Prosecutors: Potosi doctor reckless in prescriptions

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors believe an eastern Missouri doctor is reckless in handing out prescriptions and may be linked to as many as 46 drug overdose deaths, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday.

Dr. Seth Paskon of Potosi has not been charged with a crime. But prosecutors tell the newspaper he has been too free in giving out prescriptions for years in Washington and St. Francois counties and has ignored warning signs from patients while prescribing powerful doses of painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs without a legitimate medical purpose.

In fact, prosecutors say Paskon prescribes some anti-anxiety drugs and painkillers more than almost any other Medicaid doctor in Missouri. They allege that's why dozens of patients go to his Potosi Medical Clinic.

Prosecutors are trying to strip Paskon of his license to write prescriptions. He was in federal court in St. Louis on Tuesday and Wednesday for a hearing on the license case.

Paskon, in interviews with the newspaper and court testimony, denied the allegations. He claims many of the dead patients were not his. Others, he says, were on drugs not prescribed by him or died of other causes, such as heart failure.

And he says that many of his patients suffer from multiple medical problems and untreated chronic pain.

"You haven't heard my side of the story," Paskon told the Post-Dispatch.

His attorney, Diana Carter, said, "He wholeheartedly believes that everything he's done has been proper, or he wouldn't have done it."

The U.S. attorney's office brought a civil suit against Paskon in June, alleging that he violated federal laws by lying on Medicaid forms, writing unnecessary prescriptions and fraudulently billing Medicaid.

The case goes to trial in July unless Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Lay can speed up the process. In February, he asked U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson to rule that Paskon's treatment of two patients was so egregious that he should be prevented from writing prescriptions for narcotics until the trial and be fined up to $200,000.

Jackson did not rule immediately on the case. She told both sides this week that the issue was the way drugs were prescribed, not necessarily patient deaths.

Prosecutors have not looked at deaths in other counties. John P. Randolph, a Missouri Medicaid specialist, said in court that more than half of Paskon's patients came from areas outside Washington County, including St. Louis, Franklin and Jefferson counties.

Carter said prosecutors filed a civil suit because they lacked the evidence to pursue criminal charges. The office of U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway declined comment.

The Missouri Board of Healing Arts, which licenses and regulates health care providers, has filed a complaint against Paskon. It has echoed some of the same allegations as federal prosecutors, accusing Paskon of repeated negligence.

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Information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com