Yuma doctor sentenced to 7½ years in $36.5 million Medicaid fraud case

Irfan Fazil must repay millions to Arizona's Medicaid program and surrender his assets and medical license. But questions remain about recovering the money and paying former clinic employees.

By Dan Bustard | Yuma Informed

One patient’s account was billed for more than 1,700 X-rays in six months.

That was just one of the billing patterns Arizona investigators uncovered while examining the medical businesses operated by Yuma physician Irfan Fazil. The state says the volume of services claimed was physically impossible.

On October 2, Fazil was sentenced to 7½ years in prison after pleading guilty to four felonies in a Medicaid fraud case involving approximately $36.5 million in payments from Arizona's taxpayer-funded health care program.

Under the agreement announced by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, Fazil must also serve seven years of probation after prison, surrender his medical license, forfeit his assets and repay $36,542,901.45 to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, better known as AHCCCS.

It is a substantial sentence, with an even larger financial obligation attached.

But a court order requiring repayment and the actual recovery of that money are two different things. Prosecutors say the state will recover its losses and former clinic workers will receive wages they are owed. Public records reviewed for this article do not yet show how much money has been recovered or distributed.

How $4.7 million became $36.5 million

The size of the billing increase helps explain why the case attracted investigators' attention.

According to the Attorney General's Office, three businesses associated with Fazil collected approximately $4.7 million from AHCCCS over two and a half years.

Then, between July 1 and December 31, 2025, those same businesses collected approximately $36.5 million in just six months.

The businesses were Bio Family Clinic, Inc., Yuma Mobile X-Ray and Yuma Kidney & Dialysis.

During that six-month period, they submitted tens of thousands of claims for medical services, including X-rays, CT scans, ultrasounds, heart tests and other treatments.

Investigators examined the 27 patient accounts with the highest billing volumes. One contained claims for more than 1,700 X-rays, along with hundreds of other services.

These were charges submitted for payment, not proof that patients actually underwent the procedures. The state says the claimed volume could not physically have been performed.

The unusually large payments were only part of the case.

Prosecutors also accused Fazil of improperly obtaining prescription medication. According to the Attorney General's account, he wrote prescriptions for his wife while she was outside the United States, then collected the medication himself. The state identified clonazepam, a controlled prescription drug, among the medications involved.

Six original charges, four guilty pleas

Fazil was arrested June 3 and indicted by a state grand jury June 8.

The original indictment contained six felony charges. On September 4, he pleaded guilty to four:

• Fraudulent schemes and artifices, a class 2 felony.
• Theft, a class 2 felony.
• Illegal control of an enterprise, a class 3 felony.
• Illegal procurement of a dangerous drug, a class 3 felony.

The two other original charges, conspiracy and possession of a dangerous drug, were not among the reported plea convictions.

The distinction matters. Fazil admitted guilt to four offenses, not all six charges initially brought against him.

The original fraud and theft allegations covered July 1, 2025, through May 31, 2026, a longer period than the six months of payments highlighted in the Attorney General's announcement. The drug allegations involved an earlier period in 2025.

At the October 2 hearing in Yuma County Superior Court, Fazil received concurrent 7½-year prison terms for fraud and illegal control of an enterprise, according to KYMA's courtroom coverage. Concurrent means the terms are served together rather than added to make a 15-year sentence.

The Attorney General's Office confirms a total prison term of 7½ years, followed by seven years of probation.

The original indictment records also include a separate fraud charge against Bio Family Clinic itself. Fazil's guilty plea does not automatically resolve that case against the corporation.

KYMA reported that prosecutors dismissed the case against Fazil's wife at the sentencing hearing. The dismissal order was not available for independent review.

Millions ordered repaid, but how much has been recovered?

The restitution order requires Fazil to pay AHCCCS exactly $36,542,901.45.

That's the amount the state says it is entitled to recover. It is not a confirmed balance already returned to the Medicaid program.

The plea terms also call for the forfeiture of Fazil's assets, including real estate, medical facilities, aircraft, vehicles, jewelry, currency, cryptocurrency and other valuables.

Those assets could provide the money needed to satisfy the restitution order. But their value, what has been sold and how much has actually been recovered are not established in the sentencing announcement.

On October 5, prosecutor Ryan Dill offered a more optimistic account in a public LinkedIn post.

Dill said AHCCCS would recover 100% of its losses. He also said former Bio Family Clinic employees would receive unpaid wages and the Arizona Department of Revenue would recover unpaid taxes. Any additional proceeds from liquidating Fazil's assets, he said, would go into the state's RICO fund, which receives money from certain racketeering-related forfeitures.

Those are significant assurances from the prosecutor who handled the case.

What the post did not include was a payment ledger, an accounting of recovered assets or a schedule showing when workers and state agencies would receive the money.

The Attorney General's public summary also does not explain how the precise restitution figure was calculated from individual claims or whether other parties share any repayment obligation.

For taxpayers, there is a meaningful difference between winning a $36.5 million restitution order and collecting $36.5 million.

The workers left waiting

While the state's investigation focused on millions in Medicaid payments, former Bio Family Clinic employees were dealing with a more immediate problem: getting paid.

In August, KAWC reported that former employees said they were owed wages for their final weeks of work. Some also described problems obtaining unemployment benefits after the clinic closed.

For those workers, the criminal prosecution did not make the missing paychecks disappear.

Dill acknowledged their situation in his October 5 post, saying many employees had gone weeks without wages after the clinic's closure in July. He said the resolution of the criminal case would ensure they received the money owed.

That commitment offers a possible resolution, but the available records do not establish whether payments have begun or when every employee will be paid.

KAWC's October 3 sentencing report likewise said it was not immediately known whether some or all of the workers had received their wages.

There is another group whose circumstances remain less clear: the patients.

AHCCCS suspended Fazil and all three associated businesses from its provider program effective June 24. The suspensions preceded the guilty plea and are separate from the requirement that Fazil surrender his medical license.

The agency distinguishes a payment suspension from termination. Its suspension process can begin with a credible allegation of fraud before a criminal conviction.

The clinic's closure and provider suspensions establish that its operations were disrupted. They do not, by themselves, tell us how many patients needed to find new doctors or whether individual treatments were interrupted.

Nor does employment at one of Fazil's businesses establish that a worker participated in the fraud.

The sentence is settled. The accounting isn't.

The criminal case moved quickly. Fazil was arrested in June, pleaded guilty in September and received his prison sentence in October.

The financial consequences may take longer to establish.

The state says it will recover the Medicaid money, collect outstanding taxes and see that former employees receive their wages. The forfeiture agreement gives prosecutors a means to pursue those payments.

What remains missing from the public account is the money trail showing those promises being carried out: the value of assets recovered, proceeds from any sales, payments made to AHCCCS and wages distributed to employees.

The current status and effective date of Fazil's required medical-license surrender also remain to be independently confirmed.

Fazil's guilty plea and prison sentence establish criminal accountability. Whether the state recovers every dollar, and when the people affected by the clinic's closure receive what they are owed, will require further documentation.

Reporting note: This article reflects information available through October 8, 2026, including the Attorney General's announcement, original indictment materials, AHCCCS records and local news coverage. The signed plea agreement, sentencing order, restitution payment records and reported dismissal order were not available for independent review. Sentencing details not established by the original indictments are attributed to the Attorney General's Office and courtroom reporting.