I looked up Lincoln,CA… has a population of abt 51K and in central CA west of Reno, NV
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DEA PROPOSED cut in pharmas’ opiate production quotas
Posted on November 12, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
Apparently this was buried in a “whole mess” of fed publication on 10/18/2022 and last day to make comments in on Nov 17th and as I write this blog post only 56 comments have been made. As I read this publication, the DEA statistical analysis of various PDMP shows that <1% of pharma opiates are being diverted… a <1% conclusion is within the margin of error. It also suggests that the DEA has no interest in abandoning the 2016 CDC opiate dosing guidelines and it seems clearly that they have – internally – made the 90 MME their “line in the sand”… any prescriber providing >90 MME/day of opiates to a pain pt is OUTSIDE what they have determined as the standard of care and best practices and thus ILLEGALLY PROVIDING OPIATES TO A PT.
Below is the comments that I left on this fed publication and I have provided the hyperlink to the site to leave comments.
I find the proposed reduction of opiate production.. is much like trying to drive a car – only looking into the rear view mirror. A accident is almost assured and there will be people harmed and/or killed. First using the 6 yr old CDC opiate dosing guidelines which has been stated by many as being mis-used and causing many chronic pain pts to be under treated and the new 2022 guidelines that are suppose to give prescribers more latitude in providing appropriate dosing and better pain management to chronic pain pts.
The stated percent of current diversion should be consider statistically within the error of compiling such a statistical outcome. It also ignores that the growth in our population and a certain percent will end up being chronic pain pts.
There are TWO MILLION survivors of vehicular accidents every year, some of those are going to become chronic pain pts, maybe as many as 20%-30%.
Taking in consideration the current volume of illegal immigrants, out population in 2023 may expand 4-6 million. Historically, it is claimed that 20% of our population deal with chronic pain. So by the end of 2023, we could have 2-3 million more chronic pain pts than we have today.
At the very least, the DEA should take a break this year in reducing opiate production quota and see how appropriate prescribing – per the new 2022 CDC guidelines – shakes out.
According to this seizures of illegal fentanyl in fiscal year 2021 was up 134% and according to this in the first nine months of 2022 illegal fentanyl seizures were up 377%
it has been reported that 70K-75K OD/poisoned by illegal fentanyl last year. abt THREE TIMES the number that died from the use/abuse of some opioid. With those numbers, the DEA is concerned about <1% diversion of pharma opiates ?
If the DEA proceed to further cut pharmas’ quotas, it will just validate that the DEA still “living in the past”.. using mis-used CDC guidelines, trying to obtain a unrealistic goal of ZERO pharma opiates while doing little/nothing towards the dramatic escalation of OD/poisoning from illegal fentanyl… and busting prescribers for fabricated reasons… here is a recent outcome of a DEA action on a prescriber’s practice — DEA Suspension of Doctor’s License Leads to Double Suicide https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2022/11/9/dea-suspension-of-doctors-license-leads-to-suicides
but… all wars have COLLATERAL DAMAGE – RIGHT?
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I can SENSE all the law firms creating a strategy to sue for health damages to people’s health harmed
Posted on November 11, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
EXCLUSIVE: Donuts, cereal and pizza should be redefined as DRUGS: Scientists say highly processed foods are just as addictive and harmful as CIGARETTES
Processed foods are as addictive and dangerous as cigarettes, experts say
Researchers say the products meet the same addiction standards as nicotine
The foods have been linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other issues
The pair of scientists is calling for restrictions on the marketing of the foods
Highly-processed foods should be reclassified as drugs because they are as addictive and harmful as cigarettes, scientists argue.
Researchers claim items like donuts, sugary cereals and pizza meet the meet official criteria that established cigarettes as a drug in the 1990s.
These include causing compulsive use and mood altering affects on the brain, and having properties or ingredients that reinforce addiction or trigger cravings.
Ultra processed foods – which also include things like soda, chips, pastries and candies – contain high amounts of unnatural flavorings, preservatives and sweeteners.
