Records: Doctor’s violations adding up
Disregarding restraining order prompts warrant
A practitioner from a Brookfield substance abuse treatment center owes over $2 million after repeatedly defrauding Medicaid, but he insists that he hasn’t done anything wrong.
Records show that the alleged fraud is just one example within a long history of violations, from over-prescribing opioids to hiring unlicensed employees, and a warrant is out for his arrest for violating his wife’s harassment restraining order.
Dr. Siamak Arassi closed his clinic, Healing Corner LLC, 19115 Capitol Drive, last summer, leaving a final bitter message on his website to state officials, whom he called “a bunch of gangsters” who worked to make sure he failed.
Arassi allegedly cheated the Medicaid system by receiving financial reimbursements for refills of Vivitrol that weren’t actually given to patients, a March 2 Department of Justice news release said. He then created a stockpile of the medication, charging actual patients out of pocket for Vivitrol’s full price. The DOJ declined to answer any questions from the Journal Sentinel about the judgement.
Arassi told the Journal Sentinel that he’s been wrongly accused. He moved back to Iran at the end of August; there, he obtained a medical license and is now working in a local hospital.
“The only reason I didn’t stay and fight them is because I didn’t have money,” said Arassi. “I spent almost $70,000 for my attorney. I had no more money.”
Before he left the United States, the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board gave Arassi chances to correct unethical practices that date back to 2011, according to records provided by the
Department of Safety and Professional Services. The board suspended his Wisconsin license for the first time in January.
Patients prescribed addictive opioids, records show
In 2011 and 2012, Arassi saw an increase in new patients seeking treatment for chronic pain, DSPS records show, and kept patients’ medical records in an inefficient software system.
According to the medical board, Arassi prescribed opioids, which can be addictive, without:
● Viewing patients’ past records
● Conducting a physical exam
● Discussing alternatives
● Implementing precautions against prescription drug abuse with patients whose history indicated they were at risk
● Recognizing or acting on red flags for drug abuse He cooperated with investigations and took measures to improve, the board said, including attending courses on pain management and opioid abuse and updating his records software. The number of patients who recieved opioids significantly decreased.
In 2015, Arassi was required to obtain a board-approved mentor who would regularly check on his practices. That year, his wife became the owner of the clinic. He was able to return to his practice without mentor check-ins in April 2016, records show.
Court records show that his wife filed for divorce last year, and she filed a restraining order against Arassi in May 2022 shortly after. A warrant for his arrest was issued in October after he allegedly violated this restraining order.
Arassi told the Journal Sentinel that he loves his wife and could not bear to sit through divorce proceedings.
“And I love my kids,” he said. Before he moved back to Iran, he said, he wouldn’t go a day without seeing them. “We are very close,” he added. “I haven’t seen them since I left.”
Records show flaws in outpatient service
DSPS records show that Arassi received certification from the Department of Health Services in 2017 to offer an outpatient service for recovering patients to safely detox their bodies of drugs or alcohol.
Upon certification, DHS requires that a nurse be available at the clinic at all times. On multiple occasions, Arassi did not comply with this rule, the medical board found.
As a former Healing Corner patient who participated in its outpatient service, Penny Wallock told the Journal Sentinel she started receiving Vivitrol shots. After three months, she said the shots had stopped working. She said a clinic employee recommended she try Suboxone instead, but Arassi denied her request.
“When I talked to the doctor about it, he refused to change me (over to another medication) and said I needed to fight the cravings,” said Wallock.
Around the same time, Wallock was scheduled for a major surgery.
“Again, his physician’s assistant suggested I go on Suboxone after surgery (and) that it would be easier for me to handle,” Wallock said. “He refused that, too. He also refused to call my OB-GYN to work out details for medication before and after surgery.”
When Wallock asked to complete her outpatient treatment after surgery, Arassi refused, she said.
“I was told no, and that I had to finish the day before surgery, or I would have to start all over again,” Wallock said. “This was a red flag that they just wanted me to start over as a relapsed patient after surgery.”
When she went back to Dr. Arassi for a checkup, she expressed concern that it was too soon to take a naltrexone pill, the active ingredient in the Vivitrol shot, because she had just finished her pain medication that was prescribed by her doctor after surgery.
“He said that I was an addict, and I was probably lying,” she said. “I was, like, forced to take it, and when I went home, I got sick and went into withdrawal.”
Wallock didn’t return to the clinic.
Arassi and Healing Center saved their lives, some say
A former patient of five years, Adam Bohn, said he was never prescribed Vivitrol and has only good things to say about Arassi and his time at the clinic.
“(The clinic) saved my life,” said Bohn. “He was extremely helpful.”
Now, because he has had to close his clinic, his patients are suffering “greatly because the treatment was working,” Arassi said.
Another longtime patient, Nathan Deering, said Healing Corner is pivotal to where he is today. He was a patient from 2009 to 2016, he said, and was prescribed Vivitrol.
“(Arassi’s) team and himself were there for me for many years throughout my recovery,” said Deering. “They provided me with group meetings, proper therapy and the correct medication to assist me in my process.”
“Fraud is fraud,” Deering said, but he hopes the accusations aren’t true.
Former employees are to blame for Medicaid fraud, Arassi says
Arassi told the Journal Sentinel that, after 2016, he only prescribed Vivitrol sparingly, mainly prescribing Suboxone, which he found to be much more effective.
Arassi said that some of his former employees who handled his bills were the ones who were falsely ordering Vivitrol in former patients’ names.
“I had no idea because I had given control to them,” he said.
One of those former employees was Ashley Kamenick, who worked as an office manager for three years. While working there was “horrible,” Arassi paid so well that it was difficult for her to leave, said Kamenick.
“I remember working in billing, and when insurance companies would deny claims, he would have me write these long appeals to get things approved so that he would be paid for it,” said Kamenick. “I’m a medical assistant. I don’t have any training in billing.”
She denied having any involvement in the alleged Medicaid fraud, but said she wasn’t very surprised when Arassi attempted to shift the blame to her.
“He’s the type of person where he’s going to try to blame whoever else but himself,” Kamenick said.
She caught on to suspect practices as she became more experienced in billing, she said.
She said she was laid off in 2018 during what seemed to be Arassi’s “clean sweep” of the clinic, in which he got rid of employees who witnessed his wrongdoing.
Arassi hired an unqualified patient to treat others, medical board finds
Records show that Arassi hired one of his patients in 2018 to treat others for substance abuse. She was never credentialed to do so.
From 2018 to 2019, many patients’ records lacked treatment plans that were supposed to be approved by the board. Records were also missing discharge summaries, which coordinate the patients’ next steps after receiving treatment.
Finally, a 2019 survey conducted by the medical board found that patients who lacked a medication consent form were still prescribed medication.
In April 2022, these violations prompted DSPS to notify Arassi of an official complaint and scheduled hearing. He hired lawyers and attended the first scheduled prehearing conference.
That was the last time officials met with Arassi. He stopped responding to DSPS messages in August 2022.
Arassi tried to provide remote services in Iran, social media shows
On the clinic’s Facebook page in October, Arassi indicated that he was in Iran, but was willing to provide “remote services” via WhatsApp.
State officials won’t listen to Arassi’s side of the story, he said, and he will never set foot in the United States again.
“I’m practicing medicine and I’m helping people, so I’m happy in that regard,” he said, “I lost my wife, I lost my kids, I lost everything.”