Michael Reinstein: Doctor Who Prescribed Forms Of Clozapine That Killed 3 Patients Pleads Guilty To Accepting Kickback Money
Michael Reinstein, a well-known doctor who was paid to prescribe Clozaril (aka Clozapine) to his elderly patients, has pleaded guilty to accepting kickback monies from a pharmaceutical company. The Daily Mail is reporting that 71-year old Michael Reinstein lived an incredibly lavish lifestyle all because he agreed to promote a risky anti-psychotic drug that had detrimental effects, and ended up killing at least three of his patients.
According to the federal court documents, Reinstein was paid exorbitant fees for randomly prescribing the drug. The pharmaceutical companies Ivax and Teva paid for boat cruises, expensive dinners, and trips for Reinstein because he was so good at prescribing the risky drug to elderly victims, which included nursing home and mental health patients, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Now the elderly Chicago doctor faces up to four years in prison and must pay back almost $600,000 for the scheme. In 2012, Reinstein was accused of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare by filing false claims. In March of 2014, Teva was ordered to pay almost $28 million dollars because high paid consultant Dr. Reintein over prescribed anti-psychotic medication. The court documents paint Dr. Michael Reinstein as a greedy, money-hungry psychiatrist whose only goal was to make money off of his elderly patients in order to pad his rich lifestyle. The doctor is currently under suspension.
Clozapine should not be prescribed at whim, but only when it is a last alternative for patients who have severe cases of schizophrenia, psychosis, and bipolar disorder, and who are showing signs of suicidal tendencies. The accompanying side effects could cause fainting, seizure, and even death in some patients.
Filed under: General Problems
Old RPh…exactly….I remember when this drug came out, all the red tape. Even now, a patient needs WBC tests. I think they have to be weekly for so long and then if they have no problems, the tests can be decreased to I think bi weekly…I havent worked with Clozapine for some time. I know when I was floating for the independent and then temping in LTC, I was seeing Clozapine being used along with another 2nd generation antipsychotic. When I called the psychiatrist to question the usage as duplication….I was informed consistently by different psychiatrists that in some resistant mental illnesses especially schizophrenia, the combination of the 2 was used as a last resort to control behaviors. I did find some write ups on the uses, but the numbers studied weren’t very large, which still kept me hesitant on its use. . However the WBCs were always within normal limits. In LTC, often it wasnt the psychiatrist doing the ordering, it was the PSYCHOLOGIST (who has no prescribing authority) asking the medical director to order the psych meds. Those were the facilities I was a real dog on about usage. Per OBRA 90, I had all my facilities doing monthly behavioral meetings while I was in the building for the month (attended by Social worker, DON, nursing and psych besides myself) and doing reductions where at all possible. That was my job. If it didn’t work, we raised the dose back up and had our documentation for state inspections. My own assigned facilities had very very few issues with state on psychotic usage.. (I write this to educate those who have never worked LTC, so I apologize for the length) Some mental illness we could not reduce or required, but my job was always to make sure the documentation was there. Clozapine was always a red flag for me. In Indianapolis, I had one great psychiatrist who did many of the facilties my company contracted with, and from him I learned much about mental illness, he always gave a brief education talk at our meetings. Wonderful doctor!!!
The story glosses over the obvious essentials to be discussed when dealing with Clozaril.: h\How did the prescriptions get filled without the dispensing pharmacists insisting upon the mandatory blood count protocol prior to dispensing? Did the patients die of agranulocytosis? Were the patients treated with samples? How can there ever be Clozaril samples? What’s the real story here?
“Clozapine should not be prescribed at whim, but only when it is a last alternative for patients who have severe cases of schizophrenia, psychosis, and bipolar disorder…”
Opioids should not be prescribed at whim, but only when it is a last alternative for patients who have severe chronic pain…
It kinda sounds like they are demonizing this doctor for the same things that pain doctors are being criminalized for. Considering the number of doctors who accept money from Big Pharma, whether directly or indirectly, I would hope that doesn’t automatically mean a doctor is over-prescribing.
How many of his patients suffered from severe symptoms? If they’re being prescribed these kinds of medications, then usually the illnesses have become severe. Just like pain doctors.