By Cliff Judy (WICHITA, Kan.)
Prosecutors say more than $4 million of Medicaid funds paid for pain med prescriptions for patients at the Schneider Medical Clinic. Testimony resumed Thursday morning in the trial of Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda.
The couple is charged with overprescribing pain medications at their Haysville clinic, contributing to 21 patient deaths by overdose. Federal prosecutors also say they can link another 47 overdose deaths to the clinic.
Federal investigators raided the clinic in 2005, and investigators spent more than two years analyzing seized documents.
On Thursday morning, prosecutors presented a database of insurance claims showing there were more than 10,000 patients at the Schneiders' clinic. More than half of them received prescriptions for controlled substances, and more than 3,100 receiving pain meds were covered by Medicaid.
In all, insurance payments totalled more than $6 million for controlled substance prescriptions. About two-thirds of that money came from Medicaid. Medicare programs also covered many Schneider patients.