These properties give them their delicious flavor — but also make them high in calories, fat, sugar or salt, which raise the risk of obesity and other chronic illnesses.
Researchers led by Dr Ashley Gearhardt, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, told DailyMail.com these foods are more like a drug because of how distant they are in taste and texture from natural foods.
‘They are industrial produced substances designed to deliver sugar and fat,’ Dr Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, a health behaviors research professor at Virginia Tech University, said.
‘They are not foods anymore. These are these products that have been really well designed to deliver addictive substances.’
The researchers want the marketing of these foods to children to be restricted, the same way nicotine advertising cannot be directed at kids. But they have stopped short of calling for an outright age ban.
Highly-processed foods should be reclassified as drugs because they are as addictive and harmful as cigarettes, scientists argue
Dr Ashley Gearhardt (left), a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, said that HPFs are more like a drug than they are a food. Dr Alexandra DiFeliceantoni (right), a health behaviors research professor at Virginia Tech, described the foods as vessels to deliver addictive substances.
America’s obesity crisis has largely been tied to the prevalence of ultra-processed foods. The foods are believed to make up around 50 per cent of the American diet.
As a result, around 70 per cent of Americans are obese according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with 40 per cent classed as obese.
Dr Gearhardt warned that even people who of a healthy weight are still at risk of developing cancer and other issues down the line from eating junk food.
The foods have been linked to a jump in diseases like colorectal and kidney cancer, and Alzheimer’s in the US, among other diseases.
Constantly spiking blood-sugar, through eating sugary foods, can also lead to diabetes.
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NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW — EXCEPT THOSE WHO ARE PART OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM ?
Posted on November 11, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
Jessica Spayd, ANP
https://doctorsofcourage.org/jessica-spayd/
In early October 2019 my life changed forever. The woman I love was ripped from my life by an overzealous and unscrupulous Federal Government. I was not alone in my loss. Her 9-year old son lost his mother, her father lost his daughter, countless others lost a friend they cherished and loved. Worst of all, her patients had their care unceremoniously stripped away from them, throwing them to the winds of a culture that callously classified them as drug addicts undeserving of compassion. She was viciously attacked as a drug dealer by the government prosecutors and the media.Her name is Jessica Spayd, and until that fateful day she was an Advanced Nurse Practitioner that owned and operated a small health care clinic in the town of Eagle River, just outside of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Jessica had become the latest victim of a misguided nationwide persecution of pain providers across the country. The government, in their zeal to show the country they are doing something about the opiate crisis affecting so many, have chosen that instead of pursuing true drug dealers, or dealing with the actual problem of addiction, they would instead laser focus their efforts on law-abiding medical professionals. And what an easy target these medical professionals turn out to be. Everything they do is diligently documented in various forms from electronic medical records to the PDMP to medical examiner’s reports when, tragically, one of their patients passes away.
The charges against Jessica were serious. The government had entrapped Jessica by sending an undercover agent in to persuade her to prescribe opiates to him. After two visits in which she said she could not prescribe what he wanted, but instead would prescribe Suboxone, he returned a third time and she finally relented and gave him the prescription he desired. This would form the basis of their argument of “outside the normal and customary” medical practice; or “for no legitimate medical purpose”. In addition to the charges they fabricated by framing her, they charged her with causing the deaths of 5 of her patients (even though the medical examiner’s report in all 5 cases was inconclusive when it came to the question of whether their death was a direct result of Jessica’s “reckless prescribing practices”). And of course they charged her for running her business as a “pill mill”. Interestingly, a “pill mill” is not defined in statute, but it is rather a casual pejorative bantered about in open court with no evidence to support the claim. Finally, Jessica faced the one true charge in all of this; she had unfortunately been convinced by a former patient to write prescriptions to a friend of his knowing full well the prescriptions were for her former patient, not his friend.
