RESOLD DRUGS COST MEDICARE MILLIONS, JURY FINDS

FORT LAUDERDALE - Corrupt doctors, clinics and patients are fleecing
Florida's Medicaid program out of millions of tax dollars by scheming to
resell prescription drugs to street buyers, with few consequences if
they're caught, a grand jury report released Thursday said.

Wholesalers are flooding the black market with prescription drugs. Those
drugs are purchased illegally by abusers, some of whom die of overdoses.
The statewide report, which focused on South Florida cases, estimates that
three to five people in Florida die each day from prescription drug abuse.

The grand jury, convened in Broward County, recommends that the Legislature
criminalize the resale of Medicaid drugs and penalize rogue providers and
recipients by canceling their benefits.

It asks the state Agency for Health Care Administration to continue its
plan to lock a recipient's Medicaid services into one doctor if the patient
is found to have defrauded the program.

Attorney General Charlie Crist was joined by the state Office of Drug
Control Director James McDonough and other state officials to announce the
report.

``I cannot imagine the bloodsucking nature of a doctor or pharmacist that
would engage in essentially the life risk of the recipient involved,'' said
McDonough, who said Gov. Jeb Bush supports the findings. ``The recipient
himself has cheapened his life to a degree that he gives up the drugs which
the public has paid for in order to turn it back in for profit.''