Salinas pain physician Steven Mangar was arrested in his Romie Lane office known as Pacific Pain Care, on 37 felony charges of fraud and writing illegal prescriptions. Mangar was booked in Monterey County Jail, where he’s currently being held on $1 million bail. The charges include submitting fraudulent health insurance claims and billings, furnishing drugs to an addict, unlawful prescription of medicine to patients who didn’t have the condition for which it was intended, and enhancements alleging Mangar’s conduct resulted in him fraudulently taking more than $500,000. The unlawful prescribing charges involve prescriptions Mangar wrote at Pacific Pain Care and include oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, Dilaudid, and other highly addictive and dangerous medications.
The DA’s complaint identifies 25 victims of these alleged crimes, identified as John Doe and Jane Doe to protect their privacy. The Californian reports that he was the third leading prescriber of hydrocodone, or Vicodin, in the state. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 44 years and eight months in prison.
The California Medical Board, which has the power to revoke physicians’ licenses, has been notified of Mangar’s arrest and the charges against him. The medical board has been examining Mangar for years, and the DA’s office and California Department of Insurance later joined in the investigation.
The medical board issued its first disciplinary order against Mangar in 2012, when he was placed on probation. As part of a settlement agreement, he acknowledged he had failed to keep adequate records. In 2013 he was cited for violation of probation, and then an amended complaint followed on Jan. 7 of this year based on complaints numerous patients lodged against him.
On Valentines day In February 2014, Mangar was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of methamphetamine after a California Highway Patrol officer stopped him near Highway 101 and Sanborn Road. Due to a Department of Justice crime lab backup, he was not arraigned on that charge until nearly a year after his arrest. The case for that misdemeanor charge is set for trial in June.
After the DUI charges were filed, in February 2015, agents with the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office’s Health Care and Workers’ Compensation fraud units served search warrants on his West Alisal Street office and his home on Madeira Avenue in Salinas with help from the State Medical Board, the Department of Insurance, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the DOJ Office of the Inspector General.
“Multi-faceted insurance fraud schemes are exceedingly sophisticated,” District Attorney Dean Flippo wrote in a press statement. “This complex investigation required review of tens of thousands of pieces of evidence. The review was painstaking and took approximately two years to complete. 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.”