“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey
passionate pachyderms
Pharmacist Steve steve@steveariens.com 502.938.2414
, and he seems to be on the up and up. Although reporters have screwed us over in the past maybe give this guy a chance and see what becomes of his article.
Please understand, I offer no promises as for all I know he is just another troll so please use common sense in talking with him. Also, make damned certain everything you share can be backed up with FACTS. It is only with TRUTH that these asinine policies will be exposed.
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From:
Greer Brigham
I am a journalist affiliated with Brown University, and I’ve spent the last year covering the impact of the VA’s Opioid Safety Initiative on veterans. My article highlights new data showing a very sharp spike in street drug and suicide deaths for those that lost their opioid prescriptions under the VA initiative.
While I have the data, I believe it’s equally important to share some of the faces and stories of people who were affected. If you are a friend or family member of a veteran who has passed away as a result of these VA cuts to opioid prescriptions — or know of others who may be open to speaking with me — please send me a message. Thank you.
For those of you who are not following what is going on after the “activity” at the capital bldg. Face Book, Twitter, Instagram have cancelled/deleted President Trump’s accounts. Section 230 was passed by Congress to exempt – what has become the big tech companies – an exemption from lawsuit because they were suppose to provide a uncensored medium … unlike newspapers, magazines and the like who can be held liable for what is published in their product.
One “talking head” on TV this AM stated that he now has 60,000 fewer followers over the last few days. Face Book shut down the websitehttps://www.walkawaycampaign.com/ and closed out the accounts of people associated with the FB page.
The #WalkAway Campaign is a true grassroots movement, founded by former liberal, Brandon Straka on May 26th, 2018. The #WalkAway Campaign encourages and supports those on the Left to walk away from the divisive tenets endorsed and mandated by the Democratic Party of today.
Yesterday Parler https://www.parler.com/who started up a few months ago as a competitor to Twitter and once again was suppose to be a uncensored platform and yesterday Apple and Android took their app out of their app store and they were notified today that GOOGLE – which is the server farm (CLOUD) where Parler leased space in which they operated from… that Parler was being taken off of GOOGLE’S servers… basically terminating a business that has an estimated value of ONE BILLION DOLLARS.
I have seen very little out of the media about this and using the word COLLUSION… because COLLUSION is ILLEGAL in this country.
There has been many that have called for section 230 to be repealed and/or change that all those big tech companies in silicon valley are no longer covered by this section. Some are calling for the breakup of these large companies, it has happen before…. they broke up MA BELL’s monopoly in 1984.
How does this apply to those dealing with chronic health issues and being denied/limited the medications/therapies that they need? Congress gave the insurance industry in 1945 an exemption to The Sherman Antitrust Act by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarran%E2%80%93Ferguson_Act. At the time, it was seemingly a worth while exemption for the insurance industry. But the need for that exemption is no longer necessary, but the insurance/PBM industry have pushed this exemption way outside of the envelope of the law’s original intent. There has been numerous entities trying to get the McCarran Ferguson Act repealed since the late 80’s. I know of at least one Congressional session that it was included in HR1 – which always include the most important things that the House wants to take up for the opening Congressional session. Unfortunately, the insurance/PBM industry has one of the largest buckets of money for lobbying Congress to get bills passed or defeated.
Some in Congress may see the relationship between how the “boys” in silicon valley are acting with their monopoly and how the insurance/PBM industry is acting with their exemption from Sherman. If the community had a non profit with a “war chest” to lobby Congress, maybe members of Congress could be shown how to “connect the dots” between how these two different industries are using their monopolist position to screw with a large portion of the USA citizens.
