CA prison doctor claims medical records fraud. State says it is investigating
Dr. Aliasghar Mohyuddin said he was meeting with an inmate at a Stockton prison a few years ago, when he pulled up the patient’s medical record.
In it, he found a letter documenting past care that bore Mohyuddin’s electronic signature. But the date on the record startled him: the doctor said he was out of the country at the time.
After that, Mohyuddin said he closely looked over the files of each of the inmates he saw at the California Health Care Facility, Stockton. Again and again he came across similar letters that said they were created and verified by the doctor.
Yet Mohyuddin claims he did neither. He estimates his e-signature has been used in a similar way at least 800 times. He also alleges that orders for patient diagnostic tests and medications were placed under his name without him knowing.
“Somebody authorized for this to occur,” Mohyuddin said. “And they should be brought to account for that.”
So far, that mission has left the doctor disheartened.
He has shared his concerns with state prison officials for more than two years, according to emails he provided to The Sacramento Bee. He’s filed dozens of complaints with state medical and nursing boards. Earlier this year, he wrote a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
But doctors and nurses he complained about to the state boards have not received formal discipline, according to their online license information. The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to his letter.
And the state prison system?
“We are aware of the concerns,” Kyle Buis, a prison health care spokesperson, said in an email in April. “We take these matters seriously and are currently in a fact-finding process. We are not able to comment on it at this time.”
The review was ongoing as of Wednesday.
‘Trying to get some answers’
Mohyuddin said that the “fact-finding process” should have finished long ago. He doesn’t believe the prison system is actually taking his grievances seriously.
He has raised those concerns in multiple ways. In March 2023, he told Stockton prison officials that verbal orders being placed under his name without his knowledge was an “egregious breach,” according to the emails he shared with The Bee.
Mohyuddin said he also began adding notes to some of the medical records that he said were not created by him. The doctor shared copies of several with The Bee. They do not include patient names.
One addendum from October 2023 said the original patient letter was dated and time stamped on a Saturday, “when I am neither present at the institution nor have remote access” to the electronic medical record system.
Another notation he made from earlier this year said a May 2022 letter was also not created by him because it occurred on a Monday, a day he typically does not work.
Over the course of several interviews, Mohyuddin said his discovery troubles him on multiple fronts.
Along with being illegal to fraudulently alter medical documents, it left him wondering about the accuracy of prison records overall.
“If something can be done without a doctor actually creating it, what else was created or removed?” he said.
And he questions what oversight there is in the state prison system.
“I’ve spent a considerable amount of time, effort, energy in trying to get some answers, accountability,” he said, “and I think what I’m realizing is: there just isn’t.”
Emails he shared with The Bee show messages to an official at the Office of the Inspector General, which oversees state prisons, to Diana Toche, health care undersecretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and to Clark Kelso, who was appointed by a federal judge to monitor state prison medical care.
Chief Deputy Inspector General Shaun Spillane said in an email to The Bee that the agency does not have the authority to investigate allegations of misconduct by prison health care staff. Toche did not respond to an email requesting comment from The Bee. Neither did Kelso.
Spokespeople for the state medical and nursing boards declined to discuss Mohyuddin’s complaints.
The California Attorney General’s Office said it had received the doctor’s letter but declined to confirm or deny if it opened an investigation.
Considering the next move
Mohyuddin has also taken his concerns to Anu Banerjee, who last year was appointed the CEO of health care at the Stockton prison. It currently houses more than 2,200 inmates.
Mohyuddin said he attended a meeting with Banerjee and other prison officials in December. In a written summary of the meeting Mohyuddin gave to The Bee, one of the prison officials acknowledged that orders had been placed under the names of physicians, without them knowing. And that patient letters were created on the doctor’s behalf as part of an effort to expediently document negative COVID-19 tests or other similar results.
The doctor sent the summary to Banerjee, according to an email chain Mohyuddin provided to The Bee.
“Thank you for putting this together,” Banerjee responded. “I will appreciate if you all have any concerns about this matter or similar issues, please bring them to me before it goes out to any external stakeholders.”
Banerjee did not respond to emails requesting comment from The Bee. Neither did other prison officials who the doctor said also attended the meeting.
Many months later, Mohyuddin said he feels defeated, like there is no one else he can turn to.
Now, he’s considering another option: quitting his job.
