A doctor who abandoned his patients was drowning in debt

A doctor who abandoned hundreds of patients after the abrupt closure of his network of private medical clinics has just taken shelter from his creditors after accumulating debts of more than $3.3 million.

The D^r Adam Hofmann, who was at the head of the Preventia and Algomed clinics, had to take measures in recent months to avoid bankruptcy. Two weeks ago, creditors accepted an offer to repay a small fraction of all accumulated debts.

In recent years, the doctor specializing in internal medicine had opened several clinics, offering, in particular, paid annual subscriptions. When the clinics closed, many patients found themselves without a doctor and some were unable to recover the balance of their subscription.

By closing its Saint-Jérôme office, D^r Hofmann even forgot to inform one of his patients that he had cancer. The latter only learned about it seven months later.

RAMQ loses big

According to the trustee's documents obtained by our Investigation Office, D^r Hofmann attributes his financial woes to a difficult divorce and the closure of his clinics. He also points to a reimbursement agreement he made with the Régie de l'assurance santé du Québec (RAMQ) at the rate of $15,000 per month.

The RAMQ accused him of having pocketed more than half a million dollars to which he was not entitled between 2013 and 2017. In particular, he allegedly billed sums for hospital consultations and for teaching insulin therapy.

He initially contested this claim in court before agreeing to pay monthly sums in 2022.

“The settlement with the Régie de l’assurance santé for overbilling which costs $14,988 per month is unsustainable,” he wrote in the documents filed as part of his proposal to creditors.

The Régie therefore finds itself among those who will lose money since it still owed it the sum of $190,000. He also had overdue payments of $519,000 to Revenu Québec and more than $300,000 to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Legal proceedings

Other creditors include the widow and son of a man who died of a heart attack after seeing the D^r Hofmann and another doctor. The claim, which was contested by the D^r Hofmann, totaled $375,000.

There is also the complaint of two patients who addressed the arbitration council of the Collège des médecins du Québec to obtain reimbursement of their annual subscription to the Algomed clinic.

√ Earlier this summer, two companies from D^r Hofmann had declared bankruptcy, namely Preventia technologies Canada and a numbered company based in British Columbia.