Salinas Doctor Arrested For Allegedly Writing Illegal Painkiller Prescriptions

SALINAS (CBS SF) -- A pain management doctor was arrested Tuesday for alleged fraud by prescribing incorrect and potentially deadly medication to his patients, according to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office.

Steven Mangar has been charged with 37 felonies, including sending fraudulent health insurance claims and bills, supplying an addict with drugs and making unlawful prescriptions for patients who didn't have the condition the medicine was supposed to treat, prosecutors said.

The 46-year-old doctor is also charged with enhancements that accuse him of taking more than $500,000 in the fraud. Mangar has been booked into Monterey County Jail, where he is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, prosecutors said.

If convicted, the doctor faces 44 years and eight months in prison, prosecutors said.

Mangar allegedly wrote the false prescriptions for addictive and dangerous medicine from his medical practice, Pacific Pain Care in Salinas, according to the district attorney's office.

The drugs included painkillers such as oxycodone, known under the brand OxyContin; hydrocodone, sold under the brands Vicodin and Norco; morphine and Dilaudid, prosecutors said.

"Multi-faceted insurance fraud schemes are exceedingly sophisticated," District Attorney Dean Flippo said in a statement.

"The investigators on this case have worked countless hours conducting numerous interviews of affected patients and witnesses, and maintained diligent investigative efforts, which resulted in the meticulous collection of evidence," Flippo said.

The case involves tens of thousands of pieces of evidence that took two years to review, according to prosecutors.

The case against Mangar was compiled by the district attorney's office's Disability/Healthcare Insurance Fraud Unit that recently launched to investigate alleged prescription drug fraud by medical providers, prosecutors said.

The district attorney's office received help from the state Department of Insurance and The Medical Board of California in its investigation.

Any patients or insurance companies who suspect they were a victim in the case is asked to call the district attorney's office at (831) 883-7508.

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