Just remember if you keep trying to communicating and educating your members of Congress – via emails. faxes,phone calls – that there is a 40% chance that your member of Congress has a LAW DEGREE .. who is primarily interested in enforcing the laws and the DEA and the media keeps telling them that the opiate crisis is CAUSED by the prescribing of legal opiates. The CDC regurgitates stats that Tens of Thousands of people OD on “drugs” and implying that all their deaths were from Rx opiates. They don’t distinguish that abt 15,000 deaths are from bleed outs from the use/abuse of NSAID’s and the typical OD’s toxicology has 4-7 different substances, one typically being ALCOHOL and if there is a pharma grade opiate in toxicology ..there is only a very small percent that were legally obtained.
I expect with the new administration, that the cut to the opiate production quotas will be equal to or greater than any previous annual reductions. I read yesterday, that Veterinarians are having problems in getting adequate supplies of medication to treat animals for pain and/or surgery. We might even reach the point where we have to euthanize our fur babies because their time is up… we may have to return to the days when you just shot them in the back of the head… because enough meds will not be readily available for a humane euthanasia.
When ACA (Obamacare) was first passed, Part D prescriptions were suppose to be a 20%/80% split…the pt paid 20% and the part D paid 80% on prescriptions by 2020. What really happened… our Part D did not have a deductible in 2019 but instituted a $435 deductible in 2020… the deductible was more than the annual cost of premiums. In 2021, they have started no longer covering two of my medications and at least one of Barb’s and several more are now in higher tiers – higher copays. In 2020, I met my deductible in October. I had to pay premiums for 12 months and basically got some coverage for TWO MONTHS. If you think about it, meds that are now NOT COVERED, just results in a higher annual out of pocket costs for the pts.
By January 2021, hospitals must post online the rates they negotiate with individual health plans and rates for 300 “shoppable services.”
A hospital advocate has promised to challenge the new requirements in court.
A separate proposal would require health plans also to post rates negotiated with individual providers.
The Trump administration will require hospitals to post online the rates they negotiate with health plans, as well as rates for 300 “shoppable services,” by 2021.
The final rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which prompted one hospital advocate to immediately promise to file a lawsuit, requires hospitals to post online all their standard charges (including gross charges, payer-specific negotiated charges, de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated charges and discounted cash prices) for all items and services in a single digital file and in a machine-readable format.
Details of price posting requirements include:
Describing each item or service
Displaying prominently and clearly identifying the hospital location
Ensuring the data is easily accessible, without barriers, is free and does not require an account or password or for a user to submit personal information
Updating the data at least annually
Additionally, hospitals must post online their standard charges for at least 300 “shoppable services” (including 70 CMS-specified and 230 hospital-selected) that the hospital provides. This information must be made available in a consumer‑friendly manner.
“CMS believes these requirements will allow healthcare consumers to make apples-to-apples comparisons of payer-specific negotiated charges across healthcare settings,” a CMS fact sheet stated.
The posted rates must include charges for services that the hospital customarily provides in conjunction with a primary service that is identified by a common billing code.
CMS will deem a hospital compliant with the new requirements if the hospital maintains an Internet-based price estimator tool that meets specified requirements, including real-time estimates for consumers on their costs for a shoppable service offered by the hospital.
Failure to comply with the requirements could lead CMS to impose fines of up $300 per day (totaling $109,500 annually) and to publicize a hospital’s lack of compliance on its website.
The rule also established a process for hospitals to request a hearing before an administrative law judge to appeal the civil monetary penalty. The judge’s decision can be reviewed by the CMS administrator.
What was tweaked?
The final rule included some changes from the proposed rule, most significantly delaying implementation of the new requirements until Jan. 1, 2021.
Other changes included:
Modifying definitions for the de-identified minimum negotiated charge and the de-identified maximum negotiated charge
Modifying the definition of shoppable services to remove reference to a “service package”
Allowing hospitals that do not provide 300 services that can be scheduled by consumers in advance to list as many such services as it provides
Modifying the data elements of standard charges that hospitals must publicize
Removing the separate requirement to list all associated ancillary services
What’s next?
Within a couple hours of the rule release, the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) promised to join individual hospitals in suing to stop implementation of the new requirements on the basis that CMS lacks the authority to establish them.
