Doctor Draws Notice of Lawmakers

By Jeannine Koranda, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Dec. 23–Some legislators are calling for answers into why Haysville osteopath Stephen Schneider was allowed to continue prescribing pain medications even though he had been under federal investigation for four years on allegations of illegally dispensing medicine.

They also want to know why the Kansas Board of Healing Arts didn’t do something sooner even though the board was aware of complaints against Schneider.

A 68-page federal indictment released Thursday says that 56 patients from Schneider’s Haysville clinic died from accidental overdoses and that he continued to unlawfully prescribe pain medication.

The Schneiders entered a plea of not guilty in federal court on Friday.

"It seems like the system failed 56 families and 56 individuals," said state Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, chairwoman of the senate Health Care Strategies Committee and who also sits on the joint Health Policy Oversight Committee.

Schneider, 54, and his wife, Linda, 49, face 34 federal charges centered on the practice of writing painkiller prescriptions at the Schneider Clinic.

Wagle said she was surprised to learn the board — which oversees licensing for Kansas doctors and other health professionals — had not taken any action against Schneider although he was under federal scrutiny and was facing several civil lawsuits in court.

"This is the kind of news that disappoints the public and makes them lose confidence in the system," she said.

While Schneider is being held in jail without bail, Wagle worried that he still had his license.

"If that is true, the Legislature needs to get involved and ask some tough questions," she said.

State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, chairwoman of the house Health and Human Services Committee, wondered how Schneider operated so long despite several warning flags.

"If you have two, three or four flags on one physician, you need to make it a priority," she said.

She thought there likely would be questions raised in the Legislature.

Lawmakers also will be discussing a system to track prescriptions electronically called e-prescribe, Landwehr said.

The system is more focused on flagging patients who might be getting prescriptions from several physicians. But it could have been a warning signal in this case, showing the amount of drugs Schneider was prescribing to patients, she said.

Disciplinary role

The 15-member board, appointed to four-year terms by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius includes three members of the general public and 12 medical professionals, said Larry Buening, the board’s executive director. Board members receive $35 for each day they meet. They generally meet for one day every other month.

Four to five members of the board sit on the disciplinary panel and review cases then recommend whether disciplinary action should be taken, he said. Disciplinary actions can range from fines to license suspension or revocation.

In 2007, the board recommended disciplinary action 67 times for a variety of medical professionals.

In 2006, the board recommended serious disciplinary action against 16 doctors. Over a three-year period the board recommended serious disciplinary action at a rate of about two to three doctors per 1,000, said Sidney Wolfe, director of the health research group at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.

In a report by Wolfe’s group examining how frequently state boards discipline doctors, Kansas came in 36th.

The state also doesn’t post details such as information on malpractice suits doctors might be facing, or hospital or federal disciplinary action on the Internet.

Kansas isn’t doing a good job at disciplining doctors or putting up information so patients can learn more about their doctors, Wolfe said.

Patients should have a way to learn if a doctor like Schneider is facing several lawsuits, he said.

States handing down serious disciplinary actions to doctors are doing a better job protecting the people living there, he said.

Cases take time

The Board of Healing Arts started hearing complaints about Schneider in late 2004, said Kelli Stevens, who has been handling the case as litigation council for the board.

On May 30, 2006, she filed a six-page petition saying that from 2000 to 2005, Schneider excessively prescribed potentially addictive medicines. It also said he continued the prescriptions even when patients showed signs of addiction and kept incomplete and inadequate patient records.

The petition asked that the board consider disciplinary action against Schneider.

The petition is still winding its way though the system, was amended in November and has grown to 57 pages documenting several cases where patients died of apparent overdoses from drugs Schneider prescribed.

The petition claims 14 cases in which Schneider showed negligence and incompetence or unprofessional behavior.

Those include:

Patients receiving prescription painkillers when drug screens showed evidence of illicit drugs, such as marijuana.

Patients receiving prescriptions under Schneider’s watch, even when they had a history of drug abuse and were not closely monitored.

People receiving prescriptions from Schneider or his assistants when drug screens showed an absence of the medications — indicating that they were not using the pills, but selling them.

It takes a while to build a case, Stevens said. Then the petition has to go through a review and discovery process.

The petition against Schneider was further delayed as the state added extra patients to the case, then federal investigators asked the board to delay the case so federal prosecutors could proceed with theirs, she said.

There are 10 patients involved in the state’s case, although the board received many more complaints about Schneider, she said.

Each patient added to the case meant more records to gather and people to interview, she said.

To build a neglect case, the board must show a pattern of practice, Buening said.

Prior to this case, Schneider, who received his license from Kansas in 1988, had not faced disciplinary action by the Board of Healing Arts, Stevens said.

The board has discussed taking away Schneider’s license in an expedited process, but they haven’t taken action, Buening said.

And with Schneider in jail, he does not present an immediate threat to people.

But Stevens said on Friday that the board could take action this week.

A federal judge on Friday found that Stephen Schneider posed a danger to the community. The judge ordered that Schneider continue to be held in jail because he couldn’t ensure that the doctor would not continue seeing patients or authorizing prescriptions.

That order may give the Board of Healing Arts the authority it needs to take emergency action, she said.

Reach Jeannine Korandaat 785-296-3006 orjkoranda@wichitaeagle.com.

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