Gov. Rick Scott under fire for ‘shabby’ personnel decisions

http://www.bradenton.com/2015/01/16/5584644_gov-rick-scott-under-fire-for.html?rh=1

Bailey was ordered to “retire or resign” by Scott’s general counsel, Pete Antonacci, who gave Bailey no reason for the action and, according to Bailey, claimed Scott was acting with the support of all three Cabinet members. FDLE is an independent agency that investigates state-level crime and corruption whose leader reports to Scott and three elected Cabinet members. It was created as a Cabinet agency to prevent undue political pressure or interference from any single elected official. 

“In order to terminate the head of a Cabinet agency, you need the governor or one other person or you need three votes,” Sink said. “The three Cabinet officers are independently elected and they need to start standing up and take responsibility for it. One of them had to agree to it.”

Besides Putnam, the others are Attorney General Pam Bondi, a self-proclaimed supporter of law enforcement, and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who promotes transparency in government.

Sink also questioned the legality of the action and said it should have been discussed at a public meeting. 

“It looks like the governor on his own decided he was going to fire Jerry Bailey, but you can’t do it that way,” Sink said. “The Florida way is, we have never politicized law enforcement. Maybe they do that in Louisiana where all those (Scott) staff people come from. Jerry Bailey had incredible respect and he didn’t have a political bone in his body.”

Relations between Scott’s office and FDLE deteriorated last year after Bailey and FDLE brass resisted what they saw as political interference in the agency by Scott advisers, including former counsel Antonacci and Melissa Sellers, who managed Scott’s re-election campaign and is now his chief of staff.

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Asset Forfeiture Drives Justice Department’s License Plate Tracking

http://www.newsweek.com/asset-forfeiture-drives-justice-departments-license-plate-tracking-302621

According to the newly uncovered documents, the primary goal of the program is to seize assets, such as cars and cash, to combat drug trafficking. But former and current officials told the Journal that the database’s use has expanded to hunt for automobiles associated with a slew of other crimes.

Asset forfeiture has been widely covered in the news in recent months after a Washington Post investigation showed that police have seized almost $2.5 billion in cash from drivers without search warrants or indictments since September 11, 2001. In April 2013, for example, two professional poker players had $100,000 seized by Iowa state troopers at a traffic stop on their drive home to California. The troopers had no warrant but suspected the men may be involved in drug trafficking.

Asset forfeitures often go toward paying for salaries, equipment and perks in many jurisdictions. The American Civil Liberties Union contends that, “when salaries and perks are on the line, officers have a strong incentive to increase the seizures, as evidenced by an increase in the regularity and size of such seizures in recent years.” Federally, it provides a stream of revenue.

Though Attorney General Eric Holder’s new policy to limit the practice was met with praise earlier this month, further analysis of the policy’s language shows the limits will only apply to a small number of cases, meaning the database can continue to be used for warrantless asset forfeitures.

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CVS Pharmacy to pay New Jersey $500,000 to settle dispute

http://www.providencejournal.com/news/courts/20150128-cvs-pharmacy-to-pay-new-jersey-500000-to-settle-dispute.ece

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This comment was sent to me – from one of my regular readers –  in regards to this post on my blog

Snowmageddon vs can’t fill your pain meds early

I just HAD to see what my pharmacy would say to this. I JUST called and asked what the protocol is for this? What should I do to protect myself if there was ever a weather emergency etc; The answer I just got was HORRIBLE. “Don’t worry about it, if it’s not happening”….WOW really? How fast can we pretend I didn’t ask that question. So I called another pharmacy…Not one I normally go to. The answer I got very so very helpful…He said, and I quote…..“You better pray this does not happen”……Steve add this to your website. I am sitting here FLOORED!

I know that most Pharmacist are pretty smart.. apparently the first one has apparently never watched the weather channel and all the natural disasters that they seems to report on weekly and the three NE states that just got around THREE FEET of  SNOW… this week..  NO NATURAL DISASTER HERE ? Maybe this Pharmacist has some supernatural powers to prevent natural disasters in a particular radius around him/her.. now I suspect that would be comforting to his/her pts..

