Langhorne Doctor Barred From Prescribing Opioids

LANGHORNE, PA — A Langhorne doctor accused of prescribing opioids to a patient who didn't medically need them will be barred from any more opioid prescriptions for the next two years.

Podiatrist Dr. Ronald Klein must pay $75,000 and may not prescribe Schedule II opioids for two years under the terms of a settlement, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain announced Tuesday.

Schedule II opioids are pain-killers with a high potential for abuse.

The settlement resolves allegations that, over the course of two years, Klein wrote prescriptions for one of his patients that had no legitimate medical purpose and were not issued in his practice's usual way, McSwain said.

The prescriptions ran from October 2014 to October 2016, the U.S. Attorney's office said. They included opioids and were on occasions written multiple times for the same drug on the same day, prosecutors say.

"Healthcare providers have an unwavering duty to their patients to ensure that opioid prescriptions are written for a legitimate medical purpose, and are consistent with the law and the accepted standard of care," said U.S. Attorney McSwain. "This settlement is the latest example of my office’s commitment to using all of our enforcement tools to ensure that providers are living up to that duty, and more broadly, of our commitment to taking a multi-pronged approach to combatting the opioid epidemic."

The settlement does not involve a determination of liability in the case.