MEDIA
Feds eye doctors’ prescriptions for drug fraud
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Andrew Conte One Pennsylvania doctor wrote prescriptions for more than $1 million worth of an antipsychotic drug. Another averaged 25 scrips a day for the antidepressant Xanax. In both cases, federal taxpayers footed the bill through the Medicaid program for the poor. Some doctors are so prolific with dispensing government-funded drugs that a U.S. Senate investigation recently determined investigators should look for evidence of fraud or drug abuse. \"Government needs to do more,\" Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in an e-mail to the Tribune-Review. \"(Federal) programs can\'t spare a dime [...]
Editorial: Senator asks good questions about prescription drugs
The Herald-Dispatch Editorial: Senator asks good questions about prescription drugs He is a U.S. senator from another state, but we think Charles Grassley of Iowa is asking the right questions about a topic that affects our region in a big way. Recently, Grassley studied Medicare and Medicaid prescription rates from doctors around the country, and found several instances of doctors with very high prescription rates. Among the findings were: A Miami doctor who wrote nearly 97,000 prescriptions in 18 months for mental health drugs for Medicaid patients. An Ohio physician who wrote about 102,000 prescriptions in two years. A Texas [...]
Senator Grassley Cites Connecticut Example Of Doctors Who Write Too Many Prescripstions
Hartford Courant (blog) By Matthew Sturdevant U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, cited a Connecticut example of doctors who write far more prescriptions than their peers, which he said is a national trend. The Oct. 20 letter to U.S. Health and Humans Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is about the over utilization of medical services as a factor of rising healthcare costs. Specifically, Grassley takes aim at doctors and medical providers who are writing a lot of prescriptions compared with their peers. \"In Connecticut, one provider consistently ranked as the top prescription writer across the full range of pharmaceuticals, totaling [...]
State provides spending data on prescription drugs to senator
Arizona Daily Star Stephanie Innes Arizona last year spent at least $5.3 million on 11 powerful pain and antipsychotic medications for its poorest residents. The medications are the target of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who is concerned they are being overprescribed in some parts of the country. As a result, Arizona recently submitted spending data on the drugs to Grassley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, who is calling for a federal investigation into the volume of drugs that the government is paying for through Medicare and Medicaid. Grassley\'s findings have included a Miami doctor who wrote nearly [...]
Psychiatrist Peter Gleason disciplined in three states. Not Florida
Health News Florida Patient-protection watchdogs decided this case didn't merit a bark; were they right? Carol Gentry, Editor July 16, 2010 Psychiatrist Peter Gleason In journalism, we write about things that happened, not about what didn't happen. So I have been flummoxed in how to approach the subject of Peter Gleason, a psychiatrist who was disciplined in three other states. Not Florida. In the Florida Department of Health medical lookup site, Gleason has a "clear, active" license with no pending complaints. He would be free to work here if he wanted, which could happen at any time, since he [...]
Psychiatrist Graham Craig has two-year sex romp with a patient almost four decades younger
ChronicleLive Psychiatrist struck off after sex with patient by Coreena Ford June 20, 2010 Psychiatrist Graham Craig A PSYCHIATRIST who had a two-year sex romp with a patient almost four decades younger than him has been struck off the medical register, the Sunday Sun can reveal. Dr Graham Craig was 61 when he had the affair with the 23-year-old woman – known as Patient A – who had been admitted to his clinic for severe depression. It is not the first time Dr Craig, now 72 – whose area of practice is Newcastle – had an “inappropriate relationship” with [...]
Prescription Pill-Popping By Far a Leading Killer as Florida’s Drug Deaths Spike 20%
FlaglerLive Prescription Pill-Popping By Far a Leading Killer as Florida’s Drug Deaths Spike 20% July 1, 2010 Oxycodone, the addictive prescription pain-killer also known by its Purdue Pharma brand name OxyContin, directly caused more deaths in Florida in 2009 than cocaine, heroin and morphine combined. Prescription drugs as a whole are killing far more Floridians than illegal drugs, with some 8,600 deaths last year involving at least one prescription drug, according to an annual report released today by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. That’s 5 percent of all deaths in Florida in 2009, when 171,300 people died in the state. [...]
Psychiatrist Adekumle Yesufu convicted of exposing himself
BBC Flasher psychiatrist found dead A psychiatrist convicted of exposing himself in front of three women in County Antrim has been found dead at his home in London. Dr Adekumle Yesufu was found guilty in February of performing the sex act at the home of a former work colleague in Carrickfergus in August last year. He was due to be sentenced at Belfast Magistrates Court on Monday. It is understood his body was discovered after he failed to turn up for a previous planned sentencing. The psychiatrist, who lived at Sydenham Park, London, was arrested when police were called to [...]
Psychiatrist Juan Tejeda gets prison for sexual assault
CBC News Psychiatrist gets prison for sexual assault The Canadian Press An Ottawa psychiatrist convicted of sexually assaulting a patient has seen his house arrest upgraded to a two-year prison sentence by Ontario's highest court. Dr. Juan Tejeda was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault after a former patient testified the psychiatrist plied him with alcohol to have sex in his office, car and in the victim's apartment. Tejeda, 66, was handed a conditional two-year sentence in December, which included 16 months of house arrest and 240 hours of community service. On Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal [...]
New York Psychiatrist Richard Gardner thought society was too harsh on adults who had sex with kids
St. Petersburg Times Controversial disorder at center of bitter custody cases By Susan Taylor Martin May 21, 2010 Psychiatrist Richard Gardner HARPER, Texas — Deep in the Texas Hill Country, off a rutted road with a sign that says "Deer Processing,'' sits a three-bedroom mobile home. This is the Rachel House, run by Pamela and Bob Hoch. Dozens of kids from all over the nation have been brought here for days, even weeks with the goal of making them like a parent they fear or despise. "The children are expecting an institution, not this,'' says Pamela Hoch, gazing [...]