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
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