By Jeremy Walsh
A doctor with practices in Jackson Heights and Brooklyn agreed to give up her license at the end of the month after investigators determined she misdiagnosed patients to reap profits for herself, the state Department of Health said.
Between 2004 and 2007, Nirmal Kade, 68, who lives in Port Washington, falsified nerve analyses of at least nine patients conducted on equipment she owned in order to collect money from insurance companies, according to DOH documents.
A woman who answered the telephone at Kade's Port Washington address said Kade was not available Tuesday.
She agreed to surrender her medical license Aug. 25, according to the DOH's Web site.
DOH spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said it was unclear whether Kade's patients were in on the alleged scam and that the case had been handed to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
A spokesman for the Queens district attorney's office said the case had been referred to them, but no charges had been filed by July 30.
As grounds for revoking the license, the state cited fraudulent practice, filing a false report, moral unfitness, gross negligence and gross incompetence, the document shows.
In one instance, she reported a patient would have permanent reduction of spinal function despite the fact that such a prognosis could not be reached with the available medical evidence, the papers show.
In 1988, the New York Times reported she was sentenced in a Medicare fraud case after she submitted $178,000 in bills and prescriptions for treating patients at a clinic in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. A former messenger with the Indian embassy who was not medically licensed in the United States treated the patients, the Times reported.
She pleaded guilty to grand larceny and unauthorized practice of a profession and was ordered to repay the money and spend several weekends in jail, the Times reported.
Kade's license was revoked April 18, 1989. She spent eight years petitioning the board of regents for the restoration of her license, Hutton said. The board finally agreed and on July 18, 1997, she was placed on probationary status for two years.
Hutton said the DOH will not likely reinstate Kade after this recent incident.
“She voluntarily surrendered, so no, we do not expect her to be practicing in the State of New York again,” Hutton said.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
