East Northport, Dix Hills Men Accused of $1M Health Care Fraud

Two men from East Northport and Dix Hills face prison time for performing hundreds of unauthorized medical tests on patients in Queens and collecting more than $1 million in fraudulent government funds during a one-year period, the Queens County District Attorney announced Tuesday.

According to the DA, Hassan Qufqir, 64, of East Northport, and Jamil Siddiqui, 52, of Dix Hills, posed as medical technicians and conducted stress tests on Medicare and Medicaid patients at Elmhurst Medical Diagnostics and at Rajen Maniar Cardiology, P.C.

Neither men were licensed or registered to practice medicine or licensed to act as medical technicians in New York State, the DA says. The tests were not reviewed by a physician or performed under the supervision of a licensed medical technician, which is the requirement of these two government health care programs, according to the DA.

Siddiqui and Qufqir allegedly received more than $1 million from the Medicare and Medicaid Programs between May 2013 and May 2014.

They money Siddiqui and Qufqir allegedly filed were taken out of the pockets of all Americans, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. “Government money is not free money,” Brown said in a press release.

The two men were arraigned Monday on first degree insurance fraud, first degree health care fraud, unauthorized practice of a profession and first degree falsifying business records.

Siddiqui and Qufqir face 25 years in prison if convicted of the top charge. They were released on their own recognizance after surrendering their passports. The men return to court on Dec. 8.