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Doctor and Nurse Arrested for Prescription & Insurance Fraud

A Panacea doctor and his wife are facing numerous charges of prescription and insurance fraud following a seven-month investigation by the North Florida Drug Diversion Response Team. 

Arrests warrants were filed against Dr. Jeffrey Calaluca, 48, in Leon and Wakulla counties charging him with a total of 48 felony counts.  His wife, Cindy Lee Calaluca, 55, was charged with seven counts of insurance fraud in Leon County.  She had been arrested in March on eight counts of withholding information from a practitioner, charges that stemmed from the same investigation.  Following that arrest she was released on a $4,000 bond.

The couple practice at Forgotten Coast Podiatry in Panacea.  Dr. Calaluca is a podiatrist and his wife is a nurse practitioner.  Cindy Calaluca is listed as owner of the practice.

The investigation began last September when an area pharmacist became suspicious of prescriptions ordered by Dr. Calaluca and reported it to DRT.  The resulting investigation revealed that Dr. Calaluca allegedly ordered prescriptions for people who were not patients then either used the drugs himself. The investigation also showed a pattern of “doctor shopping”, a term used to describe a method of obtaining prescription drugs illegally by seeking prescriptions from more than one doctor for the same medical need.

Dr. Calaluca turned himself in at the Wakulla County Jail and was charged with two counts of obtaining controlled substance by fraud and 12 counts of writing a prescription with no medical necessity.  He also faces charges in Leon County of withholding information from a practitioner (five counts), 12 counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud, 14 counts of writing a prescription with no medical necessity, and three counts of insurance fraud.  All the charges are third-degree felonies.

For the full article please feel free to visit www.fdle.state.fl.us.