Abubakar Atiq Durrani

In October 2013, Abubakar Durrani was indicted on charges of health care fraud, false statements related to health care matters, mail fraud, and illegal drug distribution. Investigators believe that Durrani, an orthopedic spine surgeon, billed Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies millions for spinal surgeries and related services that were not medically necessary and were potentially harmful to patients.

Durrani owned the Center for Advanced Spine Technologies (CAST), which had offices in Ohio and Kentucky. According to the indictment, Durrani falsely diagnosed Medicare patients with spinal-related medical conditions and then persuaded the patients to undergo surgery, even though the patients did not need surgery. Durrani often told patients that the medical situation was urgent and that surgery was needed right away or they would be at risk of suffering from grave injuries. For cervical spine patients, Durrani often told patients that there was a risk of paralysis or the head would fall off if the patient was in a car accident because there was almost nothing attaching the head to the patient's body.

Durrani either ignored or never read patient radiology reports; rather he provided his own reading, which was either inconsistent with or contrary to the reports written by the radiologists. Durrani also ordered pain injections that were inconsistent with either the pain stated by the patient or from the imaging reports.

Durrani dictated his operative reports and other patient records months after the actual treatments. These reports and records contained false statements about the diagnoses of the patients, the procedures performed, and the instrumentations used in the procedures. In addition, Durrani failed to inform his patients of complications experienced during the surgeries.

According to the indictment, many patients treated by Durrani for back and neck pain were left in worse shape because of the unnecessary surgeries he performed.

Investigators believe that Durrani fled the United States while awaiting trial after the court denied his request for permission to travel outside the country.