Lifting the Veil on Dangerous Prescribing

http://www.propublica.org/article/lifting-the-veil-on-dangerous-prescribing

From the article:

Federal officials were skeptical two years ago when ProPublica asked them to release a database of prescriptions written in Medicare’s landmark drug plan, known as Part D.

After months of high-level deliberation, CMS, to its credit, agreed to release the records — and to unveil one of medicine’s biggest secrets.

In examining the data, our reporters found powerful indications that Medicare has not done all it could to oversee its drug plan.

Some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens rely on this program — the elderly and disabled. We found that some doctors were prescribing antipsychotic drugs to large numbers of seniors — an age group for which such medicines are particularly hazardous. Others were writing unusually high numbers of prescriptions for painkillers and other dangerous drugs. Reporters systematically examined these cases, interviewing the doctors about their prescribing decisions. In some cases, they could explain their conduct. In others, they could not.

The story and online news application, called Prescriber Checkup, put a significant chunk of that information in the hands of the public. You will be able to review the prescription patterns of nearly 350,000 Medicare providers, including the most prolific, and see how they compare to others in the same specialty.

IMO.. this is just what we need.. more busy-bodies involved in medical decisions…

Filed under: General Problems