Medical Couple May Have Contributed to 56 Overdose Deaths

Jenny Albano

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

A doctor and his wife are thought to have caused the overdose deaths of at least four patients by prosecutors. The couple will remain in jail because they are a flight risk, a federal magistrate ruled Friday.

Dr. Stephen J. Schneider and his wife, nurse Linda K. Schneider, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to counts including conspiracy, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, health care fraud, illegal monetary transactions and money laundering.

The couple has not been charged with killing any of their patients but they are still being held in prison because they pose a danger to the community. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Bostwick stated that even if Schneider was ordered to not practice medicine there was no way the court could police that stipulation.

The clinic that the Schneider's work in has been under investigation for a few years by the feds and in September was raided. Prosecutors claim that the couple continued to commit fraud while they knew their clinic was being investigated.

According to the indictment, 56 of the doctor's patients have died from accidental prescription drug overdoses in the past five years. However, the indictment alleges that only four of the deaths were directly caused by drugs prescribed by Schneider's clinic in Haysville, south of Wichita.

According to Linda's sister there are five doctors at the clinic that treat patients and insurance companies frequently put Schneider's name on the patient records even if he did not treat them and they were not his patients.

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.