Fortunate for Jessica, her business property was in an LLC and her retirement was in a 401(k). Unbeknown to us, these assets cannot be automatically forfeited. It was with the small nest egg that Jessica was able to secure a private defense attorney. In what would turn out to be an unfortunate piece of advice, Jessica agreed to waiver her right to a speedy trial. For three years we lived in anguishing pain at the thought of facing trial, but (after a 7-month detention after denial of bail) Jessica was able to live her life with those of us that love her. We buoyed our hopes on our belief that the justice system was interested in finding the truth.
In June 2022 the U. S. Supreme Court released their Ruan ruling. In that, the justices said the government can no longer use their tried-and-true “outside of normal and customary” strategy but would instead be required to prove that a provider had malicious intent to cause harm by prescribing opiates. Armed with this victory, and knowing Jessica was innocent of the most serious charges against her, we continued preparing for trial.
The trial began in late September 2022. We knew immediately that this was not going to be what we expected. The prosecutor started lying and offering baseless character assassinations against Jessica during opening statements, a trend that continued through the last breath of his closing. The government’s witnesses lied on the stand. The prosecutor broke the law and trial procedure by bringing up irrelevant points about Jessica and her witnesses in open court, in front of the jury. Not in one or two isolated incidents, but multiple times. Each time the judge would clear the jury and excoriate the prosecution for their abhorrent behavior. But nothing changed. The lies and character assassination continued. After three-and-a-half weeks of brutal and baseless accusations by the prosecution, Jessica’s defense started. As mentioned, the prosecution attempted (successfully) to libel Jessica’s witnesses in front of the jury. To counter the character assassination attacks, Jessica’s first witnesses exalted her character and compassion as a professional medical provider, and how their lives had suffered with the end of their pain care. The prosecution would not stand for this and they convinced the judge that such testimony was detrimental to a “fair trial” (some bullshit about jury nullification).
In the end, Jessica’s defense lasted only a little over 3 days. The damage had been done by the prosecution and a willing accomplice sitting on the bench. There was no overcoming it. Even still, the rendering of “guilty on all charges” was devastating, leaving us all in shock. Our faith in the justice system shattered. We are all professionals. We do not dabble in the criminal world. This was our first exposure to the criminal “justice” system. And it was a truly horrifying experience.
Addendum by Linda Cheek, MD
Ms. Spayd was charged on October 17, 2019 with 3 counts of distributing a controlled substnace resulting in death, 4 counts of distribution of a controlled substance, and one count of maintaining a drug involved premises. More charges were added before the trial. She was convicted on October 28, 2022 of 10 counts. She was held in jail from her arrest October 17, 2019 to April, 2020.
In her trial, the government used the same witnesses as before, Drs. Timothy King and Timothy Munzing, and they used their usual testimony of their standard of care, which was definitely defeated by Ruan/Kahn. But obviously, that doesn’t matter. The propaganda wins.
The defense had 4 witnesses. But the government, using illegal gross government misconduct, sent their agents to the witnesses offices and intimidated them so that two backed out.
Understand that this is not going to stop unless we get the Controlled Substance Act repealed entirely. As long as people believe that drugs cause addiction, it is not safe to prescribe any controlled substance. The government will convict anyone they target, through lies, perjury, and propaganda.
Here is a recent post from my blog, two young men caught transporting 150k illegal fentanyl tabs, charged with charged with possession, transportation and selling of illegal drugs…. it was decided that these two “bad boys” did not presented a risk to public safety....released on their own recognizance..Alleged drug traffickers released from California jail days after caught with 150K illegal fentanyl pills
Here is a video from attorney Ron Chapman explaining out the DOJ/DEA uses various techniques and procedures to “entrap” prescribers to write for a controlled substance for a theoretical pt
https://www.tiktok.com/@compliancetok/video/7164386298743213358?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&q=ron%20chapman&t=1668210698467
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When the Part D insurer goes the “extra step” to deny pt their medications
Posted on November 10, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
I got a phone call this week, a pt that has a Part D program, that is owned by a FOR PROFIT CORPORATION… that just owns about 10,000 community pharmacies, PBM Caremark, Aetna Insurance and Silver Scripts Part D.
