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A year ago, a Dana Point internist was placed on five years probation by the California Medical Board after failing to supervise a physician’s assistant who improperly prescribed opiate painkillers to eight patients, including one with a history of drug abuse.

Dr. Richard Berton Mantell was a 1981 graduate of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara Faculty of Medicine and was admitted to practice by the California Medical Board in 1983. State records reflect he was certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

According to the disciplinary documents, Mantell was a sixty-three year old physician with a private practice specializing in weight management, who was also hired to oversee an unidentified physician assistant at another medical office by reviewing and signing his patient charts.

Mantell was accused in 2016 of gross negligence for his lack of oversight between 2011 and 2013 of the physician assistant. In one instance, the physician assistant prescribed Norco and Xanax to a patient even after he tested positive for methamphetamine at the appointment.

Mantell reached a settlement with the board for that offense that also suspended him from practicing for 15 days, and barred him from supervising physician assistants or from prescribing certain types of controlled substances. He was placed on five years probation.

On June 17, 2017 the Medical Board filed an Accusation and Petition to Revoke his 2016 Probation.

One condition of the physician’s license probation was that he attend an educational program equivalent to the Physician Assessment Clinical Education Program (PACE) at the University of San Diego School of Medicine.

The PACE program recommended that he undergo an intense neuropsychological examination. He therefore attempted to complete a “fitness for duty neuropsychological examination” which showed Mantell “experienced significant decline in the areas of perceptual reasoning, processing speed and overall IQ,” according to a report to the medical board. The 63-year-old scored in the “mildly to moderately impaired range” in his demographic group.

Mantell has now signed a license surrender agreement, on June 12, 2017 that became effective in July, The agreement gave “mental illness effecting competency” as the grounds for the action.