And the second Pharmacist providing religious guidance … the scope of pharmacy practice sure has expanded in recent years… can’t wait to see the video of the chanting and the laying of the hands to help pts heal …

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Below are three comments made on this blog.. to me, each of these comments are disturbing… but the fact that all three comments were made within a 24 hr period…  is it extremely disturbing to me. Back in the 80’s and 90’s Pharmacists always showed up as the most respected profession.. the last survey I saw.. we are now down to FOURTH. According to one poster – who professes to be a pharmacy student – many of his/her fellow students are there because of the perceived “fat pay check”  Mistakes are a regular happening… I know that last placed I temped at for a number of years.. between the reduced Pharmacists hours and poorly trained techs.. errors got so routine that the Pharmacists stated to become jaded to them happening…  When we discovered a med error had occurred .. generally the discussion went …” what was the error “… “did it get out of the bldg ?”… “did it get to the pt ?”… “did the pt take the wrong med ?”…  “Is the pt ok ?” In the very end.. as long as there there was no harm to the pt…  the common thought was “no harm .. no foul …”  If you don’t call that jaded.. what do you call it..  IMO.. patient safety – especially in the retail/community setting – is not just on a slippery slope … it is in FREE FALL

It is my understanding that it is the pharmacist’s job to ensure that the environment is “safe” and if that means staffing to meet those needs then it is your obligation to do so. In my law class, my professor (the author of our state pharmacy law’s) told us a story about a pharmacist he knew that worked in an environment that was not staffed properly and he had repeatedly gone back to the corporate office telling them he needed more tech hours which they constantly ignored. So the error occurs, a patient dies, and now his license is on the line, and the board says to him that since he admitted he was “aware” of the unsafe working conditions and did nothing about it (as he is obligated to do) that falls under negligence and the pharmacist lost his license. It seems to me that if all of us CVS (and other big box retail) pharmacists would staff the way we feel is necessary, any sort of disciplinary action against us could be won in court ???

Mistakes happen on a semi regular basis. The pharmacists are just scared to report them knowing CVS has younger pharmacists just waiting on the sidelines to happily work for less. It is impossible to make a pharmacy function like a fast food drive thru and expect top notch care. Something has to give.

Old Tech I agree with you. You say a lot of valid points. I am a student right now and at least at my school they are teaching us not to chase the money and not to accept unsafe working conditions (or to go against our morals and ethics) for the high pay. Unfortunately the portion of graduates who decided to be a pharmacist only for the money are always going to be the ones who work for the big box pharmacies. You are right about the mistakes too, it is encouraged to sweep them under the rug, or if the pharmacist is making mistakes that threaten patients or break laws they are simply moved to another store (yeah that solves the problem) and don’t get me started about the ethics line.

Filed under: General Problems | 3 Comments »

Doctor arrested by DEA pleads not guilty

http://wishtv.com/2015/01/26/doctor-arrested-by-dea-pleads-not-guilty/

In July of 2013, the Centers for Pain Relief opened an office in Muncie, Indiana. This office was one of 12 locations in Indiana, with the remaining 11 in northern Indiana.

Geography must not be this reporters strong suit…  Muncie is abt 50 miles NE of Indianapolis… basically the center of the state and Fort Wayne is abt 60 miles North of Muncie… so if Muncie is nearly 200 miles from Indiana’s southern border.. total distance from southern to northern border is abt 250-275 miles.. so Muncie is NOT IN NORTHERN INDIANA ?

During the investigation, several former employees shared with investigators the fact they were concerned about the number of patients Hedrick had been seeing, his billing practices, the manner in which he would prescribe medication to his patients, and patient follow up care.

Could some of these FORMER (disgruntled ) EMPLOYEES be the ones that was doing the processing of the billing for the practice and they were so poorly trained, incompetent or intentionally miscoded some of the electronic/computer billing to Medicaid which this administrative billing errors are now viewed as fraudulent ?

Court documents also reveal the fact Gunderson-Watson saw these patients and prescribed the medications but someone else’s name was on the prescriptions, leading to three forgery and three registration charges for Gunderson-Watson.

Wasn’t the physician the supervising physician for the ARNP… so signatures on Rxs are material.. in Indiana.. a ARNP has the same limits on prescribing as the supervising physician.

In November, after the October raid at the Muncie clinic, all the locations of the Fort Wayne-based Indiana Pain Centers shut their doors, affecting an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 patients in northeast Indiana. Medical officials in Allen County and Fort Wayne called the influx of patients a community health crisis. Allen County Health Commissioner Dr. Deb McMahan warned that the community was maxed out and would be unable to absorb the large number of patients quickly.

So these law enforcement agencies.. INTENTIONALLY created a medical care crisis in these communities with seemingly little regard for the health and well being  of all these pts…   I suspect that there will be not documentation of suicides of the pts that were being seen by these clinics.. If someone contributes to the death of another person or contributes to their suicide… isn’t that ILLEGAL …

There I go again… law enforcement is only concerned about enforcing our laws… the collateral damage… of enforcing our laws… is none of their concern.

