He'd served seven months of an 18-month prison sentence for Medicare fraud, and state officials were threatening to revoke his license. Enriquez begged forgiveness in a 1991 letter to Florida's Board of Medicine. The state let the doctor keep his license. Today, Enriquez practices anti-aging medicine at offices in Plantation and Miami, where he mixes chelation therapy with Christian biblical teachings and prayer . The Sun-Sentinel documented that 42, or about 28 percent, of 146 Florida doctors who offer chelation therapy in their offices have been sanctioned by the state's medical or osteopathic licensing boards , most in the past decade.
Offenses range from shoddy medical care to reckless dispensation of narcotics, state records show.
Even chelation boosters acknowledge that chelation cannot hope to brush up its reputation without tighter standards to eliminate fringe doctors whose activities give the industry a bad name, and to rid it of those who make exaggerated claims for success. Another feud has erupted because chiropractors are opening chelation centers and hiring physicians to supervise the treatments. Ahner said he also worries that too many doctors not properly trained are landing in the field. The AG's office states that they always win such cases, but that these cases are expensive to prosecute and require the same battle of expert opinion over and over again. The AG's office asked the Medical Board of California MBC to consider asking for statutory restrictions that would make the off-label use of CT illegal without an FDA Investigative New Drug license.