Help could be on the way for Florida’s pain patients

http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/health/2015/02/17/help-could-be-on-the-way-for-floridas-pain-patients/23570407/

New Port Richey, Florida – 10 News is digging deeper to get relief for those of you living in pain who are turned away from Bay area pharmacies. In some cases it’s happening even though you have a valid prescription from a reputable doctor.

William Petys of New Port Richey is disabled after a work-related injury and a motorcycle accident on his Harley Davidson. The pain is so intense that the married father of one can’t function without the Percocet painkiller his doctor prescribes for the five or six herniated discs. He suffers from constant back and hip pain. He describes the pain as if someone has thrust a knife in his back.

He says, “Think about the worst toothache you ever had and live that for the rest of your life that’s what it amounts to.”

Petys says his medicine helps. “When I’m on the pain medication I can actually function a little bit.”

He believes Florida’s crackdown on pill mills has gone too far. Fewer doctors and pharmacies are filling prescriptions for pain medication so now it’s hard for legitimate patients to get the prescription. He says part of the problem is you can’t call a pharmacy and ask if it has the medication in stock: They won’t tell you. Pharmacists also won’t tell you if one of their own pharmacies nearby has the medicine.

Petys kept details logged in a note showing that in in one month alone he drove to nearly 40 different pharmacies to try to get one prescription filled. After trying all his neighborhood pharmacies he was turned away from other Bay area pharmacies in Palm Harbor that had the medicine but refused to fill it saying he was “out of their area.”

LEARN MORE:Bilirakis statement on prescription problems

When he finally found a pharmacy that would fill the prescription, but was told it would four hours. He says when he went back the next month to have his pain prescription filled he was told it would take 24 hours.

ONE SOLUTION:Pew endorses work to reduce drug abuse

10 News went to U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis who says he is aware of the problem and is working to resolve it. He says, “My staff has engaged local stakeholders such as law enforcement, pharmacies, individual physicians and the DEA to help facilitate dialogue and solve the needs of the specific patient. Anyone experiencing this problem is welcome to contact a caseworker in my office so that we can assist.”

The phone number for Bilirakis is (727) 232-2921.

Petys, in the meantime, wants the state to consider creating a database that lists the names of legitimate pain patients. He says it should allow patients to go to their nearest pharmacist to find out who has the medication they need.

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Minnesota Man Spends Months in Prison After Cops Mistake His Vitamins for Drugs

https://news.vice.com/article/minnesota-man-spends-months-in-prison-after-cops-mistake-his-vitamins-for-drugs

A Minnesota man was freed and charges against him dropped after crime lab results determined that the drugs he was arrested for carrying were in fact legal vitamins.

Joseph Burrell, 31, was driving out of a supermarket parking lot on November 14 when police pulled him over for driving without his lights on, the Mankato Free Press reported.

After searching Burrell’s car, officers found a half-ounce bag of suspicious powder that they said tested positive for amphetamine in a preliminary field test. Police said a warrant was also out for Burrell’s arrest; it was issued after he failed to appear in court on an earlier charge of fleeing police on foot.

Burrell admitted to officers that he had previously used drugs, but insisted that he was clean. He said he had been prescribed the vitamin powder to help treat a chronically sore shoulder. Despite his protestation, police arrested him and charged him with two counts of felony possession of drugs.

It reportedly took a month for authorities to send the powder into testing, and another month before the results were relayed to police. Burrell remained in jail the entire time. Once the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension crime lab conducted a more thorough testing, results showed the powder contained legal over-the-counter vitamins and police dropped the charges against Burrell on February 4.

“I had been sitting in the jail since November with my bail set at $250,000,” Burrell told the Free Press. “Then, two days before trial, they dropped the charges and let me go.”

