Geriatric center doctor prescribed over 1,200 opioid doses a day, feds say

The middle-aged staff at Fort Lauderdale’s Adult & Geriatric Institute of Florida has been accused of running an old-fashioned pill mill.

Indicted in December and arrested last week were Dr. Andres Mencia, 60, head of AGI of Florida, and office staffers Nadira Sampath-Grant, 50; John Mensah, 50, and Oscar Luis Ventura-Rodriguez, 40.

All face charges of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud and conspiracy to dispense controlled substances. The office staffers’ charges also include dispensing a controlled substance.

Though the DEA press release says Mencia turned over his State of Florida medical license upon arrest, the Department of Health website lists his license as still active. Since gaining the license in 1997, Mencia has kept a clean discipline record.

The indictment outlines a fairly run-of-the-pill-mill scam from January 2015 through last August. Patients paid cash or Mencia’s office billed Medicare or Medicaid for medical consultations that never took place, according to the indictment. Prescriptions got written for the patients, who were sent to certain pharmacies in on the deal. The pharmacies submitted Medicare or Medicaid claims for unnecessarily prescribed drugs.

The DEA estimates Mencia prescribed over 1.2 million dosage units of opioids to his patients and believes he bought two homes with the proceeds.

In August 2015, online Broward County property records show, Mencia bought a five-bedroom, five-bathroom, 8,379-square-foot home for $1.4 million in the Coral Ridge Country Club area.

This story was originally published February 12, 2018 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Geriatric center doctor prescribed over 1,200 opioid doses a day, feds say ."