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Updated 8 hours ago
A Jeannette nurse practitioner at a home health care and hospice facility is accused of illegally writing 52 prescriptions for narcotic pain medication for five people, including her husband, according to North Huntingdon police.
Amy A. Busch, 49, wrote prescriptions for her husband, Regis P. Busch Jr., and four others at various times between June 2014 and March, according to the criminal complaint filed last week by township Detective Kirk Youngstead.
She was charged with five felony counts of drug delivery by a practitioner and five misdemeanor counts of furnishing false information.
Regis Busch Jr. allegedly received prescriptions for painkillers 30 times, and another person filled prescriptions 19 times; the remaining three people each filled one prescription, police said. The prescriptions were written for oxycodone, hydrocodone and dextroamphetamine, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Amy Busch was employed by Heartland Home Health Care and Hospice in North Huntingdon between June 2013 and May, according to the complaint. She no longer works for the company and did not write the prescriptions for their patients, said a spokeswoman at the company's corporate office in Toledo, Ohio.
While Busch was permitted to prescribe the narcotics by Heartland Hospice under the guidance of its physicians, the prescriptions were not authorized by any doctor, and the company has no record of the prescriptions, Youngstead wrote in the criminal complaint.
The prescriptions were obtained by Regis Busch Jr. and the others listed in the criminal complaint at four pharmacies, according to the complaint.
Youngstead stated a doctor's office tipped off police about one of their patients who was receiving narcotics from a nurse practitioner, who later was identified as Amy Busch.
She was arraigned Tuesday before North Huntingdon District Judge Wayne Gongaware and remains free on $50,000 unsecured bond, pending a preliminary hearing.
Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
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