Florida Board of Medicine Comes Down Hard on Pain Physicians Guilty of Fraud

The Florida Board of Medicine handed down penalties to six physicians for fraudulently prescribing controlled substances to patients, according to a St. Petersburg Times news report.

Penalties for the physicians ranged from $5,000 monetary penalties to loss of medical licenses. The discipline by the board comes at a time when regulators are tightening enforcement on potential fraud and "pill mills." A new law was recently passed that requires pain clinics to be owned by physicians and imposes stringent regulations on clinics advertising pain treatment. The law also regulates clinics that employ a physician who treats pain mainly by prescribing scheduled drugs.

Among the physicians who faced discipline from the Florida Board of Medicine are the following:

•    Norman Moskowitz, MD, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based orthopedic surgeon who received a $50,000 penalty by the board, was accused and found guilty of twice prescribing 240 tablets of Roxicodone without medical evidence the patient needed the prescriptions.

•    Mary Stegman, MD, a Fort Myers, Fla.-based internist slapped with a $20,000 fine and one-year supervision, was accused and found guilty of overprescribing controlled substances since 2002, including to a 76-year-old man who was prescribed 48 oxycodone pills per day by Dr. Stegman.

•    Thomas Weed, MD, a pain management physician from Boca Raton, Fla., voluntarily gave up his medical license after being found guilty of prescribing more than 80,000 pain medication tablets to two patients over a course of three-and-a-half years.

Read the St. Petersburg Times news report about the Florida Board of Medicine's discipline.

Read other coverage about physician fraud:

- String of New York Healthcare Providers Sued for Alleged Fraud

- Michigan Family Practitioner Sentenced to Two Years' Prison Time for Healthcare Fraud

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