State medical board punishes physicians

The Texas Medical Board has revoked the licenses of two Kemah physicians and disciplined another physician with links to Galveston County.

Arun Sharma, who practiced in Webster, and his wife, Kiran, who ran a Baytown clinic, voluntarily surrendered their medical licenses June 4 and agreed to immediately cease practice in Texas after the board began disciplinary action against them based on their April convictions of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to the state board.

The agreement to cease practicing immediately was moot as both doctors are in jail pending sentencing July 27.

As reported in The Daily News on April 27, they pleaded guilty in Houston to a decadelong conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Kiran Sharma will be sentenced to eight years, while her husband faces a 15-year prison term. They already have forfeited millions of dollars in assets, including their Kemah home, where investigators found $700,000 of the $1.5 million in cash seized during the investigation.

The Sharmas admitted fraudulently billing Medicare, Medicaid and private health care providers between 1998 and 2009 for medical procedures they never performed at their Allergy, Asthma, Arthritis Pain Center clinics.

Also disciplined by the board June 4 was Walid Hamad Hamoudi, who entered into a mediated agreed order with the board that subjected him to three years of restrictions in his employment with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, according to the state board.

Among the restrictions, Hamoudi, who is based at Woodville, must refrain from prescribing any drug for any patient unless it is medically indicated and prescribed in therapeutic doses.

Within six months, he must pass the Medical Jurisprudence Exam, and he must also pay an administrative penalty of $5,000.

The board’s action was based on Hamoudi’s “inadequate record keeping and prescription of dangerous drugs and controlled substances to patients without discussing or pursuing alternative treatment,” according to the board.