ORONO, Maine — The state is suspending the pharmacist license of the owner of Orono Pharmacy amid allegations of unprofessional conduct, including fraudulent billing of a customer’s insurance company and allowing unqualified employees to work in the prescription filling area.
Ali Aghamoosa’s license will be suspended for 30 days effective Friday, March 11, according to a March 3 letter to Aghamoosa from Joseph Bruno, president of the Maine Board of Pharmacy. Doug Dunbar, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, which oversees the Maine Board of Pharmacy, released the letter after the Bangor Daily News requested information about the case.
Aghamoosa said Thursday he does not plan to close the pharmacy during his suspension.
“We are going to be open,” Aghamoosa said in a brief phone interview. “I will be here.” He declined to comment further.
During the suspension, Aghamoosa is not allowed to practice as a pharmacist and it was not clear whether another licensed pharmacist will be available at the Mill Street business.
Bruno’s letter said the suspension is the result of an ongoing investigation and comes after three previous complaints between 2006 and 2015 resulted in disciplinary actions against Aghamoosa.
“The Board finds for purposes of this Order of Suspension that the health or physical safety of members of the public are in immediate jeopardy as a result of your actions, particularly because you have persistently demonstrated dishonest practices, a disregard for governing laws, and an inability to safely dispense prescriptions to patients,” Bruno’s letter states. “As a result of your actions your license as a pharmacist must be suspended in order to adequately respond to these risks.”
The suspension was delayed until Friday to give pharmacy customers time to make other arrangements for their prescriptions.
Further board action may be taken at a hearing that has not yet been scheduled but will be held within 30 days, Bruno wrote.
The pharmacy board president’s letter states that Aghamoosa had on three previous occasions — Feb. 27, 2007; Sept. 18, 2015; and March 3, 2016 — “admitted to engaging in unprofessional conduct, specifically failing to maintain effective controls to prevent prescription errors or misfills.” During the March 3, 2016, incident, Aghamoosa also failed “to address or attempt to resolve a prescription error which should have been apparent to the pharmacist.”
The letter does not indicate how Aghamoosa was disciplined for those three violations.
During their investigation into the last incident, investigators also found that Arghamoosa charged a customer’s insurance for services not provided, the letter states.
According to the document, on or about May 13, 2015, Aghamoosa received a prescription with three refills for Denavir 1 percent cream.
“The patient did not pick up the prescription, but Mr. Aghamoosa still billed the patient’s insurance company for $631.22, even though Mr. Aghamoosa returned the medication to the wholesaler and received a full refund,” according to the letter.
On July 6, 2015, Aghamoosa billed the patient’s insurance for the first refill, then on Nov. 6, 2015, another bill was issued for the second refill, neither of which was filled at the Orono Pharmacy, the document states.
“Mr. Aghamoosa’s actions constitute the practice of fraud, deceit, or corruption in insurance reimbursement procedures under Board Rules,” Bruno wrote.
The letter also states that Aghamoosa “was allowing Khawla Wise, who was purportedly licensed as a pharmacist in a foreign country, to be present in the prescription filling area … even though she was not licensed in Maine” and that “he also allowed Atena Talebzadeh, a pharmacy intern, to practice pharmacy … even though she was not on an official pharmacy rotation.”
The letter indicates that on Dec. 14, 2015, when Aghamoosa submitted a license renewal application, he lied about the two hours of continuing education required annually by statute.
The investigation will be completed before noon April 9, Bruno’s letter states.
Aghamoosa has been filling prescriptions at the pharmacy on Mill Street since 2000. He was one of about 100 pharmacists licensed in Maine who were contacted by the town in 1999 about opening a pharmacy in the location where Rite Aid once operated. Aghamoosa received his Maine pharmaceutical license in 1995 while working as a consultant to the pharmacy at York Hospital, according to a previous Bangor Daily News report.