WICHITA, KAN. – Wichita physician Steven R. Henson was sentenced today to life in federal prison for unlawfully distributing prescription drugs, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

“I want this case to send a message to physicians and the health care community,” McAllister said. “Unlawfully distributing opioids and other controlled substances is a federal crime that could end a medical career and send an offender to prison.”

McAllister continued: “We are dealing with an epidemic. Nationwide, more than 70,000 Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses. That is more than all the American casualties during the war in Vietnam.”

Henson, 57, operated the Kansas Men’s Clinic at 3636 N. Ridge Road in Wichita, stood trial in October and was convicted on the following counts:Conspiracy to distribute prescription drugs outside the course of medical practice (Counts 1 and 2). Unlawfully distributing oxycodone (Counts 3 through 14). Unlawfully distributing oxycodone, methadone and alprazolam (Count 16). Unlawfully distributing methadone and alprazolam, the use of which resulted in the death of a victim on July 24, 2015, identified in court records as N.M. (Count 17)
Presenting false patient records to investigators (Count 19). Obstruction of justice (Count 20) Money laundering (Counts 26 through 31).

Evidence at trial showed Henson was giving dangerous, maximum strength opioid prescriptions to people who did not need them.

Henson was registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration to dispense prescription controlled substances. His registered addresses included the Wichita Men’s Clinic and a location at 1861 N. Rock Road, Suite 201.

During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Henson: Wrote prescriptions without a medical need. Wrote prescriptions in return for cash. Post-dated prescriptions.Wrote prescriptions without a legitimate medical exam and wrote prescriptions for people other than the ones who came to see him.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten wrote in an order denying the defendant’s motion for acquittal: “The defendant kept no medical records, performed no physical examinations or physical tests, gave massive amounts of opioids to patients with little demonstrated need, wrote unneeded, non-controlled prescriptions in order to defeat pharmacy limits on controlled substances, and knew that patients were traveling improbably long distances to receive opioids. There was ample evidence that Henson was prescribing opioid medications in amounts likely to lead to addiction, and in amounts so expensive that the patients would likely be forced by economic circumstances to support their addiction by selling some of the drugs to others.”

The judge criticized Henson for deliberately not confronting the fact his patients were addicts. He had a uniform, scripted colloquy with patients in which he asked them if they had pain, they said yes and then he gave them prescriptions. In that way, he avoided asking more questions or ordering more tests. Marten called it, “a pantomime of a genuine doctor-patient relationship (that) demonstrated a consistent policy of avoiding the truth.”

Evidence presented at trial showed Henson prescribed opioid medications in amounts likely to lead to addiction and ignored the risk that his patients would pay for their drugs by selling some of the drugs to other people.

McAllister said: “The prosecution of cases involving a health professional’s misuse of medical expertise and authority is extremely important to fight the opioid epidemic. The vast majority of health care providers are people of integrity who follow their oath to help others, abide by the law, and do all they can to protect patients from becoming addicted. The evidence showed that is not what Dr. Henson did in this case.”

“For any doctors, pharmacists or nurses who disregard their oath and distribute powerful drugs illegally to enrich themselves, the message today is that they will be prosecuted to the full extent allowed by federal law.”

SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — A rural hospital has been cut off from the federal Medicare program after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found serious deficiencies threatening patient health and safety.

The federal health agency pulled I-70 Community Hospital in Sweet Springs from its Medicare program on Thursday.

The 15-bed facility about 65 miles east of Kansas City closed and voluntarily suspended its license in February after state regulators found that it was “out of regulatory compliance.”

Oklahoma-based Cohesive Healthcare Management & Consulting was appointed by a court to take over the hospital’s operations. Cohesive Healthcare plans to appeal the federal agency’s decision.

The hospital’s interim CEO, Roland Gee, said the facility is working to address deficiencies so that it can reopen.

I-70 Community Hospital is the latest facility formerly run by North Kansas City-based EmpowerHMS to face regulatory and financial issues. Oswego Community Hospital in Oswego, Kansas, which was owned by EmpowerHMS, also shutteredin February, saying it was unable to pay its bills.

Two other hospitals formerly operated by EmpowerHMS, Hillsboro Community Hospital in Hillsboro, Kansas, and Fulton Medical Center in Fulton, Missouri, were placed under new management after struggling to pay employees and meet other financial obligations.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid also cited Hillsboro Community Hospital for serious deficiencies that included a failure to follow chest-pain procedures for three patients with cardiac complaints and two patients for suicidal thoughts.

The hospital’s CEO didn’t return a request for comment.

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities have made an arrest in the homicide of 19-year-old Jacob Bouck whose body was found Christmas Eve approximately one mile West of Wamego on the Kansas River.

Detectives with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office have arrested 23-year-old Cody Lamia-Beck of Wamego, according to Sheriff Greg Riat.

