The California Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has suspended 20 more medical providers from the state’s workers’ compensation system for fraud and related criminal actions, or for loss of license.
David Ming Pon, a Leesburg, Florida ophthalmologist and owner of Advanced Retina-Eye Institute, was found guilty of 20 counts of healthcare fraud in federal court in 2015. Sameh Abdelmalek, an Indio, California pharmacist, was convicted in Riverside County Superior Court in 2016 for creating and using fraudulent prescriptions to obtain narcotics. Robert Windsor, a Marietta, Georgia physician, was convicted and sentenced to federal prison in 2016 for executing a scheme to defraud health care benefit programs.
The following providers were suspended because of license suspension, revocation, or surrender based on other grounds:
- Derek Patrick Hughes of Auburn
- Martin Bennett of Encino
- Manuel Tanguma, III of San Marcos
- Julie Farrell of Glendale, Ohio
- James Galizia of Blanco, Texas
- Kimberly Le of Carmichael
- Joan MacKenzie of Redondo Beach
- Sheldon Sevinor of Lynn, Massachusetts
- Michael Roland Pude Vivian of Ventura
- Robert Sterner of San Diego
- Jayshree Vyas of Anaheim
- John Warbritton, III of Oakland
- S.N. Shubhakar (Somwarpet Shubhakar) of Porterville
The following providers were suspended because of license surrender due to illness:
- Alan Azevedo of Chico
- James Luders of Santa Rosa
- Raymond Rowell of Dublin
- Glenn Strome of San Francisco