A Shadyside psychiatrist on Friday admitted that he distributed oxycodone to addicts for cash and submitted false claims for prescriptions to health insurance companies.
Dr. Kenneth Stanko, 67, who had a practice on Shady Avenue, had been charged by direct complaint in October with possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute and health care fraud.
On Friday he waived indictment by grand jury and pleaded guilty to both counts before U.S. District Judge David Cercone.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cessar said Dr. Stanko knowingly distributed oxycodone to patients outside the scope of his professional practice in exchange for money from 2012 to 2014.
Agents interviewed Dr. Stanko in September 2015, after which he surrendered his U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration registration. The next day, he called the DEA to ask whether he could have it back for his “legitimate patients.”
Mr. Cessar said Dr. Stanko wrote prescriptions for oxycodone to treat “pain;” agents determined the patients were not suffering pain but were drug addicts. Count one in the information relates to two patients, identified only as JJ and AF, who received a total of 53,400 milligrams of oxycodone. Individual doses come in strengths of from 5 milligrams to 30 milligrams.
“Dr. Stanko knew of their addiction but continued to prescribe large amounts of oxycodone,” Mr. Cessar said.
He will be sentenced in May. Under sentencing guidelines he faces a possible maximum term of 30 years, but federal defendants rarely receive the maximum.
First Published: January 20, 2017, 6:39 p.m.
