Health Director Dr. David R. Gifford yesterday suspended the license of Dr. Tarek W. Wehbe, an internist with the Renaissance Medical Group in Providence, after discovering that several dozen of Wehbe’s cancer patients may have received inadequate doses of chemotherapy between 2004 and 2006.

Wehbe, 43, has been under investigation by federal and state agencies for alleged health-care fraud and alleged medical negligence since a raid at his office in December 2006. Yesterday, Gifford used his power to suspend a doctor’s license without a hearing when the doctor is deemed an immediate danger to the public. Wehbe is entitled to a closed-door hearing within 10 days.

The summary suspension was prompted by the discovery that Wehbe’s records of chemotherapy-drug purchases did not match the amount he billed insurance companies. “In reviewing the records, it doesn’t appear that he could have given what he billed for giving,” said Dr. Robert S. Crausman, chief administrative officer of the state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline. “That could just be billing fraud but it leaves open the possibility that patients didn’t get what they should have gotten.”

The Health Department has the addresses of the affected patients. Clinicians from the department will contact them and discuss their treatment with their current physicians. Patients with questions can call the Department of Health’s information line at (800) 942-7434 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Most of the affected cancer patients left Wehbe’s practice in December 2006 after he agreed to stop offering infusion therapy at his office after the investigation started, Crausman said. At the time, investigators were concerned about his treatment of patients who had rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis C and fibromyalgia. When the cancer treatment issue came to light, the medical board considered the matter more serious and recommended that Gifford immediately pull Wehbe’s license, according to Crausman.

“It’s the same type of problem but the implications are different with oncology patients,” Crausman said, because the inadequate chemotherapy is potentially life-threatening. Also, a public order would make it easier to locate the patients.

Gifford’s suspension order reveals that the Health Department has been working with the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s office of criminal investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice in a complex investigation. The investigation, it states, has found “a clear pattern of intentional misconduct in the practice of medicine.”

In addition to the infusion issues, Wehbe’s alleged problems include billing for more work than he could possibly have performed over the course of day, “excessive and inappropriate use of diagnostic tests,” failure to maintain acceptable standards in the treatment of pain and a failure to address drug-treatment issues when they were brought to Wehbe’s attention by health insurers.

Crausman said that there are no active investigations of any other physicians affiliated with the Renaissance Medical Group.

Wehbe’s lawyer, John Tarantino, declined to comment.

ffreyer@projo.com