$7 million awarded to family of man who killed himself after pain medication denied

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https://www.wdrb.com/news/7-million-awarded-to-family-of-man-who-killed-himself-after-pain-medication-denied/article_92db6b14-09c0-11ec-b39b-7b711a46b1c7.html

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A lawsuit blamed a man’s suicide on a St. Matthews pain clinic, and a jury agreed.

On Sept. 18, 2017, Brent Slone texted this message to his wife: “they denied script im done love you”. Thirty minutes later, he killed himself.

According to the lawsuit filed against Commonwealth Pain and Spine in Jefferson Circuit Court, Slone’s suicide could have been prevented.

The jury’s verdict awards Slone’s family $6,925,000, including $3,000,000 specifically for his daughter. The lawsuit, filed in 2018, said Slone was involved in a car crash in 2011 that left him with significant injuries. After surgery, he entered an inpatient recovery center in San Diego, California, where he was prescribed oxycodone and oxycontin.

While visiting Louisville, Slone went to the emergency room at Baptist Health for a dislocated hip and ulcer. He was prescribed a small amount of pain medication, as he had run out of the prescription from the San Diego clinic, and was advised to follow up with Commonwealth Pain and Spine. According to the suit, after he was discharged, he called Commonwealth Pain and Spine and requested a “bridge prescription.”

The suit claims that Commonwealth Pain and Spine cut Slone’s prescription by 55% from what he was receiving from the San Diego clinic. The suit says that notes from the clinic indicated that Dr. Stephen Young said he “needed to see the records from this facility in California.” Later that day, the suit says Slone faxed the documentation to Commonwealth Pain and Spine. To learn more, you can get valuable information from an experienced lawyer. To dig deeper into this topic, feel free to read her explanation.

However, Young still refused to fill the prescription, because, according to call log notes, the documentation was from July, and there had been no communication since that time. Slone was advised that he would need to wait for six days for his appointment.

Slone killed himself a few hours later.

In a social media post, attorney Hans Poppe said the verdict is to “punish and deter them and others from similar conduct in the future.” 

https://www.mypainsolution.com/

At Commonwealth Pain & Spine, run-of-the-mill care simply doesn’t cut it for the practice’s team of experienced, highly skilled pain management physicians. With 12 conveniently located

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If the state you live in comes up with this “loony idea” … DON’T PATRONIZE ANY PHARMACY that is advertising that they are doing this… BECAUSE they could have one or more COVID-19 POSITIVE PTS sitting around in their pharmacy for 90+ minutes. Monoclonal antibodies is passive antibodies to treat ACTIVE COVID-19 PTS.  Regardless of your vaccination status… this is probably not a place that you want to be, especially while pts are receiving COVID-19 treatment or shortly after they have left.

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CDC’s ‘inclusive’ language guide discourages saying ‘alcoholic,’ ‘smoker,’ ‘uninsured,’ ‘elderly’

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cdc-publishes-guide-for-inclusive-language-to-encourage-health-equity

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a guide to “inclusive language” in order to promote “health equity” and “inclusive communication.”

“Language in communication products should reflect and speak to the needs of people in the audience of focus.,” the CDC guide reads.

The guide has multiple sections with suggestions for more inclusive language, including a section dedicated to “Corrections & Detentions” that suggests replacing terms such as “Inmate,” “Prisoner,” “Convict/ex-convict,” and “Criminal” with terms such as “People/persons,” “Persons in pre-trial or with charge,” “Persons on parole or probation,” or “People in immigration detention facilities.”

Other sections in the guide include “Disability,” “Drug/Substance Abuse,” “Healthcare Access & Access to Services and Resources,” “Homelessness,” “Lower Socioeconomic Status,” “Mental Health / Behavioral Health,” “Non-U.S.-born Persons / Immigration Status,” “Older Adults,” “People Who are at Increased / Higher Risk,” “Race & Ethnicity,” “Rural,” and “Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity,” all which suggests replacement terms for common language typically used to refer to the groups.

“These terms are vague and imply that the condition is inherent to the group rather than the actual causal factors,” the guide explains. “Consider using terms and language that focus on the systems in place and explain why and/or how some groups are more affected than others. Also try to use language that explains the effect (i.e., words such as impact and burden are also vague and should be explained).”

The guide also encourages people not to use “dehumanizing language” language, instead insisting that “person-first language” be used in its place.

“Consider the context and the audience to determine if language used could potentially lead to negative assumptions, stereotyping, stigmatization, or blame,” the guide says. “However, these terms may be appropriate in some instances.”

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Independent pharmacists sound the alarm on Surescripts, GoodRx partnership

https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/independent-pharmacists-sound-alarm-surescripts-goodrx-partnership

Some pharmacists are pushing back on Surescripts’ partnership with GoodRx, arguing the deal will hurt independent pharmacies and further obscure the high cost of drugs.

“The deal was touted as a move towards transparency; when in fact, coupon programs are bought and paid for by the same PBM [pharmacy benefit manager]-based, opaque pricing schema the deal claims to upend,” wrote a group of pharmacists and pharmacy owners in a letter to Surescripts’ board obtained by MedCity News.

