State moves against one of state's top Medicaid drug prescribers

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Feb. 02, 2004

State moves against one of state's top Medicaid drug prescribers
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - State health officials Monday barred one of Florida's top Medicaid drug prescribers from writing any more prescriptions for painkillers and other addictive pills, a newspaper reported.

The emergency state order accuses Dr. Armando Angulo of Hialeah, in suburban Miami, of prescribing excessive amounts of narcotics to low-income people on Medicaid, including nearly $200,000 worth of pills such as the painkiller OxyContin for five members of a single family.

In other cases, the state said Angulo prescriptions were filled at pharmacies after the patient died, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

The general practitioner also violated regulations by letting clinic employees hand out hundreds of pre-signed prescriptions for narcotics on days he was not in the office, according to the order from the Florida Department of Health. (snip)

Medicaid paid pharmacies more than $2.2 million for filling Angulo prescriptions, mostly for the painkiller OxyContin, from 2000 through 2003, state records show. Only one doctor out of nearly 57,000 Florida medical professionals wrote more OxyContin prescriptions for the poor.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/7859643.htm

[Sugarbleus]

1. And the point is?

No one in florida below a certain income level can ever get pain killers again?

It's late, I'm tired...clue me in on this. I don't get it.

[depakid]

2. Looks like this doc is abusing his pad

which is not only costing the state in terms of scarce medicaid funds (that could be used to treat others) but is contributing to a situation where otherwise compassionate docs become reluctant to presribe the appropriate pain medication.