A profile of Muhamad Aly Rifai—psychiatrist, internist, addiction specialist, clinic founder, and frequent KevinMD contributor—covering his clinical interests, writing focus, and his experience as a defendant acquitted in a federal prosecution.
Rifai splits his work between clinical psychiatry topics (ketamine, TMS, psychedelics, kratom, ADHD, deprescribing, telepsychiatry) and legal critiques of physician prosecution, based on his own 2024 federal acquittal.
He argues that broad fraud statutes and ambiguous coding rules have pushed billing disputes into criminal courts and that many physicians plead guilty because they cannot afford trial risk.
He expects telepsychiatry to remain common because patients demand it, while warning of regulatory and legal hazards that can follow virtual care.
Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD is a psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine physician. He founded and leads Blue Mountain Psychiatry in the Greater Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Since joining KevinMD in September 2024 he has published 37 essays and appeared on The Podcast by KevinMD 28 times.
Rifai's KevinMD output runs on two clear tracks: clinical psychiatry and the criminal prosecution of physicians. His clinical topics include ketamine (both clinic-based infusions and the questions around at-home use), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), psychedelics, kratom, supplements, adult ADHD, telepsychiatry, and deprescribing. He has also written about physician suicide, workplace violence, data accuracy and federal health policy.
He published six essays in 2024, 23 in 2025, and eight so far in 2026. Sixteen essays focus on psychiatric treatments and substances patients bring to the exam room. Eight address physician prosecution and enforcement.
He points to United States v. Elfenbein as an example of how a billing-level dispute escalated into criminal proceedings. In that case a judge later entered an acquittal after finding CPT rules ambiguous. Rifai's position is concise: billing disputes over visit levels should be resolved by education and repayment, not criminal courts. He summarizes fraud as billing for services not performed, forging notes, or lying about what happened.
On kratom, the supplied text is truncated before a full statement, but Rifai includes kratom among substances he analyzes.
On psychedelics, TMS, and adult ADHD, Rifai writes about readiness for clinical use and deprescribing strategies.
Rifai has written about physician suicide, burnout, workplace violence, and bullying in training. He links these topics to how physicians manage public reputations and respond when enforcement systems move against them.
Rifai's essays on KevinMD cover the detailed cases and policy arguments summarized here, including pieces titled "The continued unjust prosecution of physicians," "Criminalizing care: How the system turned on physicians," and "A psychiatrist's 20-year journey with ketamine."
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