I would label this pt as a high acuity, intractable chronic pain pt with two very “painful” health issues. The Part D didn’t want to pay for the medication that has been working for the pt, but had THREE PREFERRED MEDS – one of the meds the pt even had a health issue that would make one of their contraindicated for the pt… and the other two the pt had tried before and either they didn’t work well and/or the pt was allergic to the med.
The pt found out that the employee of Caremark who made the decision to deny the medication that the pt had clinical proof that it work for the pt and the employee was a RETIRED PHYSICIAN… who was a GP or FP… no real experience with any experience with the two very painful diseases that the pt was dealing with… of course, this physician consultant … followed the Part D policy to recommend what appeared to be the three meds that cost the Part D the LEAST…
Of course, the pt’s physician appealed the denial and resulted in a rather quick repeat denial… and the pt & the physician wanted to appeal the first appeal and the pt was told that the Part D had done two more appeals on the pt’s behalf and those two other appeals were ALSO DENIED !!!
The pt was informed that the Part D allowed 3 appeals on the original denial of the claim, to the Part D was done with her claim.
I have read stories about these retired physicians that do Medical reviews for insurance companies … get BONUSES based on the $$$ that their decisions have saved the insurance companies.
This pt and/or the Physician was pretty well versed and had already tied to initiate a ALJ ( Administrative Law Judge) appeal and was told that there was no way that they could get an expedited ALJ hearing… I don’t remember how long a back log there was, but apparently the pt may end up without their necessary medication.
Pts who find themselves in a similar position – playing games with the FOR PROFIT PART D and/or MEDICARE ADVANTAGE (part c) There is a potential option, especially for those pts with Regular Medicare. If a pt’s prescriber requests a ambulatory pain pump, Our independent pharmacy use to be a fairly large Home Medical Equipment vendor and unless they changed the rules… Pump are paid for by Medicare Part B and when Part B pays for such/similar equipment, Part B pays for the medication that goes in the pump.
Medicare Part B guidelines to cover HME stuff is pretty black/white guidelines, nothing like the somewhat arbitrary coverage of Part D and/or Medicare Advantage. Besides all this, using a ambulatory pump… will allow the pt to get as good or better pain management than taking oral meds and because the medication is administered as a Sub-Q injection… the pt will need only 20%- 30% of the mgs that the pt took orally. To the best of my knowledge, the CDC guidelines only address oral meds.
If anyone is interested in looking into ambulatory pumps… so a web search for “ambulatory pain pumps” and/or “diabetic insulin pump”… and I would do a search in U-tube as well.. The ambulatory pain pump and diabetic insulin pump are very similar pieces of equipment… and millions of diabetics uses these insulin pumps and have been using them for at least 15 yrs.
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President Biden puts in writing “HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT “
Posted on November 10, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
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New technology that could help improve pt care
Posted on November 9, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
Could such a technology help healthcare make sure that who we are dealing with … is really who they say they are ? Healthcare would really not a charge card for ID.. Just who ever they say they are when they originally sign up for the system … their palm print will bring that name up again. The system would not keep any personal health information, just assign a unique alpha numeric ID. This ID could be used as a universal ID across all sorts of healthcare databases. The possibilities are virtually endless, the pharmacy computer could be programmed on new controlled Rxs to automatically pull up a PDMP report and send to the pharmacy. The unique ID could be attached to the electronic Rx sent from a prescriber’s office and the unique ID could be sent to the state PDMP along with Rx info. This could be the next step in making sure that the pt is who they really are… and possible more more step toward interfering with diversion of controlled substances.
Amazon brings contactless payment to Whole Foods Market in Dallas
https://drugstorenews.com/amazon-brings-contactless-payment-whole-foods-market-dallas
Amazon is beginning to offer its Amazon One palm payment shopping experience at more Whole Foods Market stores.
On Tuesday, Nov. 8, two Whole Foods Market locations in the Irving and Highland Village suburbs of Dallas became the first Whole Foods Market stores in the Dallas area to offer the Amazon One palm-based payment system that allows customers the option to use their palm to pay for purchases.