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DEA responds after patients denied prescription pain meds

http://www.wesh.com/health/tuesday-at-6-dea-responds-after-patients-denied-prescriptions/31297622

http://www.wesh.com/health/full-interview-bondi-responds-to-patients-who-cant-get-prescriptions/31298908

http://www.wesh.com/health/dea-responds-why-cant-patients-get-pain-medication/31300718

http://www.wesh.com/health/dea-responds-who-is-to-blame-for-prescription-issues/31300524

http://www.wesh.com/health/dea-responds-what-should-patients-do-who-cant-get-prescriptions/31300702

This is follow up report by Matt Grant WESH Channel 2 in Orlando.. I  could not find a link to embed them into the post.. some raw footage with AG Pam Bondi .. and a DEA agent.. what does all of this video footage have in common ?… they all threw Pharmacists under the bus.. NO ONE is telling the Pharmacist to fill/ not fill Rxs.. they are the educated professional..  I suspect that both were lying.. because THEIR LIPS WERE MOVING…

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Troubleshooter investigates Hope Mills CVS Pharmacy mistakes

http://abc11.com/health/troubleshooter-investigates-pharmacy-mistakes-/520286/

When it comes to the mistakes with Kimberleigh’s prescription, CVS released this statement:

“The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to ensure prescription safety. Prescription errors are a very rare occurrence, but if one does happen we determine what happened in order to prevent it from occurring again. We have extended our sincere apologies to the Segui family for the incidents last December and January at our Hope Mills pharmacy. Our district pharmacy supervisor spoke with the family and Kimberleigh’s doctor, and we have taken corrective action at the pharmacy to help ensure that prescriptions are dispensed safely and accurately.”

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CVS Joins Express Scripts in Targeting New Cholesterol Drugs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-17/cvs-joins-express-scripts-in-targeting-new-cholesterol-drugs

Express Scripts has about 30 percent of the U.S. pharmacy benefits management market, and CVS about 27 percent, according to Robyn Karnauskas, an analyst with Deutsche Bank.

(Bloomberg) — CVS Health Corp., the second-biggest manager of prescription drug benefits in the U.S., will make a new class of injectable cholesterol treatments its next major target to push back against high drug costs.

The drugs, called PCSK9 inhibitors, belong to an experimental class of medicines under development by Amgen Inc., Pfizer Inc., and Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. They can cut levels of LDL, or bad, cholesterol dramatically, benefiting people who can’t take other cholesterol medicines or who can’t get their levels low enough.

They may also cost $7,000 to $12,000 a year and patients could be on them for life, adding significant expense to the medical system, CVS executives warned.

When two players that control > 50% of a market.. agree on how things are going to be done.. isn’t that SORT OF a COLLUSION ?

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Pharmacy Mix-Up Led to Girl’s Hallucinations: Family

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Family-Says-12-Year-Old-Hallucinated-After-Wrong-Prescription-Given-292162641.html

A 12-year-old girl experienced bizarre hallucinations after being given a powerful sleeping pill instead of her prescribed antibiotics from a Southern California pharmacy, her mother claims.

Family members have filed an initial claim against CVS in Corona, the first step toward a lawsuit, for what they call complete negligence.

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Subcommittee Hearing – More Than 1,000 Preventable Deaths a Day Is Too Many: The Need to Improve Patient Safety

http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=478e8a35-5056-a032-52f8-a65f8bd0e5ef

listen to video on above link…

And they claim that 40 odd people dying every day from a drug overdose was a epidemic ?

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State Sets Record for Tourism Four Years in a Row

“This is a great day, 97.3 million tourists. I’ll look forward to passing one hundred million tourists,” said Governor Rick Scott.

Governor Rick Scott announced Monday this is the fourth consecutive record year for tourism in Florida.

“When you think about that, every 85 tourists is a job. But when tourists come down here, not only do they say we have great weather, we have a low crime rate, they want to buy a house, they want to move their businesses down here. It’s still driving our economy,” said Governor Scott.

http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/Fourth-Consecutive-Record-Year-for-Florida-Tourism-292136561.html

Florida Bill Would Help Stop Federal License Plate Tracking Program

http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2015/02/florida-bill-would-help-stop-federal-license-plate-tracking-program/

A wide-ranging privacy bill introduced in the Florida House would prohibit the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) without a warrant in most cases, and further ban retention of any legally-collected data, effectively blocking a federal program tracking millions of cars partly by tapping into ALPRs on a state-level.

