Bad MD Files · Ontario · Revoked 2022
Dr. Ayokunle Fagbemigun: 42,000 Tests That Were Never Done
An Etobicoke family doctor billed OHIP for tens of thousands of tests and procedures he never performed — pregnancy tests, strep tests, drug screens, ear syringing, nerve conduction studies. Ontario's discipline tribunal revoked his licence and fined him the maximum it could. It had no power to make him pay the money back.
What the tribunal found
Federal auditors noticed the pattern first and referred it to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Over four years Dr. Fagbemigun became the province's top biller for several routine procedures. The tribunal found that he had billed OHIP for about 42,000 tests and procedures that were never done, intentionally and for his own gain, over an extended period.
- Ear syringing: he billed the code more than all of Ontario's roughly 11,000 general practitioners who billed it. A 2017 audit found 84 patients whose ears had supposedly been syringed more than ten times that year.
- Pregnancy tests: 23 patients with more than five in a single year; one, with no documented sexual activity, had eight.
- Strep tests: in the top half of one per cent of all family doctors from 2016 to 2018.
- Drug screens: including on a nine-year-old.
- Nerve conduction studies: almost 4,000 claimed between 2016 and 2018, against purchase records showing 240 sensors — using a device the tribunal found was not eligible for payment in any case.
The tribunal also found that he had sent patients for cardiac tests in order to collect referral fees. It called the misconduct extremely serious.
The penalty, and the money
On 9 June 2022 the tribunal revoked his certificate of registration, ordered a reprimand, and imposed a $35,000 fine — the maximum available to it — and $72,590 in costs.
The pattern is not unique. A year earlier Dr. Harmander Singh Gill's licence was revoked in part for overbilling OHIP by more than $146,000.
Checking a doctor yourself
Everything above is on the College's public register, which anyone can search by name. This site's register guide lists the register, complaints page and published decisions for every physician and nursing regulator in Canada.
Related
Sources
- College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Public register entry, CPSO #99963, with Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal decisions of 21 March 2022 (finding), 9 June 2022 (penalty), and the reinstatement decisions.
- “Licence revoked from Ontario doctor who charged for tests he didn't do — but he may still keep the money.” CTV News Toronto, June 2022.
- Toronto Sun, June 2022, as reprinted 15 June 2022.
- Medical Post (Canadian Healthcare Network), 22 March 2022 (subscription required).
This file rests on the findings of the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal. Corrections are welcome and are recorded on the page.