28-Sep-17 – He may never practice medicine again but a dermatologist in the Loop has dodged prison time for defrauding health insurance providers.

Dr. Omeed Memar was sentenced to three years of probation, during which he must work 25 hours per week, unpaid, doing community service, most likely as a technician for a doctor that does facial reconstruction surgery at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.

He will also have to pay $150,000 in restitution, a $75,000 fine, and a $1,600 special assessment.

Memar was convicted on May 10 of health care fraud by a jury in Chicago after a seven-day trial. He was accused of submitting claims to multiple health insurance programs, falsely stating his treatments of intense pulsed light were medically necessary to treat actinic keratosis, a potentially cancerous skin condition caused by years of sun exposure. 16 patients who underwent the treatment, said prosecutors, did not actually have actinic keratosis.

In July, Memar stood by his diagnosis and treatment of the patients and asked a federal judge to set aside his conviction or else grant a new trial. His motion detailed the cases of eight patients – including two retired police officers and one priest – who had actinic keratosis, caused by sun exposure, that were successfully treated by intense pulsed light.

A prosecutor said on Thursday that Memar has showed no remorse and criticized his jury on social media.

According to his attorney, the scheme for which Memar was convicted was “an ill-conceived way” to help his patients pay for treatment they could not otherwise afford. The amounts involved, said Andrew Staes, were “a drop in the bucket” to Memar, whose annual income exceeds $1 million.

“I humbly stand here before you a broken man,” Memar (left) told Judge Harry D. Leinenweber, pleading with him for community service and not prison time so that he could care for ailing parents, both of whom attended the hearing along with about 15 other supporters.

Judge Leinenweber said he was swayed by “a substantial number” of letters to him in support of Memar, possible more than 100.

“Frankly, I was impressed with the letters,” said the senior federal judge, calling the number of letters “unprecedented” in his 31 years of federal judicial service.

Memar’s practice is on Washington Street one-half block west of Michigan Avenue.