Unfit Fla. Doctors Allowed to Prescribe Drugs December 5, 2003
News Summary
Physicians in Florida who have been charged with serious misconduct or drug crimes are allowed to continue to practice because the state lacks an adequate monitoring system, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported Dec. 2.An investigation by the Sun-Sentinel uncovered dozens of doctors who continue to prescribe drugs even after many of their patients died of overdoses.
One such physician is Dr. Mark Kantzler, who had his license suspended in July 1991. State health officials found him unfit to practice medicine because of his drug misuse.
However, Dr. Kantzler is current running a pain clinic in the St. Petersburg area. In the past three years, he has prescribed $419,751 worth of narcotics to low-income people, placing him among the state's top prescribers.
Within the past three years, eight of Kantzler's patients have died from drug overdoses.
The investigation found that no state agency in Florida has a system to monitor the practices of doctors. The state also lacks a system that alerts state officials to increases in a doctor's Medicaid billings for narcotics or numerous deaths among a doctor's patients.
"When you see a growth of geometric proportions in drug billings, that should be an indicator that the medical practice needs to be reviewed," said Florida drug czar James McDonough. "The data should not be ignored."
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