Kansas doctor accused of illegally prescribing drugs

Writing the top number of narcotic scripts in the state will certainly bring attention...fentanyl, methadone, morphine and oxycodone....this could be the real crux of the matter here...11 counts of health-care fraud, 13 counts of illegal monetary transactions, and four counts of money laundering...billed more than $4.24 million to health benefit programs, including Medicaid and Medicare...a very complicated case...BD

According to the indictment, 56 of Stephen Schneider’s patients have died of accidental prescription drug overdoses in the last five years. However, the indictment alleges that only four deaths were directly caused by drugs Schneider’s clinic prescribed, Melgren said. Drugs were a contributing factor in 11 deaths, Melgren said. According to the indictment, Linda Schneider bragged when interviewing prospective employees that the suburban Wichita clinic, with its large number of pain-management patients, wrote more narcotics prescriptions than any other medical clinic in the state.
Schneider is not charged with killing any patients. “He called patients who died from accidental overdoses ‘bad grapes,’ ” Melgren said. “They emphasized volume over quality of care.”
The 65-page indictment alleges that the doctor and his assistants wrote unlawful prescriptions for narcotic painkillers, muscle relaxers and other drugs. Drugs mentioned in the indictment included fentanyl, methadone, morphine and oxycodone.
The indictment also states that Schneider was known as “Schneider the Writer,” “the pill man” and “the candy man.”The indictment alleges that the clinic did not change its practices despite patients’ deaths and that it ignored warning signs that patients were abusing, diverting or becoming addicted to the medications.