The Iowa Board of Medicine regulates the state’s medical profession as part of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing. (Photo by Getty Images, board seal courtesy the State of Iowa)
A Michigan physician criminally charged with at least 29 counts of sex crimes has agreed to surrender his license to practice medicine in Iowa.
Dr. Zvi Levran of Farmington Hills, Michigan, who specializes in urology, has been charged by the Iowa Board of Medicine with entering into a voluntary agreement to restrict his practice of medicine in Michigan. According to the board, Levran’s Michigan medical license was suspended in January 2023 and Levran at some point voluntarily surrendered his medical license in Ohio.
The Iowa board also alleges that Levran has agreed to refrain from practicing medicine in Minnesota until a number of criminal charges are resolved but that he does not admit any of the underlying allegations in those cases.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The Iowa board alleges Levran, 68, has been criminally charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual assault and at least 27 counts of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual assault.
Levran, who reportedly spent decades working with youth hockey teams in Minnesota and Michigan, was arrested in October 2022 after a 19-year-old man told authorities he was sexually assaulted during an examination in Levran’s home office. A few weeks later, Levran was charged with seven additional counts of criminal sexual conduct.
At a preliminary hearing in April 2023, four former hockey players testified to unwanted sexual contact with Levran during visits in his home office. A judge subsequently ruled there was enough evidence for Levran to stand trial on 22 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving 10 former hockey players.
In September 2024, prosecutors filed additional charges against Levran, alleging he took explicit photos of a 16- or 17-year-old patient in Farmington Hills and solicited an explicit video from a 16- or 17-year-old patient. Those allegations have resulted in charges of child sexually abusive activity and possession of child sexually abusive material.
Levran has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Other Iowa-licensed physicians recently sanctioned for alleged misconduct include:
— Dr. Jon Ahrendsen, a family practice physician who has worked for Iowa Specialty Clinics in Clarion. Ahrendsen was charged by the board with professional incompetence. According to the board, Ahrendsen treated a patient for chronic pain for several years and failed to properly document the patient’s medical condition or need for narcotics.
The board alleges that despite the patient’s history of drug abuse and requesting early refills for prescriptions, Ahrendsen failed to assess the patient for possible drug abuse or diversion of narcotics; prescribed the patient higher-than-recommended doses of unspecified “high-risk medications;” and failed to make any concerted effort to wean the patient off the drugs.
The publicly available board documents give no indication as to the patient’s outcome. The board has issued Ahrendsen a warning and restricted his ability to prescribe controlled substances. The board has also placed his license on probation and required him to enroll in a practice-monitoring program for three years.
— Dr. Scott W. Smith, who was charged by the board with professional incompetence, unprofessional conduct, and violating rules governing the practice of medicine. The board alleges that Smith, while practicing telemedicine, “experienced several compliance issues with trying to maintain a practice caring for telemedicine patients across multiple states.”
The board has not disclosed what those issues were but alleges that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration suspended Smith’s controlled-substance prescribing privileges at some unspecified time in the past “as a result of the investigation into his prescribing ketamine via telehealth.”
The board alleges 19 other states imposed some form of disciplinary action against Smith, who has agreed to a voluntary surrender of his Iowa license.
— Dr. Donald Rae Simmons, who has agreed to surrender his Iowa license after being charged by the board with professional incompetence, unprofessional conduct and sexual misconduct while practicing in Oklahoma.
In 2023, the Oklahoma board alleged the managing physician of Simmons’ former employer reported that Simmons had been engaged in a sexual relationship with a patient, which Simmons later admitted to the board. In May 2024, the Oklahoma board placed Simmons’ license in that state on probation for three years.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.