Court to hear cases of docs convicted in pain pill schemes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear appeals from two doctors who were convicted of illegally distributing pain medication after writing thousands of prescriptions in short periods. The court will take up the case of Xiulu Ruan of Mobile, Alabama, and Shakeel Kahn, who practiced medicine in Ft. Mohave, Arizona, and Casper, Wyoming. One of Kahn’s patients died of an overdose. Prosecutors said Kahn nearly 15,000 prescriptions for controlled substances over six years, totaling nearly 2.2 million pills and of which nearly half were the opioid oxycodone. Investigators said Ruan and a partner wrote 66,892 prescriptions in 2014.