Rep. Ray Rodrigues (R-Ft. Myers) introduced H0571 on Feb. 3. The legislation addresses several privacy issues, including the use of automatic license plate readers.  These ALPR systems store photographs, the license plate numbers, and the date, time, and location of vehicles. A single scanner can capture hundreds of license plate numbers in a matter of hours.

In Florida there are four types of people:

The “locals” that are part of the “good ole boy network”

The “Yankees”, those come down from up north to Florida, drop a wad of cash and go back up north… and guess who makes it possible for the “locals” not having to pay a state income tax ?

The “STUPID YANKEES”, they come down, buy some of our over priced real estate and rent it to the “YANKEES” and they can’t homestead their property because they are not a resident and they can’t vote…  guess who pays the most in taxes ?

The “DAMN YANKEES”, those that come down from up north and STAYS

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Police Officially Refuse To Hire Applicants With High IQ Scores

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/04/police-officially-refuse-to-hire-applicants-with-high-iq-scores/

Many have suspected it, but now it appears to be official: police departments refuse to hire applicants with high IQ scores.

Critics of law enforcement have long suggested that police officers tend to be selected for their lack of critical thinking, but news that department hiring processes officially disqualify high-scoring applicants might still come as a shock to many.

While a rare exception to the rule might slip through the cracks, if you are too smart, police departments simply won’t hire you.

This policy became solidified in a federal ruling dating back almost a decade and a half ago. The ruling came with little fanfare from the mainstream, corporate media, who didn’t apparent find it to be newsworthy.

In 1999, a Federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by an applicant to the New London, Connecticut police department who was barred from being hired after successfully taking the intelligence portion of the police examinations. The disqualification came because he had scored “too high” on the test. The New London Police Department made it clear that they did not want the “bottom of the barrel” when it came to intelligence, but they also didn’t want anyone who was “too smart” either.

This little-known ruling was made public back in September of the same year. Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven, Connecticut confirmed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, 48, who holds a bachelor’s degree in literature, had been denied an opportunity to even interview for a job with the department, for no reason other than his high test scores.

Judge Dorsey ruled in favor of the department, saying that Mr. Jordan was offered no protection under the law in this case. There is no legal protection given to intelligent people from discriminatory hiring practices by individual police departments, Dorsey explained. The judge continued, explaining that police departments held all applicants to this same standard and thus they rejected all applicants who scored high. As a result, this could not be held as discriminatory in nature.

The next time you cross paths with a law enforcement officer and wonder how anyone so stupid managed to get hired by their department, now you know that this stupidity might in fact be the very thing that qualified them for the job.

(Article by Jackson Marciana; editing and contributions to this report by Arman B.)

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Is the ACA treating America without informed consent?

http://drugtopics.modernmedicine.com/drug-topics/news/aca-treating-america-without-informed-consent

Robert L. Mabee is a pharmacist and attorney practicing in Sioux Falls, S.D. He also holds an MBA. Contact him at rlmabee@mabeelaw.com.

In the practice of medicine, informed consent is essential. Before treating a patient, the provider must make sure the patient understands what is going to be done and consents to the treatment. Failure to obtain informed consent is a basis for a claim of negligence as medical malpractice. Lying to a patient or intentionally misleading a patient is gross negligence in many jurisdictions and might be the basis for criminal charges.

The case can be made that the ACA was passed without the informed consent of voters because their legislators were misled. While some naïve supporters in the Congress and Senate freely admitted they had never even read the act or the regulations before voting for it, in fact there is evidence to suggest that they were systematically and intentionally misled. Such conduct could constitute gross negligence.

Is a Pharmacist lying or misleading a patient about the availability of a specific medication.. either in stock or not, on order or not, unavailable from the manufacturer or not.. Is that a basis for CRIMINAL CHARGES ?

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