In the coming weeks, all 16 Whole Foods Market locations in the larger Dallas-Fort Worth area will offer the Amazon One palm payment option to its customers. This includes Whole Foods Market stores at Richardson, Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Bellingham, Colleyville, University Place, Arlington, Highland Park and Fairview.
More than 65 Whole Foods Market stores across California recently rolled out Amazon One following previous launches in Seattle, Austin, and select stores in New York and Los Angeles.
To sign up for Amazon One, first customers insert their credit card in the palm reading device. Next, they hover their palm over the device and follow the prompts to associate that card with the unique palm signature being built by the device’s computer vision technology in real time. Customers have the option to enroll with one palm or both.
Once customers have enrolled, they can enter Amazon One-enabled stores by holding their palm above the Amazon One device at entry for about a second or so. The technology evaluates multiple aspects of a customer’s palm. No two palms are alike, so Amazon One analyzes all these aspects with its vision technology and selects the most distinct identifiers on a palm to create a unique palm signature.
Whole Foods customers using Amazon One will shop like normal and at the end of their trip, they scan their palm at checkout to pay.
Besides the previously implemented Los Angeles stores, Amazon One is currently available as a payment option at select Whole Food Market locations in the Seattle and Austin areas, at the Manhattan West store in New York City, and at all seven Whole Foods market locations n the Austin area in the coming weeks. The recent Austin rollout includes Whole Foods Market stores in the Arbor Trails, Domain, East Austin, Lamar, Gateway, Bee Cave, and Cedar Park neighborhoods.
Amazon One is also available as an entry and payment option at select Amazon Go stores, select Amazon Fresh stores, and several third-party locations around the country. In addition, Amazon licenses the technology to select third-party retailers.
Examples include travel retailer Hudson’s deployment at Dallas Love Field Airport, as well as stores at sporting/entertainment venues including Amazon’s own Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, home of the Seattle Kraken NHL franchise. Amazon recently made Amazon One available at three more concession areas inside the facility, for a total of seven Amazon One-equipped stores in all.
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Prescription benefit manager industry tries to work with lack of financial transparency: to “pad their bottom line ” ?
Posted on November 8, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
Just a few days ago I made this post https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/cvs-health-is-standing-up-to-protect-their-own-profits-using-a-smoke-screen-and-accusing-others-of-profiteering/
Where the PBM CAREMARK – owned by CVS HEALTH – “By inserting themselves in the state’s process of selecting a firm to manage prescription drug coverage for the Office of Group Benefits, special interest groups representing Louisiana’s independent pharmacists attempted to line their own pockets at the expense of the state’s taxpayers, employees and retirees.
According to the chart below, the top FOUR PBM’s control 90% of the prescription market place and noticed that the top FOUR PBM’s are owned by INSURANCE COMPANIES. Also this recent blog post where the DOD awarded Express Scripts the Tricare prescription contract and because of the EXTREMELY LOW REIMBURSEMENT RATES… most independent pharmacies are unable to sign the contract. TRICARE changes force 15,000 pharmacies out of network
and in my inbox today this showed up:
Express Scripts to shell out $3.2M in prescription drug pricing case
Express Scripts agreed to settle for $3.2 million in a Massachusetts case that accused the pharmacy benefit manager of overcharging for some injured workers’ prescriptions.
Attorney General Maura Healey said Express Scripts allegedly “billed and obtained payment for prescription drugs from payers of workers’ compensation claims in excess of amounts” permitted by state law at CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid locations, according to a court document filed Nov. 7.
Information found during litigation and the attorney general’s investigation is “confidential commercial and trade secret information” and thus protected, according to the document.
As part of the settlement, Express Scripts said it will work to prevent overcharges in its workers’ compensation insurance business. Express Scripts did not immediately respond to Becker’s requests for comment.
