BALTIMORE--Sean Tunis, the CMS chief medical officer who was suspended earlier this year for falsifying documents, has been reassigned to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as a biomedical research scientist.

Last week, the HHS Office of Inspector General put Tunis on a list of individuals and businesses excluded from participating in Medicare, Medicaid and all federal health care programs. In April, he was placed on administrative leave after the Maryland Board of Physicians charged him with altering documents to show he had completed continuing medical education credits, which are required to maintain a medical license in the state.

Tunis, who also was director of the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, admitted he had attempted to reproduce lost records of credits he legitimately earned, and agreed to a one-year suspension of his medical license and a $20,000 fine. He also resigned from Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, where he worked part-time as an emergency physician.

In his new position with AHRQ, Tunis will work on projects related to the education of health care researchers, and will no longer be involved in federal medical decisions, according to an AHRQ spokesperson. Under a consent order, he also must complete an ethics course and 35 hours of CME.

"I regret having made mistakes in handling my [continuing education] records, but I am now pleased to be moving forward into a new phase of my career," Tunis told the Associated Press.

Barry Straub of CMS' Region IX in San Francisco has been serving as acting CMS chief medical officer since Tunis' departure and has also taken his place as acting director of clinical standards and quality.