MEDIA
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
U.S. Senator Probes Florida Psychiatrist and University of Miami
Pharmalot Grassley Probes Nemeroff and University of Miami By Ed Silverman June 8, 2010 Psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff The Charles Nemeroff affair encompasses more people all the time. Now, the University of Miami Medical School has become ensnared in the ongoing probe launched by US Senator Chuck Grassley, who investigated Nemeroff as part of an inquiry into undisclosed financial conflicts of interest among academic researchers who receive federal grants. You may recall Nemeroff, who was recently hired by the University of Miami, had departed Emory University after the Senate probe disclosed he was accepting sizeable consulting fees from GlaxoSmithKline at [...]
William Roddy, psychiatrist, arrested for trafficking drugs
The Associated Press March 23, 2010 Ala. psychiatrist, wife face drug charges Officials in Huntsville say a Florence psychiatrist and his wife were arrested after prescription drugs and cash were found in their possession. Huntsville Police Sgt. Mark Roberts says 50-year-old Dr. William Roddy and 43-year-old Wendy Sue Roddy were charged with trafficking in a controlled substance. He says they were arrested on Sunday and were released on $250,000 bail each. Roberts says officers responded to a call about a man with a gun in a hotel parking lot and arrested Roddy. He says a search of Roddy and his [...]
Nathan Kuemmerle, Hollywood Psychiatrist, Arrested for Running a Pill Mill
States News Service WEST HOLLYWOOD PSYCHIATRIST, OFFICE MANAGER ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF WRITING HUGE NUMBER OF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR ADDICTIVE DRUGS WITHOUT EXAMINING CASH-PAYING PATIENTS April 13, 2010 Hollywood psychiatrist Nathan Kuemmerle The following information was released by the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California: A doctor who maintains a clinic in West Hollywood and his office manager were arrested this afternoon on federal charges of conspiring to distribute controlled substances for writing thousands of prescriptions for highly addictive drugs for patients he did not examine and who simply paid cash for the prescriptions. Dr. Nathan [...]
Red flags overlooked in prescription drug death of 12-year-old
Miami Herald Red flags overlooked in prescription drug death of 12-year-old BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER April 18, 2010 Born with autism, 12-year-old Denis Maltez was "hyper, needy, pesty," his psychiatrist wrote following a May 2007 visit. Dr. Steven L. Kaplan solved the 70-pound boy's problems with a prescription pad, writing orders for two different anti-psychotic drugs along with a tranquilizer and a mood stabilizer -- three of them in the highest doses recommended for adults, records show. When state medical regulators sent Kaplan letters suggesting the dosages were worrisome, he ignored them. Two weeks after Kaplan last saw the boy, [...]
Psychiatrist Melvin Pisetzner charged with patronizing a prostitute
WHEC-TV Penfield man charged with patronizing a prostitute Rochester, New York March 4, 2010 Psychiatrist Melvin Pisetzner A 67-year-old Penfield man has been arrested and charged with patronizing a prostitute in the third-degree. The investigation that led to the arrest of Melvin Pisetzner began when a 19-year-old male told police he had met Pisetzner in an online chat. Police say Pisetzner posed as a 55-year-old man and offered to pay the teen a sum of money to participate in a sex act with him. The 19-year-old is a former patient of Pisetzner – a psychiatrist, but police do not [...]
Psychiatrist Adam Osborne – serious professional misconduct
London Evening Standard George Osborne\'s brother guilty of giving drugs to cocaine-addicted escort girl Sophie Goodchild, Health Editor The doctor brother of shadow chancellor was today found guilty of serious professional misconduct after prescribing drugs to a cocaine-addicted escort girl. Dr Adam Osborne, 33, is facing career ruin after admitting he gave anti-psychotic drugs to the prostitute. He told the General Medical Council he started a relationship with the woman - known as “Miss B” - because his long-term partner and now wife Rahala Noor was working away from home. The hearing was told that Dr Noor\'s absence left him [...]
Dirty Shrink Himanshu Ghadiali groped patients
The Sun By LEON WATSON A PERVY shrink intimately touched “very vulnerable” women in his care and handled their breasts, a panel heard today. Dr Himanshu Ghadiali told one patient who had been sexually abused in childhood that she had “perfect breasts”, the General Medical Council hearing was told. The consultant psychiatrist then told the woman he “understood why people would want to have sex with her because she had a lovely figure”. The doc is accused of touching the private parts of four patients. Three of whom also claim Dr Ghadiali handled their breasts during the 1980s and 1990s [...]