An East Cobb resident who runs a medical diagnostics lab in the Cumberland area is facing three felony counts of Medicaid fraud.
Maged Ahmad Awad has been indicted by a Cobb Superior Court grand jury on three counts of medical assistance fraud, according to court records.
The records show that Awad was indicted on Feb. 26 for allegedly receiving payments from the Georgia Medicaid system in “amounts greater than entitled” for genetic screening tests after “engaging in a fraudulent scheme.”
The indictment states that K & S Clinical Diagnostics, located on North Park Place off Windy Hill Road, received more than $307,000 in payments for those tests between March 18, 2022 and June 24, 2023.
But the indictment—which follows an investigation by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office—doesn’t indicate how much of that total is beyond what is allowed.
The day after the indictment, a bench warrant was issued for Awad, 61, according to court records. He was charged at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on March 11 and was released later that day after posting a bond of $110,220, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office booking reports.
Awad’s wife, Safaa Awad, is listed as the owner of the diagnostic business, according to the indictment, which said that he is the chief executive officer who “oversaw all day-to-day activities of K & S and who was responsible for finalizing the tests that were charged to Medicaid.”
Staff information on the K & S website doesn’t include Safaa Awad but lists Maged Awad as the president and CEO, and states that he is a medical doctor with a PhD who formerly was a biochemistry professor.
K & S was enrolled as an independent laboratory services provider in the Georgia Medicaid program, according to the indictment.
Services provided by such entities can be reimbursed only via requests by approved medical personnel, including physicians, physician’s assistants, nurses and midwives.
According to the indictment, Awad listed three physicians on documents, falsely claiming they had ordered the genetic tests when they had not done so, then billed Georgia Medicaid for reimbursement.
Each of the payments are listed in separate exhibits in the indictment, and they typically range between $3,000 and $7,000.
The indictment states Georgia Medicaid “made payments for these claims by electronically transferring payments into a bank account owned and controlled” by Safaa Awad, who is otherwise not named in the indictment.
Last year the owner of a behavioral therapy business in Brookhaven received a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to Medicaid fraud totaling more than $300,000.
An initial court date for Awad has not been scheduled before Cobb Superior Court Judge Kimberly A. Childs.
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