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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

FRAUD & ABUSE ~ Physician Could Spend 20 Years In Prison For What He Did While On Vacation

Published on Wed Nov 01, 2006

Doctor pleads guilty to distributing controlled substances charge. A vacationing pain doctor came up with an interesting new definition of "locum tenens." North Palm Beach, FL pain physician Seraphin Manfredonia pled guilty to distributing and dispensing controlled substances, prosecutors say. Manfredonia's patients had chronic pain, and he prescribed large quantities of pain medications for them, in many cases two or three monthly prescriptions per patient.

When Manfredonia went to Italy for three weeks, he made no arrangements for another doctor to cover his patients. Instead, he left a stack of pre-signed prescriptions for Dilaudid, Methadone, Percocet and Roxicodone with his office assistants, and asked them to write dates on them when the patients showed up for their appointments. Manfredonia's staff collected an $85 visit fee from each of the 36 patients who showed up while he was in Italy. Manfredonia faces up to 20 years in prison.
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