How giving a medical marijuana authorization cost a Miami doctor $6,900

Issuing a patient medical marijuana authorization without actually examining them will cost a Miami doctor time and money.

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Last week’s Board of Medicine final order approved a settlement agreement that will fine Dr. Nasser Eftekhari $2,500, charge him $4,408 in case costs — $6,908 total — and require him to complete a five-hour continuing medical education course in laws, rules, and ethics.

Eftekhari’s online Florida Department of Health license entry says this is the first discipline in the 39 years that he’s held his Florida license.

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The person who answered a phone number for Eftekhari asked who was calling for Eftekhari, then claimed “wrong number” when a Miami Herald reporter identified himself.

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According to the Florida Department of Health administrative complaint, Eftekhari did a telehealth exam of a patient on July 23, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, then “issued a physician certification authorizing that patient to receive marijuana and a marijuana delivery device from a medical marijuana treatment center.”

The complaint says Efkhatari repeated the same process with the same patient on Feb. 10, 2021.

Before those physician certifications, “[Eftekhari] had never conducted a physical examination of this patient while physically present in the same room,” the complaint said.

“Section 381.986, Florida Statutes (2020), states that a physician may issue a physician certification only if the physician conducted a physical examination while physically present in the same room as the patient.”

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