Daphne pain doctor gets 5-year sentence in health care fraud case

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A Baldwin County doctor was sentenced to serve five years in prison in a federal health care fraud case.

Dr. Rassan Tarabein in court Friday learned the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Kristi Dubose, who also ordered Tarabein to pay $15 million in restitution and to serve a year of probation.

The federal sentence will run concurrently with a state sentence. Sentencing in the state’s case against Tarabein is set for June 28 in Montgomery.

In 2017, Tarabein entered guilty pleas to health care fraud charges and unlawfully distributing a controlled substance.

Tarabein previously operated the Eastern Shore Neurology and Pain Center, a private clinic in Daphne where he offered services relating to neurology and pain management, such as spinal injections. In his plea agreement, Tarabein admitted that from around 2004 to May 2017, he ran an insurance scam in which he induced patients to visit his clinic so that he could bill health care benefit programs for medically unnecessary tests and procedures.

Federal agents raided Tarabein’s practice in 2016.

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