“This final regulation on hospital transparency fails to meet the definition of ‘price transparency useful for patients,’” Chip Kahn, president and CEO of FAH, said in a written statement. “Instead, it will only result in patient overload of useless information while distorting the competitive market for purchasing hospital care.”
Beth Feldpush, senior vice president for America’s Essential Hospitals, said the new requirements would “unfairly advantage health plans in negotiations with providers and threaten essential hospitals’ ability to participate in networks and maintain access to services.”
“These policies undermine hospitals’ ability to negotiate equitable payments while giving consumers little actionable information with which to make informed care decisions,” Feldpush said in a statement.
Insurer requirement also proposed
A separateproposed rule would require health plans also to post the individual rates they negotiate with providers.
Although, there was no implementation date provided, an administration official said the rule would go into effect one year after the end of the 60-day comment period, which follows its publication in the Federal Register.
The rule also would allow health plans with provisions that encourage consumers to shop for services from lower-cost, higher-value providers, and that share the resulting savings with consumers, to take credit for such “shared savings” payments in their medical-loss ratio calculations, according to a CMS fact sheet.
Just after Joe Biden got his SECOND COVID-19 shot, he announced that he is going to mandate that the shots that were in reserve so that people who got their first shot would have inventory so that they can get their second shot on in a time frame as proposed by the original clinical trials. I am not aware of any clinical studies that suggests that get just one shot and/or not getting the second time on the time frame indicated by the clinical trials.
Apparently, he is counting on additional supplies of COVID-19 vaccine becoming available in time, but the initial supply from Pfizer was suppose to be 200 million doses was CUT IN HALF because Pfizer had trouble acquiring raw material to make the COVID-19 vaccine. So there is no guarantee that additional supplies of COVID-19 vaccine will be available when it is needed.
I am not aware of any clinical trials as to the outcome if a pt gets vaccinations produced by two different companies ( Pfizer & Moderna). Will they have the anticipated 95% effective immunity level ?
What is also interesting is the <D> governors requesting those doses being released. It has been reported that Gov Cuomo is sitting on a “boat load” of COVID-19 vaccine that is about to EXPIRE because like how he has treated businesses/schools in NY shutting them down and allowing them to reopen … only to shut them back down. It has been reported that Cuomo decided to give vaccinations to addicts/substance abusers/in rehab ahead of people over 65 y/o. Cuomo is also the governor that mandated – back in the spring – that seniors with COVID-19 be sent back to their nursing homes – which was incapable of dealing with their health issues – and tens of thousands DIED.
Could this just be the PREFACE of what we can expect over the next FOUR YEARS ?
WASHINGTON — With COVID-19 surging and vaccinations off to a slow start, President-elect Joe Biden will rapidly release most available vaccine doses to protect more people, his office said Friday, a reversal of Trump administration policies.
“The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,” spokesman T.J. Ducklo said in a statement. Biden “supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now.”
Biden’s plan is not about cutting two-dose vaccines in half, a strategy that top government scientists recommend against. Instead, it would accelerate shipment of first doses and use the levers of government power to provide required second doses in a timely manner.
The Trump administration has been holding back millions of doses of vaccine to guarantee that people can get a second shot, which provides maximum protection against COVID-19. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require a second shot after the first vaccination. One-shot vaccines are still undergoing testing.
A recent scientific analysis in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine estimated that a “flexible” approach roughly analogous to what Biden is talking about could avert an additional 23% to 29% of COVID-19 cases when compared to the “fixed” strategy the Trump administration is following. That’s assuming a steady supply of vaccine.
After a glow of hope when the first vaccines were approved last month, the nation’s inoculation campaign has gotten off to a slow start. Of 21.4 million doses distributed, about 5.9 million have been administered, or just under 28%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden has already indicated his displeasure with the progress of vaccinations. In a speech last week, before his election victory was certified by Congress, the president-elect said he intends to speed up vaccinations by having the federal government take a stronger role to make sure that vaccines are not only available, but that shots are going into the arms of more Americans.
