PHYSICIAN TOOK BACK SUSPICIOUS PATIENT

STUART A Port St. Lucie doctor who is facing prescription drug trafficking
charges prescribed OxyContin for a Stuart man last year even after she
became suspicious he was receiving it from other physicians, a state
investigation released Friday shows.

Investigators from the Florida Attorney General's Office said Dr. Asuncion
Luyao was treating Stuart resident Shaun D. Jones in July 2001. At that
time, they allege, she received an anonymous letter stating he was
obtaining the powerful painkiller from another physician. She then dropped
him as a patient.

But two months later, "sympathetic to Jones' complaint he was suffering
from 'chronic pain to low back and lower ankle,'" Luyao, "accepted Jones
back as a patient," the records state.

The investigation was released in Martin County court records relating to
Jones, 32, of 5914 S.E. Mitzi Lane, who was arrested and charged Thursday
with six counts of trafficking in oxycodone, the pain killing chemical in
the brand-name OxyContin.

He was also charged with six counts of obtaining a controlled substance by
fraud.

Luyao, who was not charged in the Jones complaint, told investigators she
was unaware he was being treated by other physicians, the report states.

Luyao was arrested Tuesday on prescription drug trafficking and related
charges. The state Department of Health also suspended her medical license,
citing complaints that drugs prescribed by the doctor "caused or
contributed to" the deaths of 12 patients.

She was being held Friday in the St. Lucie County jail on almost $2 million
bail.

Her lawyer called it "ridiculous" to blame the doctor for the drug-related
deaths of her patients.

Jones, meanwhile, was arrested in February after state investigators
alleged he fraudulently used his son's Medicaid number to obtain
prescription drugs.

He bailed out of the Martin County jail the day of his arrest.

As part of that investigation, investigators from the state Medicaid Fraud
Control Unit reported Jones had been "doctor shopping," going to different
physicians for prescriptions and filling them at different pharmacies to
avoid detection.

According to the state's investigation, the known drug activity began in
2000 when he was being treated by several doctors.

At the time, investigators said the physicians "unknowingly" treated Jones
at the same time.

From Jan. 8 to June 11 of 2001, authorities allege Jones made 16 trips to
at least three doctors, including Luyao. From all three doctors, he
obtained prescriptions for OxyContin, a powerful pain reliever.

Several of the physicians became suspicious Jones was "doctor shopping" and
dropped him as a patient, according to the report.

Luyao did the same, the report states, but took him back and continued
prescribing OxyContin and methadone, even after she received the anonymous
letter.

Luyao and two other physicians were interviewed by state investigators.

All said that, when they were treating Jones, they were "unaware Jones was
being treated by any other physician(s). Each physician stated they would
not have treated Jones or prescribed the narcotics if they had known he was
being treated elsewhere. ..."

Jones was being held Friday at the Martin County jail on $630,000 bail.