Addiction Medicine physician

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Dr. Mario San Bartolome is board-certified in Addiction Medicine and Family Medicine and has extensive clinical, administrative, regulatory, and forensic experience in the evaluation and treatment of substance use disorders, co-occurring psychiatric conditions, controlled-substance prescribing, detoxification, withdrawal management, toxicology, and addiction-related standards of care. Dr. San Bartolome has served as a medical director across multiple levels of addiction treatment, including withdrawal management/detoxification, residential treatment, intensive outpatient care, outpatient addiction medicine, and managed care. His experience includes policy development, clinical protocol design, utilization management, peer review, quality oversight, direct patient care, and maintaining patient safety in drug and alcohol treatment programs. He has practiced and consulted in settings that include hospitals, psychiatric units, emergency departments, correctional environments, outpatient clinics, addiction treatment facilities, sober living environments, and health-plan administration. Nationally, Dr. San Bartolome has held leadership roles in addiction medicine, including chairing committees for the American Society of Addiction Medicine and serving on the Board of Directors for the California Society of Addiction Medicine. He has also served as faculty for medical residencies, universities, professional societies, and clinical training programs, with a strong record of teaching complex medical issues in a clear and accessible manner. Dr. San Bartolome provides expert consultation in civil, criminal, correctional, regulatory, and workers’ compensation matters involving addiction medicine, behavioral health, detoxification, withdrawal management, controlled-substance prescribing, medication-assisted treatment, pain and addiction overlap, psychotropic medication use, urine drug testing, toxicology interpretation, and standards of care. He has reviewed cases involving wrongful death, overdose, malpractice, treatment-center safety, sober-home practices, correctional healthcare, delayed or inadequate care, improper transitions in care, inappropriate admissions or placement at levels of care, negligent prescribing, failure to recognize or manage substance-related medical risk, and standard-of-care issues involving facilities and individual medical professionals. His experience also includes matters involving fraud, waste, and abuse of addiction treatment services, including concerns related to excessive or medically unnecessary services, improper utilization of levels of care, urine drug testing practices, toxicologic testing, documentation deficiencies, and medically unsupported treatment practices. His expert-witness services include case review, medical-record analysis, written reports, independent medical evaluations when appropriate, attorney consultation, deposition testimony, arbitration testimony, and trial testimony. His case work has included both plaintiff/prosecution and defense matters, with an approximate distribution of 60% plaintiff/prosecution and 40% defense. Dr. San Bartolome is known for objective analysis, strong clinical grounding, and the ability to explain addiction medicine, toxicology, prescribing, patient-safety, utilization, and standard-of-care issues clearly to attorneys, judges, juries, and other non-medical audiences.