He was taken into custody Wednesday on requested charges of 2nd degree murder and is currently being held at the Pottawatomie County Jail in Westmoreland. No bond has not been set, according to Riat.

The investigation into this homicide continues. The Sheriff’s Office urges anyone who has information about this crime to contact the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office at 785-457-3353 or ptsheriff.com

By KAREN LAPIERRE
For Great Bend Post

GREAT BEND — Things are good for Ron Mason in Great Bend with a wife, children, grandchildren, and his wife’s side of the family. Still, he was missing a piece of the puzzle in his own life for more than four decades.

He had no family medical information and no known biological siblings or cousins and was curious about both.

Mason grew up in picturesque Monroe, La. hunting and fishing on the bayou, making wonderful memories with a group of boyhood friends. He was the only child of Earl and Peggy Mason.

“It was fantastic. I had a great childhood,” Mason said. “I was an only child and spoiled rotten.”

Mason’s father died when he was four and unfortunately, he has few memories of him.

When Mason was 12 years old, his mother told him he was adopted as a baby. His parents could not have children of their own.

Peggy took him to show him Sellers Baptist Children’s Home in New Orleans, La., where he was adopted from.

In the 1980s, Mason began the search that has lasted most of his life. He and Tammy would look in telephone books or in libraries for the family name.

Internet was not available at that time, nor was there fast Internet in the 1990s.

In 2000, Mason was in Louisiana for a funeral. He contacted the children’s home only to be told the records had been moved from New Orleans to Monroe Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home.

Mason stopped by, and after some persuasion, the director gave Mason a copy of the file.

Mason learned his birth father went to the U.S. Naval Academy and was a University of Alabama graduate, and his birth mothers’ date and location of birth and name, Margaret Eloise Jordan.

“I’m going to try and find them,” Mason told the director. He and Tammy continued looking through old paper records without results.

In the last couple of years, Mason saw ancestry shows on television where people found relatives through DNA analysis. In October 2017, Mason had a DNA analysis on Ancestry.

On Dec. 27, Mason got his results by email, and found that he was Irish, English and Scandinavian.

To find relatives on Ancestry, one must join. Mason took the plunge and joined, and found three people who were related by blood. They were second cousins from both sides of his birth family.

He sent those people a message through Ancestry and waited for them to contact him. On his way to a basketball game, one called.

In February 2018, they hit the jackpot. His second cousin, Bridgette, helped Mason find Margaret Eloise Jordan’s burial place in Montgomery, Ala. They contacted the cemetery for information on who had placed the plaque.

“The connection hit,” Mason said. He was given the phone number of his youngest half-brother, Richard Smith, whom Mason called right away.

Mason said that there is no easy way to tell Smith but to clearly state that he thought he was related to him.

“He’s in shock,” Mason said, after verifying their mother’s name and DOB were indeed the same.

Smith said there were 10 children on his birth mother’s side.

“That’s when we got shocked,” Tammy said, as this was on Mason’s mother’s side only.

Slowly, several of the siblings began calling. Ron’s older half-sister, Bunny, had met William Richard Stewart, Ron’s biological father, much to everyone’s surprise.

There were even pictures of Mason’s biological parents together. The couple had dated for a few years and then split up.

“We’re putting all of these puzzle pieces together and everything starts to fit,” Tammy said.

The Masons found biological father William Stewart’s obituary and saw that there were siblings on his biological dad’s side too.

On May 1, 2018, Mason received a phone call from his half-brother, Bill, Jr. on his dad’s side. They talked for an hour-and-a-half. Bill told Mason that they had never known they had another half-brother, and was certain their father had never known about Mason.

There were two siblings on his dad’s side, Bill and a half-sister, bringing the total to 12 siblings.

The Masons decided they were going to Montgomery, Ala. to meet all of the family in June, 2018.

“Everybody looked at me because I look just like my birth father,” Mason said.

Mason has visited both of his birth parent’s grave sites and saw the house where his mother lived, and visited the Stewart home in Greensboro, Ala. On his dad’s side, Bill and Beth played a tape of his father’s voice, so Mason heard his father speaking one time.

“After 62 years, he finds out he has got this huge family,” Tammy said. “I have to say they were so accepting and so nice.”

Finally, all of the pieces of Mason’s life’s puzzle have been put together.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Kansas House has approved GOP income tax relief proposals and a small cut in the state’s sales tax on groceries.

The vote Friday was 76-43 on a bill aimed at preventing individuals and businesses from paying more state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017. The measure also would drop the sales tax on groceries to 5.5 percent from 6.5 percent and includes provisions to increase tax collections from internet sales.

The Senate approved the bill last month but without the sales tax provisions. Senators expect to decide next week whether to accept the House’s changes or force negotiations.

GOP leaders contend the bill prevents a tax increase but Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said lawmakers should stabilize the budget first.

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