This showed up in a post on the internet… we, in healthcare,  are all about caring for pts.. especially Pharmacists… who apparently determines if a Rx is medically necessary by geography.

My wonderful Obamacare insurance plan (Being sarcastic, it is terrible) creates a situation where the closest urologist that participates in my plan is two counties away. I am given a script for pain meds (Kidney stones again. Perhaps from the large doses of chemo). !st problem, I need to go for a scan and sonogram to determine if they could pass on their own. If not, as has been the case before due to size, I would need minor surgery. With a 5k deductible I am pretty much screwed. 2nd problem. I called my pain doctor and was told it would be OK to fill the rx and take. I went to the local drug stores and was turned away because the doctor is not in the county I live. This “system”they came up with is wrong both logistically and morally on so many levels.

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Experts: Officials missed signs of prescription drug crackdown’s effect on heroin use

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/experts-officials-missed-signs-of-prescription-drug-crackdowns-effect-on-heroin-use/2014/03/06/2216414a-9fc1-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html

From the article:

From the beginning, the U.S. government’s decade-long crackdown on prescription drug abuse has run an unsettling risk: that arresting doctors and shuttering “pill mills” would inadvertently fuel a new epidemic of heroin use.

Gil Kerlikowske, who took over as President Obama’s drug czar in 2009, said the connection between prescription drugs and heroin “was not on the radar screen” during most of Obama’s first term and that he “didn’t do everything I should have” to raise awareness of the growing heroin problem. Now, he said, heroin is a “much larger concern.”

Justice Department officials reject any direct linkage between the crackdown on prescription drugs and rising heroin use, although it was a Justice Department unit — the National Drug Intelligence Center — that warned that the campaign against illegal use of prescription drugs was fueling heroin use. The center, which closed in 2012, was separate from the unit employing prosecutors and agents who fight drug use.

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http://m.painmedicinenews.com/Article.aspx?ses=ogst&d=PRN&d_id=86&i=September+2014&i_id=1100&a_id=28114

DEA investigates (drags reputation thru the mud ) president-elect of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) for three years

This dark shadow hung over us for four years, and we had no way of knowing when—or even if—it would end. My attorney told me that there is usually no notice of an end to such an investigation. It can linger for the rest of your life, leaving suspicion of possible wrongdoing. I was always confident that our clinic had complied with the law and did the right thing. But, these days, that doesn’t protect anyone from an allegation of wrongdoing. So, we are thankful that a period was placed at the end of our story, allowing all of us from the clinic to move forward

Recently, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah declined to pursue charges, effectively ending the investigation. Pain Medicine News spoke with Dr. Webster, now immediate past-president of the AAPM, about his four-year ordeal.

Is this just another example of DEA/law enforcement “jumping to conclusions” and then taking three yrs trying to prove their supposition(s) is fact..

From a person that spend a month in jail   Woman Spends A Month In Jail After Cops Mistake SpaghettiOs For Meth

DEA & Shorewood Cops Raid Woman’s Home After She Shops at Indoor Garden Center and buys organize fertilizer

Okra mistaken for marijuana during pot search

Where these people in law enforcement is digging up the PROBABLY CAUSE … that should proceed an investigation…

what are they using to determine what is a valid probable cause – a MAGIC 8 BALL ?

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Civil Forfeiture is the “bread and butter” of how law enforcement “pads” their coffers

http://www.usmarshals.gov/assets/sales.htm   need a nice 12 passenger jet , a nice Mercedes or equipment to start your own restaurant ?

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Press releases of the various DEA offices.. THIS YEAR …  previous years can be found here http://www.justice.gov/dea/pr/news.shtml

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SEP 17 (SAN DIEGO)

Nine people are in custody following DEA’s takedown of Operation Shattered Dreams. Warrants served in San Diego, Spring Valley, Chula Vista, and El Cajon are the conclusion of a year-long undercover drug operation. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) served numerous search warrants from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, which resulted in the seizure of multiple active Butane Hash Oil Laboratories. There was a large quantity of Hash Oil seized, along with over $25,000.00 in U.S. currency, an assault rifle, along with marijuana necessary to make Hash Oil, and Hash Oil packaged for sale. One gram of Hash Oil sells for $40.00 to $80.00 making the trafficking of Hash Oil extremely profitable.

READ MORE

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http://www.noon46.com/

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/07/compounding-pharmacy-recalls-inspections-contamination/16472741/

Safety, sanitary problems prompt scores of drug recalls

From the article:

The infection came out of nowhere, 36 hours after Eloise Soler’s heart surgery last summer at the Corpus Christi Medical Center in South Texas. As her fever spiked to 103, other patients developed similar symptoms. Doctors raced to pinpoint the cause.

Tests showed that all of the patients had been sickened by the same bacteria, Rhodococcus equi, which typically infects horses and other grazing animals, and they all fell ill after infusions of the same drug, calcium gluconate.

The drug was made 200 miles away by Specialty Compounding, which sits in a category of pharmacies that mix unique or hard-to-find drugs not only for individual patients, but also in batches for doctors and hospitals. By the time the company recalled the medication days later, investigators believed it had sickened at least 15 people; two had died.

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This was posted on the web by a chronic pain pt in Florida…

Walgreens new policy on dilaudid…….I just got off the phone with the Walgreens I fill my monthly script at. They told me thay have a new policy, which started last week, for dilaudid (I don’t know if it is for all schedule 2s but I would imagine so) in which you need to bring a copy of your pain mngt contract, treatment plan and proof of drug test in the last 6 months. This is required to fill the prescription. The alternative is to fill elsewhere. Seriously????? I can’t fill even fill it until Thursday so I am trying to comply (I prefer to stay with the same pharmacy if I can ) but I am speechless. So if anyone else is planning to fill at a Walgreens I suggest you call first so you are not turned away with a list of instructions.

What does a pt to do .. if they don’t have a pain contract…a lot of pts are being treated their PCP and not being seen by pain specialist. My wife has been on various opiates for her chronic pain for nearly 20 yrs and our PCP has never required a pain contract and/or urine test.

So is Walgreens going to start ordering urine tests on pts ?  I thought that only prescribers had that authority in the community setting… Many of these chronic pain pts are on Medicare disability and have limited financial resources… So Walgreens is going to force an additional cost on these pts that are most likely already financially strapped.

Isn’t this policy just over-riding or interfering with the Pharmacist’s professional discretion.. Is it practicing pharmacy.. which the permit holder is not licensed to do ?

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Our commitment to ethics and human rights is reflected in our policies and how we do business

http://www.cvshealth.com/about-us/corporate-responsibility/ethics-human-rights

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