16 MAY 9, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Maspeth Argonauts denied by PSAL again
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Despite mounting need and
political pressure, the Public
School Athletic League (PSAL)
denied Maspeth High School’s request
to have two of their boys’ sports teams
offi cially recognized for the seventh
year in a row.
After years of applications, letters
of support from local legislators and
activism by the student government,
the city agency shows no sign of
changing its mind without giving a
substantial justifi cation.
School staff, students and local
legislators are puzzled and frustrated
by the response.
“They fl at out tell us that it’s not going
to happen and that there is no roadmap.
So we don’t know what to do,” said MHS
Athletics Director and Assistant Principal
Jesse Pachter.
The school has fi led requests with the
PSAL for boys varsity volleyball and
junior varsity baseball teams. Currently
these teams operate as clubs instead
of competitive sports teams, despite
interest that exceeds the 30 members of
each team.
As Pachter sees it, operating this way
limits competition for the players. When
the team reaches out to compete against
Maspeth High School Jr. Varsity Baseball Team Photo provided by Maspeth
high schools that have actual PSAL,
they’re usually not interested in playing
because it’s not going to help their record
or aff ect their seeding in the playoff s.
“There’s a diff erent connection that you
form with the school when you’re able to
participate in athletics,” Pachter said.
The PSAL’s Executive Director Donald
Douglas, who did not respond to multiple
requests for comment, justified his
decision to Pachter by saying that the
agency is working with schools who have
less sports teams overall.
Pachter says that over the past seven
High School
years, he’s tried everything he can think
of to make MHS’s inclusion in the league
as eff ortless as possible. Anticipating a
lack of funding, the school has off ered to
self-fund the teams.
“PSAL usually gives stipends for a
coach. We say, we’ll pay our coach. You
don’t have to pay anything. Just give us a
schedule,” Pachter said.
Pachter also says the school is
complying Title IX, the federal act
encouraging co-ed participation in
education programs, with fl ying colors.
Out of a student population about evenly
split between males and females, 62% of
females participate in sports and only
38% of males.
At a Glendale Town Hall meeting
in December of 2017, MHS student
government representatives raised the
issue to Mayor Bill de Blasio and former
Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose.
“It sounds fi xable to me,” said de Blasio.
Pachter says that’s the last he heard from
the mayor’s offi ce.
Last week, state Senator Joseph
Addabbo wrote a letter to the PSAL
intervening on behalf of the school
and asking for an explanation of the
repeated denials.
“Aft er reviewing the PSAL mission
statement on its website, I fi nd the
current decision to exclude the MHS
teams extremely inconsistent with the
PSAL’s role to ‘provide opportunities
for educating students in physical
fitness, character development
and socialization skills through an
athletic program,’” wrote Addabbo.
His offi ce has gotten no response from
the PSAL.
On May 3, MHS student body
representatives enlisted the help of
Congresswoman Grace Meng on the
issue as well.
“We’re just trying to see if somebody is
willing to step up for us and to say what
you’re doing is wrong – you need to let
these kids play,” Pachter said.
Rego doc arrested for Medicaid fraud
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
EDAVENPORT@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
A Rego Park doctor was one of
two individuals arrested for
allegedly conspiring to operate
an opioid mill and fraudulently billing
Medicaid, state Attorney General
Letitia James announced on Monday.
Ilya Smuglin, M.D., 50, and Clarisse
Clemons, M.D., 63, of Rockville Centre
were charged with criminal sale
of a prescription for a controlled
substance or of a controlled substance
by a practitioner or pharmacist,
health care fraud and conspiracy.
The Attorney General’s Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) filed
papers alleging that Smuglin,
Clemons and other staff of the
Miromedical P.C. and Ferrara Medical
Care P.C. clinics, conspired to create,
enable and foster an environment
that encouraged and resulted in
the excessive prescribing and sale
of prescriptions for Suboxone, a
narcotic drug used to treat pain and
opioid addiction that has potential
for abuse, which resulted in an infl ux
of patients who were the means for
the defendants and others to file
and cause to be fi led false Medicaid
claims.
“We will not tolerate attempts
to fraudulently use the Medicaid
program to take advantage of those
suff ering from addiction,” said James.
“New York is experiencing a serious
opioid epidemic, and doctors that
prescribe narcotics without proper
screening procedures only deepen
this crisis. We will continue to take on
this crisis from every angle and that
includes prosecuting doctors who
abuse their duties and our trust.”
According to charges, Smuglin,
Clemons and their co-conspirators
allegedly participated in a scheme
that lured Medicaid patients to
their clinics, located in Manhattan
and the Bronx, by paying kickbacks
and offering prescriptions for
Suboxone.
Once recruited, prosecutors said,
patients allegedly encountered the
façade of a substance abuse treatment
program.
During this time that appropriate
and necessary medical histories
were allegedly not maintained,
authorities reported, physicals and
urine toxicology were not regularly
performed. Patients, nonetheless,
were consistently provided with
prescriptions for Suboxone at the
maximum dose, without any eff ort
to taper or wean the patient off the
narcotic in violation of applicable
treatment guidelines.
As part of this scheme, prosecutors
say, Smuglin and Clemons allegedly
gave pre-signed and blank
prescription pads to medical and
non-medical staff within the clinics,
which enabled them to hand out
prescriptions, including ones for
controlled substances, to patients
without medical need. Once the
Suboxone prescriptions were
obtained, patients were allegedly
off ered money from drug dealers
inside and outside of the clinic, oft en
in plain view of physicians and
employees.
Prosecutors say that relying on
the accuracy of claims submitted
for these Suboxone prescriptions,
Medicaid and MetroPlus, a Medicaid
managed care organization, paid
pharmacies fi lling the prescriptions
over $3 million in 2015 and over $2
million in 2016.
Both Smuglin and Clemons were
arraigned before the New York City
Criminal Court in Bronx County on
May 3, where they were released on
their own recognizance and ordered
to surrender their passports. Both
are due to return to court on June
12.
If convicted, Smuglin and Clemons
each face between 8 1/3 to 25 years in
state prison.
Photo via Getty Images
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