“The Trump administration plan to distribute vaccines is falling behind—far behind,” Biden said. “If it continues to move as it is now, it’s going to take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
The American Hospital Association estimates that the nation would need to vaccinate 1.8 million people a day, every day, from Jan. 1 to May 31, to reach the goal of having widespread immunity by the summer. That’s also called “herd immunity” and would involve vaccinating at least 75% of the population.
Without spelling out details, Biden said his administration will put in place a much more aggressive vaccination campaign, with greater federal involvement and leadership and the goal of administering 100 million shots in the first 100 days.
He said he and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris have been talking with state and local leaders about a coordinated approach that meshes the efforts of governments at all levels. Among the specifics: opening up vaccination centers and sending mobile vaccine units to hard-to-reach communities.
“The top thing is that there’s not a coordinated national plan,” Biden adviser Dr. Rick Bright told The Associated Press. Bright has a doctoral degree in immunology.
The Biden transition office said its experts believe that pushing out available vaccine as fast as possible will not create problems for people needing their second dose. Biden will make broader use of a Cold War-era law to direct private industry to supply materials for vaccine production, should that become necessary, his office said.
Former Food and Drug Administration head Mark McClellan said he agrees with Biden’s decision, but the increased supply of vaccines has to be coupled with steps to get shots actually administered to people.
“We’re holding back more doses than we really need to,” McClellan said in an interview. But “this needs to be combined with steps to increase the administration of vaccines, or it won’t make much difference.” McClellan, who served under former Republican President George W. Bush, now leads a health policy center at Duke University.
Biden announced his plan after eight Democratic governors wrote the Trump administration on Friday urging it to do as much.
“The federal government currently has upwards of 50% of currently produced vaccines held back,” the governors wrote. “While some of these life-saving vaccines are sitting in Pfizer freezers, our nation is losing 2,661 Americans each day, according to the latest seven-day average. The failure to distribute these doses to states who request them is unconscionable and unacceptable. We demand that the federal government begin distributing these reserved doses to states immediately.”
The letter was signed by Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, Laura Kelly of Kansas, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Andrew Cuomo of New York, Jay Inslee of Washington, and Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
With the winter wave of the pandemic pushing deaths to record levels, and hospitals overwhelmed in cities large and small, some have called on the government to authorize using just one dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. That would indeed confer a boost of immunity.
However, government scientists including Dr. Anthony Fauci have said the vaccines should continue to be used as prescribed under their emergency approval by the FDA. The two-shot regimen provides around 95% protection.
More than 365,000 Americans have died as a result of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The seven-day average positivity rate for the nation has continued to rise since Christmas, and stood at 13.6% on Thursday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That’s well above the 10% rate considered a marker of widespread contagion.
Biden spokesman Ducklo said the president-elect will share additional details next week on how his administration will engage the pandemic when he takes office on Jan. 20.
It was announced today as Biden – as he got his SECOND COVID-19 shot – that he was going to mandate that all vaccine held in reserve so that people who got their first shot would get their second shot … is to be released to everyone to get their first shot.
There are no studies – that I am aware of – that shows that a person getting a COVID-19 from two different manufactures is going to produce a 90%+ effectiveness that is what studies have showed of a person getting the two shots from the same manufacturer.
Biden claimed that he was going to FOLLOW THE SCIENCE… but there is no science to justify this…
I get the opinion that this administration/Congress is going to ram-rod a whole lot of new “controls” – new regulations on the citizens of our country… that are not going to set very well with the majority of citizens. Pelosi & Schumer could care less, because Pelosi has already indicated that this is her last term – she is now 80 and Schumer is up for re-election in 2022 and AOC has already made “some noise” about running for his seat… after all two years ago she defeated another <D> incumbent for the seat that she now holds.. Chuck is currently ONLY 70.