“Employers need a workers’ compensation system that is functional, transparent and affordable,” Ms. Healey said. “Our office will take action to ensure pharmacy benefits managers follow procedures and do not drive up costs in our workers’ compensation system.”
https://www.drugchannels.net/2022/04/the-top-pharmacy-benefit-managers-of.html
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LIES and other “political facts” about the opiate crisis
Posted on November 8, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
Fear, Loathing, and Fentanyl Misinformation
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/101577
Misleading fentanyl narratives are pervasive and cause very real harm
“‘Think about this,’ (East Liverpool Ohio Chief of Police) Lane told ‘Inside Edition.’ ‘Nobody sees (fentanyl) on his shirt. He leaves and goes home, takes off that shirt, throws it in the wash. His mom, his wife, his girlfriend goes in the laundry, touches the shirt — boom. They drop. He goes home to his kid. ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ They hug him — Boom. They drop. His dog sniffs his shirt, it kills his dog. This could never end.'” – Washington Post
“She said her body went numb within 10 minutes after picking up the dollar. She said she could barely talk or breathe before passing out…(they) believe the dollar she picked up was laced with fentanyl.” – WSMV4
“Deputy Faiivae tested three bags found in a suspect’s car using a portable narcotics analyzer in the back of the patrol vehicle…the first two bags tested presumptive positive for fentanyl…when he stood up ‘he began to feel lightheaded and fell down’…he was administered four doses of Narcan…Deputy Faiivae’s field training officer recounted that Deputy Faiivae ‘was OD’ing the whole way to the hospital.'” – New York Times
The looming specter of fentanyl in news reports has become inescapable. But more often what is shared is misinformation rather than accurate facts.
These aren’t just isolated cases of bad reporting. It’s a societal problem. On a recent episode of the primetime CBS show, NCIS: Hawai’i, a sailor with abrasions on his feet steps in a tide pool containing a bag of fentanyl and is shown dying from a fentanyl overdose in under a minute.
I have studied fentanyl misinformation since 2017. While misinformation is problematic for obvious reasons, misinformation about drugs, like fentanyl, is harmful. The U.S. continues to break records in drug overdose death numbers year after year, from thousands of deaths per year in the early 2000s to a now consistent 100,000 plus American lives lost each year in preventable deaths. The biggest driver of these deaths is fentanyl.
Nowadays fentanyl is a boogeyman, something people fear can injure them at any time. But fentanyl is neither good nor bad, it is literally just a molecule. It is simultaneously an invaluable medical therapeutic and the primary cause of record-breaking overdose deaths. Notably, fentanyl is not a new drug; it has been FDA-approved since the 1960s and in street drugs since at least the 1970s, and it is well-studied and well-understood. The problem with the publicized information is that the people who speak the most and the loudest — and dominate reporting — appear to neither have studied nor understand fentanyl.
The “fentanyl exposure” myth has dominated headlines more than anything else: people claiming to have experienced “overdoses” from touching unknown powders that they believe to be fentanyl or from simply being in close proximity to some substance they believe to be fentanyl — even when it turns out not to be fentanyl. This was the case with the woman who picked up the dollar bill (she tested negative for fentanyl) and the Sheriff’s Deputy who collapsed after handling an open bag of powder.
We know that fentanyl does not pose a risk through accidental skin contact or proximity. It does not readily absorb through the skin, and even under the most intentional conditions cannot absorb in any rapid time frame. It also does not aerosolize or enter into the air to be inhaled or otherwise ingested. The only way fentanyl can cause overdoses is if it is injected, snorted, or otherwise ingested. Even the CDC, no stranger to communications issues, has had to recently address this myth in light of law enforcement continuing to perpetuate a dangerous and impossible narrative.
Yet the misleading reports continue — and not without consequences. They have inspired a lucrative market of scammy products from “fentanyl-proof” gloves to expensive HAZMAT responses, all of which are nonsensical and unnecessary. But this myth has far worse harms than scamming people and wasting taxpayer dollars. This myth — a scientific impossibility — has led to a reduced or delayed response to real fentanyl overdoses where time is critical and to criminal charges and incarceration for the imaginary crime of “fentanyl exposure.” These are very real harms, and this myth is the justification behind further harming a vulnerable population that is already suffering and dying at astronomical rates.
