2004 MAR 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A South Florida anesthesiologist has been accused by the state Health Department of providing a drug abuser more than 8,000 pills over an 18-month period, including more than 2,000 doses of the painkiller OxyContin.
Citing the case, a department order signed last week restricts Carola Vargas-Leon, MD, from prescribing controlled drugs, although she can still treat patients. The doctor faces a hearing before the Florida Board of Medicine, which could take more action. No date has been set.
A woman who returned a phone message left for the doctor, who also is known as Carola M. Zambrano, said the physician would not comment Sunday.
From 2000 through the end of 2002, Medicaid paid $2.1 million for pills Vargas-Leon prescribed, according to a South Florida Sun-Sentinel analysis of billing records. Just two out of nearly 57,000 medical professionals in Florida prescribed more narcotics.
The patient, identified only by the initials A.W., went to Vargas-Leon in March 2000 after several other doctors had stopped treating him due to his demands for larger amounts of potentially dangerous narcotics, according to the state order.
Vargas-Leon did not perform an adequate medical examination and her office records also 'failed to include a medical justification for prescribing the strengths and quantities' of these drugs, the order said.
Earlier this month, state officials issued a similar restriction order on another doctor.
Abuse of OxyContin and other narcotics in Medicaid's multibillion-dollar prescription drug program is the focus of an investigation by the Florida Legislature.
This article was prepared by Health & Medicine Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2004, Health & Medicine Week via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net.