Here is a video dated 09/01/2020 a compilation of media talking heads, “hollywood” and bureaucrats/politicians called for UNREST … etc….etc.. That got what they wanted a few days ago and now they are all outraged that it happened.
I am concerned that some of those “new controls” will be directed at the community and their need for pain management using opiates.
Anyone in the community that believes that the members of administration/Congress that is suppose to represents you… are your basic “dreamers” …they could give a rat’s ass about what you need/want.
I am wondering how long it is before the community wake up. How many petitions have been signed, how many comments have been made during public comment periods on proposed changes, how many times do you have to write to your members of Congress about denial of care …only to get a letter back about the opiate crisis ? AND … nothing has moved in a positive direction more in a NEGATIVE DIRECTION.
Corporations/people spend 9+ million/day lobbying the 535 members of Congress. The last election was estimated that 12-14 BILLION was spent and the Georgia Senate run off was estimated to cost upwards of 500 million. The Georgia election was largely funded by entities OUTSIDE OF THE STATE.
It use to be thought that politicians cared about two things votes and dollars… after what has been said about the past election… what counts is dollars and people who can collude to make sure that the person they want to win… gets sufficient number of votes to win… the total votes being exclusively from living/legally registered voters is just an illusion.
What will be interesting if those handful of states that were the most troublesome this time will do anything to make changes to make the number of votes that they report has any credibility. After the voting mess in Florida in 2000 over their punch card system… everything was changed and this past election they were able to report the number of votes cast a couple of hours after the polls closed.
One infamous politician said one time ” IT TAKES A VILLAGE”… the chronic pain community – when it comes to getting something done – is nothing more than a few wandering souls.
Counterfeit Symtuza® (darunavir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, tenofovir alafenamide) has been identified in 3 pharmacies in the US, according to an alert issued by Janssen.
Symtuza is indicated as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults and pediatric patients weighing at least 40kg who have no prior antiretroviral treatment history or who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL) on a stable antiretroviral regimen for at least 6 months, and have no known substitutions associated with resistance to darunavir or tenofovir. The counterfeit products, which were procured from unauthorized distributors, are being investigated by Janssen and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In a statement, the Company clarified that Symtuza obtained from authorized distributors should be considered safe for use. The authentic product is supplied as yellow to yellowish-brown, capsule-shaped, film-coated tablets debossed with “8121” on one side and “JG” on the other side. If the product does not match this description, it should be reported to the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations (800-551-3989) or Janssen Medical Information (800-526-7736).
Currently, there have been no reports of adverse events related to the use of the counterfeit product. Adverse events related to Symtuza or the counterfeit drug should be reported to FDA’s MedWatch Program or Janssen Medical Information.
After listening today of many persons on TV that has had their Twitter, FB, and instagram account censored, suspended or cancelled… https://www.simonandschuster.com/ cancelled a book of a member of Congress that was suppose to be published in June over his support the challenge in Congress two days ago over the last Presidential election.
Our first Amendment right to “freedom of speech” only applies to the government, private businesses can do what they want. Of course, people have the freedom of choice to continue to patronize any such business.
I heard on TV today, a person that works for a mutual fund that had his rather benign post censored and he is cancelling his FB & Twitter accounts. Another commentator on Fox cable – a former secret service agent – stated that he is cancelling his FB & Twitter account and moving over tohttps://www.parler.com
It has also been stated that these same websites have closed President Trump’s account till at least until Jan 21,2021 and a number of other Trump websites have been taken off line by someone – maybe his ISP. It was just announced on TV that TWITTER has PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED PRESIDENT TRUMP”S ACCOUNT.
Parler is suppose to be a more open/uncensored webpage that is suppose to work like Facebook… I have had my own Parler account that I opened a month or two ago because I saw this coming.
None of us know how many “common folks” are doing the same things… but … I am keeping my future posting to this blog… I own the domain and I would hope that the ISP that I pay to have this domain doesn’t decide to get into censorship.
