IL: Marion Doctor Certifying Patients In Medical Marijuana Program Subpoenaed

Katelyn Baker;3048542 said:

Marion - The medical director of a Marion clinic that has seen many local patients attempting to access the state’s medical marijuana program has been subpoenaed as part of an ongoing investigation, a state official said.

The ongoing investigation by the Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation and the Drug Enforcement Agency is in response to alleged improper controlled substance prescribing by Dr. Bodo Schneider, IDFPR spokesman Terry Horstman said.

Schneider is the medical director of Pied Pfeifer Compassionate Care Clinic in Marion. He is also the medical director of a clinic in Orland Park.

In response to the newspaper’s request for an update on the state’s case against Schneider, Horstman said an administrative law judge was informed of the subpoena during the most recent status hearing in the case involving Schneider on Sept. 16 in Chicago.

The terms of the subpoena require that Schneider provide the subpoenaed medical records to the state regulatory agency by Oct. 7, he said. Horstman added that the administrative law judge was informed at the public hearing that on Aug. 19, an informal conference was held and Schneider rejected an offer made by the IDFPR State Medical Licensing Board and efforts to reach an agreed disposition.

Another status hearing in the case has been set for Oct. 24.

Schneider is one of only a few doctors in the region who are participating in the state’s medical marijuana program by certifying the conditions of patients who qualify for the state pilot program.

People wanting access to the program have flooded to his office as the region’s major health systems - Southern Illinois Healthcare, Heartland Regional Medical Center and the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, as well as some smaller providers - have directed the physicians they employ not to participate, citing legal vulnerability given that marijuana, including medical marijuana, is still illegal at the federal level.

Schneider maintains he has followed all the state’s applicable rules for the program in regards to establishing a “bona-fide physician-patient relationship” before certifying qualifying patients’ conditions.

Doctors do not prescribe the medical marijuana but rather sign off on whether an individual has one of the conditions the state law allows for eligibility prior to that person receiving a medical marijuana ID card that is used at a dispensary. At the program’s inception, doctors also had to check a box stating they believed it would provide a therapeutic benefit to the patient. But the law was recently changed to where the doctor only must certify that the individual has a qualifying condition.

This was aimed at addressing the legal concerns of the major hospital groups that were refusing to allow their doctors to participate, but even after the law changed, hospital executives in Southern Illinois said their concerns remained, and so the policies of nonparticipation also would remain.

According to public documents, the state has accused Schneider of charging patients seeking access to the program a fee for precertification without establishing a legitimate doctor-patient relationship, and for visits where he did not conduct a physical examination.

The state argues that the acts he’s accused of are grounds for revocation or suspension of his medical license in Illinois.

News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marion Doctor Certifying Patients In Medical Marijuana Program Subpoenaed
Author: Molly Parker
Contact: news@thesouthern.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: The Southern Illinoisan

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