Utilizing the palliative care “loophole” in chronic pain management
The DOJ is successfully escalating angst among general practitioners, who are already reluctant to prescribe narcotics above guidelines, (that were established by the CDC), out of fear of being targeted as outliers by the DEA. In turn, many patients with intractable pain are forced to, “make due”, with what pain medication they are prescribed, and tension runs high between appointments as their doctors push for even further tapering.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has arrested 28 people and revoked the registrations of over a hundred others in a nationwide crackdown that targeted prescribers and pharmacies that dispense “disproportionally large amounts” of opioid medication.
For 45 days in February and March, a special team of DEA investigators searched a database of 80 million prescriptions, looking for suspicious orders and possible drug thefts.
The so-called “surge” resulted in 28 arrests, 54 search warrants, and 283 administrative actions against doctors and pharmacists. The DEA registrations of 147 people were also revoked — meaning they can no longer prescribe, dispense or distribute controlled substances such as opioids.
The DEA said 4 medical doctors and 4 medical assistants were arrested, along with 20 people described as “non-registrant co-conspirators.” The arrests were reported by the agency’s offices in San Diego, Denver, Atlanta, Miami and Philadelphia.
In an interview with AARP, Sessions defended the use of data mining to uncover health care fraud.“Some of the more blatant problems were highlighted in our Medicare fraud take down recently where we had a
sizable number of physicians that were over prescribing opioid pain pills which were not helping people get well,
but instead were furthering an addiction being paid for by the federal taxpayers. This is a really bad thing,” Sessions said.“It’s a little bit like these shysters who use direct mail and other ways to defraud people. They will keep doing it until they’re stopped. In other words, if we don’t stop them, they will keep finding more victims and seducing them.”
As a growing trend of doctors across America voluntarily leave pain management, their patients are left without medical care. From there, the sick and disabled get bounced back to primary care. General practitioners, no longer in the business of treating pain, can only offer referrals but rarely communicate or follow up with their colleagues to facilitate a comparable continuity of care. These limitations have been further aggravated, through an effective surreptitious recruitment campaign organized by Dr. Andrew Kolodny, Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, christened PROP (Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing). Armed with government propaganda, Prop docs function as the CDC mouthpiece and have infiltrated teaching universities, medical schools, CME courses,and large HMOs. There they double down and intentionally disseminate biased misinformation, present flimsy evidence as a matter of fact that, more often than not, aggregates chronic pain and addiction. Is there any way around this patient-doctor dilemma?
In an interview with AARP, Sessions defended the use of data mining to uncover health care fraud. “Some of the more blatant problems were highlighted in our Medicare fraud takedown recently, where we had a sizable number of physicians who were overprescribing opioid pain pills, which were not helping people get well, but, instead, were furthering an addiction, [all] being paid for by the federal taxpayers. This is a really bad thing,” Sessions said. “It’s a little bit like these shysters who use direct mail and other ways to defraud people. They will keep doing it until they’re stopped. In other words, if we don’t stop them, they will keep finding more victims and [keep] seducing them.”
As a growing trend of doctors across America voluntarily leave pain management, their patients are left without medical care.
From there, the sick and disabled get bounced back to primary care. General practitioners, no longer in the business of treating pain, can only offer referrals, but, they rarely communicate with, or follow up with, their colleagues to facilitate a comparable continuity of care. These limitations have been further aggravated through an effective, surreptitious
recruitment campaign organized by Dr. Andrew Kolodny, Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, christened PROP (Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing). Armed with government propaganda, Prop docs function as the CDC mouthpiece, and have infiltrated teaching universities, medical schools, CME courses, and large HMOs. There, they double down and intentionally disseminate biased misinformation, present flimsy evidence as a matter of fact that, more often than not, aggregates chronic pain and addiction.
Is there any way around this patient-doctor dilemma?
The answer might be as simple as a physician order for palliative care — a treatment option already covered by CMS and most private insurance. You can have it at any age and any stage of an illness, but, early on in your illness is recommended.
Palliative care, (pronounced pal-lee-uh-tiv), is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Palliative care is provided by a specially-trained team of doctors, nurses and other specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. It is appropriate at any age, and at any stage in a serious illness, and it can be provided along with curative treatment¹
Filed under: General Problems | 7 Comments »