I am not going to delete my FB or twitter accounts, but they are going to become stagnant …. there is a lot of valuable information for chronic painers on those sites.
It has become obvious that there were numerous closeted RINO Trump haters that are now coming out of the woodwork and they are circling the white house like hungry vultures. They no longer have to create descent in the shadows. Pelosi seemingly the LEAD VULTURE !
They are even trying to pull the 25th Amendment on him… declaring him incompetent .. that that we may not be able to run for an elected office again.
The chronic pain community continues to become more and more divided… one of my favorite things to do is go into FB notifications to find the same post , graphic or video posted on a dozen or more FB pages. If nothing else, it clearly demonstrates how divided the community is.
History has suggested that the community suffers the most when there is a person in power, that has a friend/relative that is a substance abuser or died from a drug overdose… and that describes our incoming President and our VP has been reported when she was a AG of CALF… was a hard ass on substance abuser – especially MJ… So one again we have TWO ATTORNEYS at the head of the administration… throw in a third attorney as AG… and generally attorneys are mostly interested in enforcing the laws and the Controlled Substance Act is still out there since 1970..
IMO, the community has come to a “fork in the road” and either need to create alliances with other non profit groups dealing with chronic health issues who are being restricted in getting their necessary medications… or they need to get ready to accept whatever this new administration is going to shove down your throat.. and it won’t be anything to help you pain.
Here is the gist of the mind set behind the new administration…. do any of you in the community get a idea of where you stand in the future ?
While I was making this post… this video popped up … I would like those “boys” out in SILICON VALLEY … are apparently trying to impose their opinion(s) on a competitor and apparently are seeking law firms to run their competitors out of business. This fellow is the one that announced today on Fox cable that he was closing his FB or Twitter account..
Right now this video is on FB, but I have saved it to my hard drive… and they can’t take it from my computer and I own this web domain.
There is a old saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”… there are some in the community that believes that we need to create a “US vs THEM” with those who have mental health issues resulting in substance abuse. Those who have fueled the war on pt/drugs have been pushing the idea since 1970 that Rx opiates creates addicts. The community can present the DOJ/DEA with all the facts that is contrary to “their facts” that align with their agenda. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where it is going to get you.
I have been a damn good prognosticator in my adult life – started around late 20’s – early 30’s… when I started to really started paying attention to the world around me… I have created several businesses and after 20 years was physically/mentally exhausted and sold out those businesses and retire at 49. This new administration scares the crap out of me… it especially scares me for those in the community. Everyone needs to pay attention to Biden, Harris, Pelosi & Chuck Schumer and maybe AOC/Squad talk and they use the word CONTROL or INCREASED/NEW REGULATIONS. As Schumer stated in the video “CHANGE THE COUNTRY”… they can only change the country thru NEW REGULATIONS. Boys and Girls, this administration will attempt to solve the opiate crisis by cutting controlled substances to one pt at a time that needs a controlled med to treat their health issues. I don’t know if it will some sort of MME daily limits or DEA production quota reduction or BOTH. Remember a <D> controlled Congress passed the Harrison Narcotic Act 1914 – which created the “black drug market” and it was a <D> controlled Congress that passed the Controlled Substance Act 1970 and it was a <D> controlled Congress that failed to renew the DECADE OF PAIN LAW 2000 (passed by a <R> controlled Congress) when it expired in 2009. History would suggest that they could care less about the community ! It was also <D> in the Congress who STRONGLY OBJECTED to the Medicare part D law – that in 2006 started to provide Medicare folks prescription coverage after 41 years of Medicare not providing any coverage.
I am taking a few steps back… I have been blogging for 9 years… and while they may be more people advocating… they are divided among hundreds or thousands of FB pages, Tweets or other places. I will be monitoring the various FB/twitter feed and will be posting a link to this post as a “answer” for abt the next 30 days.