The partnership between the health data giant and GoodRx, announced earlier this month, would integrate GoodRx’s discount information into Surescripts’ platform that allows prescribing physicians to see the drug’s cost for their patients. GoodRx’s negotiated discounts would only appear for the uninsured or patients whose price information isn’t already available from their PBM or insurer, the companies said.

“We are always looking for ways to increase prescription price transparency and affordability for more Americans, so we are excited to work with Surescripts to arm prescribers with the tools and information they need to choose medications that are both accessible and clinically appropriate,” Doug Hirsch, co-CEO and co-founder of GoodRx, said in a statement when the deal was announced.

In their letter, the pharmacists said GoodRx only displays prices for their pharmacy partners, which would leave out independent pharmacies. The pharmacists also argued the drug coupon app’s business model works within a system that obscures the high cost of drugs.

“If coupons did not exist, we would motivate further innovation around pricing and pricing reform,” they wrote. “In a coupon-free world, market forces would drive the pharmacy charging $268 for rosuvastatin (which costs $0.03/pill) down to a reasonable amount or suffer extinction.”

WHY IT MATTERS

Drug costs have become a huge policy issue in the U.S. Between 2019 and 2020, retail prices for 260 widely used brand name prescription drugs rose by 2.9%, more than two times faster than inflation, according to a report by the AARP.

A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis published in July found nearly 3 million Medicare Part D enrollees had out-of-pocket drug spending above the catastrophic level between 2015 and 2019.

Earlier this month, the White House called on Congress to reduce drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries by allowing Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers, limiting price increases to inflation and capping beneficiaries’ yearly out-of-pocket spending to around $3,000.

“And by the way, it isn’t just seniors who will benefit. This would lower prescription drug prices for all Americans,” said President Joe Biden in a press briefing. “And here’s how: If Medicare prices are available to private insurance companies, then it would reduce the cost of employer-based health insurance coverage.”

THE LARGER TREND

GoodRx, founded in 2011, filed documents to go public about a year ago. 

In March, GoodRx announced its first full-year earnings since becoming a publicly traded company. It brought in $550.7 million in revenue in 2020, a 42% increase from the year before. The company did lose $298.3 million in GAAP net income in Q4 alone and $293.6 million for FY2020, which GoodRx attributed to expenses related to its IPO.

For this year’s Q1, GoodRx reported first-quarter revenue growth of 20% year-over-year to $160.4 million, only slightly missing expectations. 

The company has also been picking up acquisitions, including prescription price transparency company RxSaver in May and health education video producer HealthiNation in April.

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I am so sorry for the nearly 200 people that were killed by the Taliban and/or Isis-K  (including 13 of our military – the majority being in their early 20’s) in the middle east and the first military deaths in 15 months for our military in that area.  It had been wall to wall media coverage for the last 48 hrs and unknown how many hours going forward.

It is claimed that nearly TWICE AS MANY veterans commit suicide EVERY DAY and I have read where that number was derived from just 25 states data – so it could actually be twice as high.  At least 8600 veterans it is claimed to have commit suicide every year. That is about FOUR TIMES the total number of military deaths in the TWENTY YEARS that we were at war in Afghanistan.

We don’t know how many chronic pain pts have committed suicide and/or died prematurely because of having their pain meds reduced/eliminated and the complications of their comorbidity health issues very underlying causes of their premature deaths.

I guess what we – as a country – get these young people to volunteer to service in our military and we use/abuse them in defending our freedom and once their bodies are bent/broken… we provide, at best, poor medical care to these veterans, leaving them to themselves to deal with their chronic pain, PTSD and other chronic health issues to pretty much deal with on their own.

We are at – and have been at the war on drugs for 50+ yrs… I guess all wars have causalities.  Many of the causalities, in the war on drug, seems to be very INTENTIONAL.

Should the DOJ/DEA, CDC and VA healthcare system be considered/declared as TERRORISTS ?

What about Sen Marchin, that have been trying to put a opiate tax on opiate Rxs since 2016 https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/clinton-backs-manchin-plan-to-tax-opioids/

and again this year, Manchin and 11 other Senators are at the tax opiate Rx “well”  https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/the-opioids-crisis-dont-tax-pain-patients-to-treat-opioid-addiction/

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Find food assistance, help paying bills, and other free or reduced cost programs, including new programs for the COVID-19 pandemic

https://www.findhelp.org/

https://www.needhelppayingbills.com/

https://grantsforseniors.org/

https://www.rxassist.org/

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CALL TO ACTION: OKlahoma Independent pharmacists!!! (If I tagged you please share with your network of pharmacists!) I heard a great quote from Greg Reybold, “Everyone wants to fight until it is time to fight.” Well…. OKlahoma independent pharmacists now is as good of a time as any to get in this fight. PBMs are winning the fight in OKlahoma, and we need your help to turn the tide. We need your help

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