Dr. Schneider’s License Suspended

Dr. Schneider’s License Suspended in Attempt to Close Pain Clinic; Roxana Hegeman; Associated Press; 2008-01-30. Source

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A state hearing officer suspended the license of a physician accused of running a “pill mill” that caused the overdose deaths of four patients, saying Tuesday that the doctor poses a danger to the public’s health and safety.

[And in doing so, the medical board, aka the KASBAH, reneged on an agreement to forego action against Dr. Schnieders license pending a full hearing of the facts, and, the medical board, in it's misguided attempts to close the Schneiders' clinic, is now responsible for the unrelenting pain, withdrawal, and co-morbid illness that Dr. Schneider's patients will suffer, as no other doctors want to get involved. ..alex...]

Administrative Judge Edward Gaschler said in his order that unless the license was suspended, Dr. Stephen Schneider would still have been able to direct the operation of the Haysville clinic.

Gaschler was acting on a petition by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, which regulates health care professionals. The board said it didn’t act against Schneider earlier because federal officials were building a case against him.

Schneider and his wife, Linda, a nurse, were indicted in December on 34 federal charges, including conspiracy, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, health care fraud, illegal money transactions and money laundering.

The indictment links his clinic to the accidental overdose deaths of 56 patients. The government accuses the doctor and his wife with directly causing four deaths and contributing to the deaths of 12 other patients. They are being held without bail.

Despite the federal indictment last month, Schneider’s clinic remained open, with physician assistant Connie White seeing patients under the direction of Dr. Joseph Sack. Sack reviewed files at the clinic on weekends and was available to White by telephone for consultation.

Tuesday’s decision means the clinic must close because its owner no longer has a unsuspended license, said board attorney Mark Stafford.

The Pain Relief Network had sued on behalf of patients seeking an injunction until the doctor could defend his license. It planned to ask a state court to block the suspension.

“Right now the patients have nowhere else to go. They are desperate people,” said Siobhan Reynolds, the president of the Pain Relief Network.

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