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DEA Designates Naloxegol as Schedule II Drug

http://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/treatments/pharmacological/opioids/dea-designates-naloxegol-schedule-ii-drug

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has designated naloxegol (Movantik) as a scheduled II controlled substance. Naloxegol was recently approved for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation and is part of a class of medications known as PAMORAs (Peripherally Acting Mu Opioid Receptor Antagonists). Other FDA agents in this category include alvimopan (Entereg) and methylnaltrexone (Relistor).

The DEA’s decision to schedule naloxegol in any category is disillusioned at best, and in the authors’ opinion, more likely a knee-jerk reaction to the recent high scrutiny attributable to the purported “opioid epidemic.” By comparison, consider that naloxone is a legend but non-scheduled drug and dextromethorphan is an over-the-counter non-scheduled drug—both are dehydroxylated phenanthrenes. Also consider that more and more states are allowing naloxone in various packaging to be dispensed without a prescription and that naloxegol is a PEGylated form of naloxone.

But perhaps most telling is that noroxymorphone has no analgesic or euphoric activity by the oral or IV routes, although admittedly does have agonist activity by intrathecal administration according to animal studies

The Intrathecal route is the SPINAL FLUID in the spinal column… anything injected into this fluid MUST BE both sterile and preservative free.. otherwise there is at least the risk of spinal meningitis…. resulting in paralysis and maybe death. How many addicts are going to be able to develop the technique and adequate equipment to be able to inject into a spinal column ?

Don’t tell anyone at the DEA… but.. it is reported that some people have gotten “high” inhaling the gas/propellant from Readi-Wip Cream cans..

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Snowmageddon 2015: Survival Tips From America’s Top Preparedness Experts

 http://www.inquisitr.com/1790125/snowmageddon-2015-survival-tips-from-americas-top-preparedness-experts/#uGiVe4VFPD3mCcIC.99

This is where the “rubber meets the road” and/or the “round brown smelling stuff hits the fan ”

with all of these “you must wait until you are out of your pain meds before I will refill them ” So now we have millions of people without electricity, heat, all the roads and subways are shutdown. How many pharmacies or stores with pharmacies are going to be open.  Will wholesalers or company warehouses even going to be able to delivery for days.

The only pain meds that a prescriber could call in is Tramadol,  Tylenol c Cod.. for someone in mod-severe pain.. the Tramadol is probably virtually worthless and how long will a store’s inventory of Tylenol c Cod going to last.

The area affected is some of the most densely populated area in the country.. as many as 15%-20% of the ENTIRE COUNTRY’S population could be adversely affected by this..

Let’s do the math… using a round figure of  50 million people being affected and 1/3 of them are chronic painers … we are now down to 17 million and roughly 3% are going to run out of their meds every day.. so we are down to a 500,000 chronic pain pts taking their last dose of pain meds EVERY DAY.. they can’t get their pain meds filled because of this natural disaster.. Each one within 24 hrs of starting into withdrawal… Don’t forget they don’t have any electricity or heat..  So now they have to try to keep warm, deal with elevated and untreated pain while dealing with withdrawal symptoms ramping up.

I hope that everyone is happy that you made these chronic pain people not have any spare doses or refill a couple of days early.. I guess those professionals that recommend that you have a 7 days “emergency supply” on hand..  are totally clueless about how that does not apply to those in chronic pain or some other subjective diseases and require controlled meds to maintain some quality of life …

BE WELL … BECAUSE YOUR HEALTH IS EVERYTHING !

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HSC pain center lowers state opioid abuse

http://www.dailylobo.com/article/2015/01/2015-01-26-nm-opioid-use-down

A new study released by the UNM Pain Consultation and Treatment Center shows that a new state-mandated training program for doctors and clinicians is resulting in significantly fewer opioid painkillers being prescribed to patients, which has led to less addiction and fewer overdoses.

Area 51 is in NEVADA… maybe some of those “visitors” have moved to NM.. to help solve some of our major social issues ?

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FOIA Documents Reveal Massive DEA Program to Record American’s Whereabouts With License Plate Readers

The DEA is currently operating a National License Plate Recognition initiative that connects DEA license plate readers with those of other law enforcement agencies around the country. A Washington Post headline proclaimed in February 2014 that the Department of Homeland Security had cancelled its “national license-plate tracking plan,” but all that was ended was one Immigrations and Customs Enforcement solicitation for proposals. In fact, a government-run national license plate tracking program already exists, housed within the DEA. (That’s in addition to the corporate license plate tracking database run by Vigilant Solutions, holding billions of records about our movements.) Since its inception in 2008, the DEA has provided limited information to the public on the program’s goals, capabilities and policies. Information has trickled out over the years, in testimony here or there. But far too little is still known about this program.

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