MEDIA
Florida restricts license of ex-Hernando jail psychiatrist accused of molesting female inmates
St. Petersburg Times By John Woodrow Cox March 28, 2011 BROOKSVILLE — The Florida surgeon general has restricted the license of a former Hernando County jail psychiatrist after authorities say he asked female inmates to expose themselves, give him a lap dance or a kiss and implied he would trade medication for sex. In one instance, authorities said, Dr. James A. Yelton Rossello, 53, pinned a woman to the wall and molested her. The accusations against Yelton stem from his treatment of four female inmates from November 2009 to August 2010. During that time, the state records show, he was [...]
TN Won’t Turn Over Names of Top Prescribers To Senate Committee
Nashville Scene by Brantley Hargrove In this week\'s cover story, \"Pharm League,\" we take a look at a few Nashville doctors who are top-paid pharmaceutical industry speakers and consultants, attempting to suss out just what these relationships mean. Apparently, there are five Tennessee doctors who made $200,000 or more over the last year or so in speaking and consulting fees — more than any other state. Not surprisingly, three of them are from Nashville. But the diversity of the doctors and their credentials may surprise you. To be sure, you can\'t paint them with a single brush. So it was [...]
Complaint filed against New Mexico Psychiatrist for “injudicious prescribing”
Albuquerque Journal Psychiatrist in Hot Water Over Drug Prescriptions By Colleen Heild February 08, 2011 A longtime Albuquerque psychiatrist faces disciplinary action for allegedly prescribing excessively high doses of drugs for his patients and writing prescriptions for drugs that were potentially toxic if taken together. Those are among the allegations against Dr. Kenneth Bull in a complaint filed by the state Medical Board, which accused him of "injudicious prescribing" and failing to document the rationale for doing so in patients' medical records. The board filed the complaint last August, then took the rare action of suspending his license until further [...]
State snubs feds in doctor probe
Rapid City Journal Journal Editorial Board South Dakota is one of 10 states that failed to provide complete information to a U.S. senator who is trying to identify doctors who prescribe excessive amounts of mental health and pain medications. State Medicaid Director Larry Iverson also refused to release that information to the media. Instead of identifying doctors by name, or provider numbers, the state used letter codes that had no consistency from year to year, making it impossible to identify doctors who might be over-prescribing psychotropic or addictive medicines including Oxycontin and Xanax. Without a way to track patterns from [...]
3 local MDs are paid experts, also prescribe the drugs
San Diego Union Tribune Speaker's fees reach five figures, payments that are legal but raise questions about potential conflicts By Christina Jewett • California Watch Three San Diego doctors who prescribe medications at the same time they are paid by drug companies as experts on the products figure into a broader national debate about whether playing both roles poses a conflict. California Watch, a project of the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, compared two sets of data at the center of the debate — one a database of payments by drug companies to doctors nationwide and the other a [...]
Top antipsychotic prescribers also drug promoters
California Watch By Christina Jewett Three San Diego County doctors who accepted five-figure payments from pharmaceutical companies have emerged on a list of the state’s top prescribers of antipsychotic drugs to the needy, according to state records. Officials from Medi-Cal, the state program for the poor and disabled, provided a list of California’s top 10 prescribers to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who is reviewing prescribing rates of psychiatric and pain medications nationwide. Three of them accepted $20,000 or more in educational or speaking fees from the company that makes the drug they prescribe to Medi-Cal patients, company disclosures show. All [...]
Some docs face fraud inquiry
Post & Courier Senator looking into S.C. Medicaid prescription billing By Renee Dudley An influential U.S. senator is checking up on South Carolina doctors who have billed millions of dollars in prescriptions to the financially struggling, taxpayer-funded Medicaid program. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, requested data from each state this year listing which doctors write the most prescriptions for eight common drugs covered by Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor. The reports were intended to \"ensure that taxpayer dollars are appropriately spent,\" Grassley wrote in a letter to state officials. The Palmetto State\'s report, released to [...]
Beleaguered doc was biggest Medicaid prescriber of pain ‘lollipop’
Journal Inquirer Beleaguered doc was biggest Medicaid prescriber of pain ‘lollipop’ By Don Michak A Berlin psychiatrist whose license to practice medicine was suspended last summer ranked among the biggest prescribers of eight pain and mental health medications — including federally controlled narcotic drugs — charged to the Medicaid program in Connecticut, state Department of Social Services records reveal. The documents show that Gerson M. Sternstein, a pain management specialist whose patients came from throughout the Hartford-New Britain area, wrote a total of 14,635 prescriptions in 2008 and 2009, for which Medicaid was billed more than $5.6 million. In several [...]
U.S. Senator scrutinizes top Oklahoma prescribers of pain, anti-psychotic medications
Oklahoman BY RANDY ELLIS A state agency has forwarded lists of the top 10 Oklahoma Medicaid prescribers of OxyContin, Xanax and six other pain and anti-psychotic medications to a U.S. senator concerned about fraud and abuse within the $317 billion federal program. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority terminated three physicians from participating in the federal Medicaid program and is reviewing the status of 10 others after their names showed up on top 10 lists of physicians writing the most prescriptions for frequently abused pain and mood altering medications, The Oklahoman has learned. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter [...]
Top prescribers under Senate’s microscope
Star Tribune U.S. Sen Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, examined Minnesota doctors as part of his investigation into the overprescription of drugs, at great cost to Medicaid and Medicare. By JEREMY OLSON Minnesota doctors are again under the microscope of an influential U.S. senator from Iowa -- this time because of concerns that expensive medications are being overprescribed at great cost to the publicly funded Medicaid and Medicare programs. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, notified federal authorities Wednesday that he found potential examples of overprescribing after requesting lists from states, including Minnesota, of doctors who issued the most prescriptions for antipsychotic and [...]