Ivanov and 64-year-old Kozlovskaya ran a psychiatry practice and pain management clinic at 115 Brightwater Court in Brighton Beach from 2017 to 2020.
It is alleged that during that period, the pair billed Medicaid and other healthcare administrators for more than $200,000 worth of psychotherapy sessions “that were never administered”.
Detective Investigators from the DA’s office claim that many of Dr.Ivanov’s patients were “substance abusers who were not receiving any kind of treatment or examination at the clinic” and that no bloodwork or urinalysis was performed by Ivanov to monitor the patients’ drug intake levels.
It is alleged that Ivanov wrote over $500,000 worth of prescriptions for controlled substances to patients in exchange for cash. The controlled substances included suboxone, alprazolam, amphetamine, clonazepam, diazepam, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, and tramadol.
These prescriptions were subsequently filled and paid for by Medicaid and other healthcare administrators, according to investigators.
Ivanov and Kozlovskaya were ordered to return to court on May 31.
