Senator acknowledges Healing Arts investigation

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Republican state Sen. Mark Steffen – a physician – acknowledged Wednesday that he was under investigation by the state’s medical board as he made the case for a bill that requires pharmacists to fill prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Addressing a packed committee room of supporters of the bill, Steffen said he had been investigated by the Board of Healing Arts without going into a lot of detail about the nature of what the panel was reviewing.

The Hutchinson lawmaker told the Senate health committee he had been under investigation for a year and a half as a way of trying to stop him from advocating for using off-label medications to treat COVID-19.

Mark Steffen

“They clearly have no interest in resolving it,” Steffen said. “They’re using it to hold over me. They think they’re going to silence me as I serve as state senator, and obviously that’s not working out for them.

“None of it is patient-based complaints. It’s all what I’ve said in the public and what I said as a county commissioner. I stand by everything I said. We’ve got board overreach that desperately needs to be put under control.”

After the meeting, Steffen – an anesthesiologist – called it an “ongoing investigation” and declined to comment further.

“I would love the Board of Healing Arts to have an open investigation. I would love to bring the data and have a real discussion,” Steffen said.

“What they’re relying on is empty broad-stroke brushes and a lack of scientific data,” he said. “I am happy to have a debate with them at any time.”

He acknowledge writing prescriptions for ivermectin, which the Food and Drug Administration says hasn’t been approved for preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals.

“Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe or effective for these indications,” the agency says.

Ivermectin, the FDA says, is approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.

The FDA also says that  hydroxychloroquine has not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19.

The agency says the drug is  being studied in clinical trials for COVID-19, and is authorized for temporary use during the pandemic for treatment of the virus in hospitalized patients when clinical trials are not available.

However, Steffen argues that physicians are wrongly being ostracized for turning to alternative treatments for COVID-19.

Steffen said doctors are being “intimidated, fired and professionally belittled over prescribing these medications in an attempt to help relieve suffering and prevent death.”

Amy Hogan, a family practice physician from Salina, told the committee she was notified by the Board of Healing Arts that she prescribed “dangerously high doses
of ivermectin”

She said she was turned in by a pharmacist from a Dillons in Salina. She called it “troubling.”

“Why would someone seek to ruin my good name? But immediately God’s peace beyond understanding came over me. Why? Because I knew I have done the right thing for the suffering people,” Hogan said.

“The best I can decipher, I was turned in for purely political reasons. This should
not be allowed. I can prescribe ivermectin for scabies without a question, but not
COVID? How does that make sense?”

Steffen’s bill, in its current form, gives civil liability immunity for health care providers and pharmacists who dispense ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

It also would prohibit the Board of Pharmacy from taking disciplinary action against a pharmacist for dispensing the drugs.

The bill also said it shall not be considered unprofessional conduct for a physician or a pharmacist to prescribe or recommend a treatment for COVID-19 that  is not backed by licensing boards, the state health department and the FDA.

Steffen has indicated the bill will change before the Senate health committee takes it up again next week.

Steffen plans to remove the liability protection for anyone who prescribes the drugs but will leave the immunity in place for pharmacists.

“I think that’s a dramatic change to the tone of the bill,” he said. “Nobody here is interested in circumventing liability so we will correct that right off the bat.”

The bill was opposed by Steve Stites, the chief medical officer for the University of Kansas Health System; Talal W. Khan, president of The University of Kansas Physicians; and Sam Antonios, chief clinical officer at Ascension Via Christi Health.

The bill “removes highly skilled and valued medical judgment and replaces it with inappropriate non-scientific mandates,” they said in written testimony.

“Kansas does not do this with any other prescription and we do not believe there is a need to ‘mandate’ pharmacists to take this action,” they wrote.

“We could not voice stronger opposition to actions such as mandating licensed professionals to act against their professional judgment and against their own licensing
standard,” they said.

Steffen criticized the academic medical establishment, saying those physicians answer to their employers not the patient. He singled out Stites for criticism.

“A lot of this propaganda and broad-sweeping statements are being made KU Health System-employed doctors such as Dr. Stites,” he said.

“What we see is  these doctor who are employees. They belong to their employer. They don’t answer to the patients any more. That’s been one of the big problems that’s led us down this problematic path,” he said.

“Dr. Stites is one of those doctors. He kind of serves as Kansas’ Dr. Fauci and I do think it’s very important that people understand that going forward.”