New Castle doctor charged with overprescribing painkillers

April 11, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

A New Castle, Pa., doctor has been charged with overprescribing painkillers to patients, 11 of whom are charged with reselling the drugs on the street.

State prosecutors said Dr. Van Edward Scott prescribed 2.19 million doses of painkillers in one year, 60 percent more than any other doctor in the state. The drugs have a street value of $50 million.

But defense attorney Michael Frisk said Scott, 59, isn’t doing anything other than prescribing painkillers to patients who have run out of other treatment options.

“First off, bond has been posted, and he is practicing medicine as if nothing has happened,” Frisk said Friday, a day after Dr. Scott was arrested, and a judge set his bail at $500,000. “We believe he will be vindicated.”

The charges announced Friday stem from grand-jury findings that Dr. Scott had 509 patients last summer whom he charged $130 a month for treatment.

The doctor doesn’t accept insurance, only cash, checks or money orders, the grand jury said.

Dr. Scott spends little time with his patients and doesn’t take vital signs “or provide any meaningful physical exam during office visits,” Attorney General Tom Corbett said in a statement.

The grand jury found patients simply reported their physical condition, then requested either more, different or stronger painkillers, including OxyContin, Roxicodone, methadone, Endocet, fentanyl and Percocet.

Dr. Scott prescribed nearly 2.2 million painkiller doses from June 2007 to June 2008, which prompted the investigation.

Undercover police and informants then began buying drugs from his patients from July 2008 to July 2009, after which the case went to the grand jury, attorney general’s spokeswoman Lauren Bozart said.

An expert examined some of Dr. Scott’s patient files and determined he prescribed drugs even to patients clearly dependent on them, the grand jury said.

Dr. Scott is charged with 21 counts of improperly prescribing drugs and seven counts of prescribing drugs to drug-dependent patients.

Eleven patients face at least one count each of reselling drugs they got from the doctor.

Frisk said the case isn’t about a crime but a difference of opinion.

“They don’t like the amounts he’s prescribing, and they’re trying to squeeze him into statutes to make that a crime,” Frisk said.

Bozart responded by saying only, “Dr. Scott will have the opportunity to explain to a jury why he prescribed 60 percent more pain medication than any other doctor in Pennsylvania.”