Rego Park Doctor Charged With Medicaid Fraud At Opioid Mills

REGO PARK, QUEENS — A Rego Park doctor stands accused of Medicaid fraud and running two opioid mills in New York City.

Dr. Ilya Smuglin, 50, and an associate are facing criminal charges for excessively prescribing Suboxone, a narcotic that treats pain and opioid addiction, and filing false Medicaid claims for those prescriptions, Attorney General Letitia James announced on Monday.

Smuglin and Dr. Clarisse Clemons, 63, regularly gave pre-signed, blank prescription pads to clinic staff, who then handed out Suboxone prescriptions to patients who didn't need them, prosecutors said. Drug dealers inside and outside the clinics then offered the patients money for the prescriptions, often in plain view of physicians and employees, according to the AG's office.

Medicaid and MetroPlus, a Medicaid managed care organization, paid pharmacies filling the prescriptions over $3 million in 2015 and over $2 million in 2016, according to the charges.

The two doctors were charged with health care fraud, conspiracy and selling controlled substances and prescriptions. If found guilty of the top charge, they each face up to 25 years in state prison, according to the AG's office.

"We will not tolerate attempts to fraudulently use the Medicaid program to take advantage of those suffering from addiction," James said. "New York is experiencing a serious opioid epidemic, and doctors that prescribe narcotics without proper screening procedures only deepen this crisis."

The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which investigated the case, identified the clinics at 903 Sheridan Ave. in the Bronx and 2738 Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Manhattan as unauthorized, uncertified substance abuse treatment providers.

Substance abuse treatment programs must receive a certification from the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment Services, according to state law.

A judge on Friday ordered the two doctors to surrender their passports. They are due back in court on June 12, 2019.