More recently, a new fentanyl myth has arisen regarding the idea of “rainbow fentanyl,” which the U.S. DEA described as “brightly-colored fentanyl” being made to “target young Americans.” The DEA did not provide any evidence to support this, and has declined to substantiate their own claim even to major media sources. It is worth noting that before the DEA director made this announcement, “rainbow fentanyl” was not even a searchable term. However, less than 90 days after this announcement there were nearly 1,400 news articles about “rainbow fentanyl” and a proposal from Congress to give the DEA almost $300 million dollars “to fight rainbow fentanyl,” something that nobody in the world of substance use and addiction had ever heard of. This is also not the only time in recent memory that the DEA has denied objective scientific facts to mischaracterize illicit fentanyl products to expand their authority.
The “rainbow fentanyl” in the DEA press release was actually illicit pills made to look like pharmaceutical oxycodone tablets, which come with added color even when made by legitimate pharmaceutical companies. Even DEA press releases going back years show nearly identical fake pills of multiple colors containing fentanyl without such concerns. Yet, this captured public attention in proximity to Halloween and became the most recent iteration of the very extensively debunked “Halloween sadism” myth. For obvious reasons, children are not ideal customers for drug dealers; yet, completely illogical reports that expensive fentanyl pills would be given out for free to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters continued.
Our society has long had strong — and strongly divided — opinions on substance use but we should all agree on objective facts. Not only are fentanyl myths pervasive, but they also cause very real harms and distract us from having more meaningful conversations, like how to truly prevent pediatric overdoses and which evidence-based public health measures can address our drug overdose problem. Clinicians and researchers like me are ignored for sensationalist narratives, while Americans continue to die entirely preventable deaths. While we assume that our leaders, and the people speaking most vocally about this topic, would not do so without having credible knowledge, profiteers, politicians, and others have been capitalizing on the moral panic around fentanyl without addressing problems meaningfully or even realistically. With record drug overdoses showing no sign of slowing, it is time to listen to experts and listen to the science instead.
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Doctor admits health care fraud at pain management center
Posted on November 7, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve
I have often posted over the years, that forcing a pt to get ESI injections was a violation of part of the Sherman Antitrust Act, called Tying Commerce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(commerce)
Basically, it is illegal to force someone to purchase something they don’t want in order to be able to buy something that they do want. Also, charging any insurance for products/services that is not medically necessary is considered INSURANCE FRAUD.
There are a couple of countries that have made it illegal to administer corticosteroids via ESI’s. Our FDA and Pfizer who is the pharma of the corticosteroids commoningly used DO NOT RECOMMEND corticosteroids being administered by ESI.
there is also a federal law that prohibits any inducement to a pt to cause Medicare/Medicaid to incur an expense. I guess that it was too much trouble for the DOJ… to pursue all the laws that were being violated.
Doctor admits health care fraud at pain management center
A former physician has pleaded guilty in federal court to a health care fraud charge associated with the pain management practice Jefferson Pain and Rehabilitation Center, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Pittsburgh announced.
John Keun Sang Lee, 79, of Peters, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of health care fraud before United States District Judge W. Scott Hardy.
In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that between in and around May 2016 to in and around October 2020, Lee submitted claims for steroid injections to Medicare and Medicaid that were neither reasonable nor medically necessary, a press release stated.
“According to former patients and employees, Lee required patients to submit to steroid injections, even when patients reported that the injections were not helping but rather causing them more pain and other injuries. Lee also instructed employees to withhold patient medication if patients objected to the injections. In order to justify billing insurance companies for the medically unnecessary injections, Lee directed staff to use templates indicating that patients received 80% relief from prior pain injections” the release said.
Judge Hardy scheduled sentencing for March 7, 2023.
As part of his plea agreement, Lee has agreed to pay $264,730 in restitution to the United States Department of Health & Human Services and $153,230 to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services for losses associated with the fraudulent billings. Lee also has agreed to voluntarily surrender his medical license and DEA registration and not to maintain any ownership or management interest in any medical clinic or facility.
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