“Illinois medical regulators have indefinitely suspended the medical license of psychiatrist Michael Reinstein, who prescribed more of the most powerful and riskiest antipsychotic drug clozapine than any other doctor in the country,” reports ProPublica. Regulators determined that Reinstein received “illegal direct and indirect remuneration” from the maker of generic clozapine, did not consider alternative treatments for his patients, and disregarded patients’ well-being.
In 2009, ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune first detailed how Reinstein had prescribed more of the antipsychotic clozapine than all doctors in the Medicaid programs of Texas, Florida and North Carolina combined, while at least three of his patients died of clozapine intoxication. “We found that the program continued to let him prescribe even after the U.S. Department of Justice accused him of fraud and Illinois’ Medicaid program suspended payments to him,” reports ProPublica.
Illinois Suspends Medical License of Leading Prescriber of Antipsychotic Drugs (ProPublica, August 11, 2014)