Six Detroit area doctors indicted in $500M health care fraud
fox2detroit.com
fox2detroit.com
I guess scapegoat big pharma is successfully finding their own scapegoats!
The feds could straightforwardly address the fentanyl problem by deillegalizing opiods, allowing reputable distribution to take over. And then society could maturely deal with addiction as a personal medical problem. But I guess it's easier to keep hanging it all on personal responsibility and let that DEA/CIA gravy train continue rolling.
And I agree it would be awful if they did. Kratom is certainly not without addiction risk, but if you believe in harm reduction, it’s far better to have people taking it versus prescription opioids or heroin.
disclaimer: yes, it's a reddit post but it seems to capture the essence of the situation and I'm too lazy for other citations at the moment.
However, it absolutely shouldn't be used in a recreational setting as it currently is, served in kratom bars (though they like to use the name "Kava" in an attempt to fly under the radar).
See /r/quittingkratom
But I never said people sell kava as kratom. Selling Kratom in bars is against the law. Instead they set up “kava” bars in which they sell kratom and kava.
Society has "agreed" that while those substances are dangerous, it is up to the individual to determine how they are consumed.
So this then becomes an argument of "I don't like your vice and I'm going to decide whether or not you can partake".
At some point we need to draw a line.
I use kratom both for pain management and at times to take the edge off. That would be "recreational" at that point. I don't want you to be my nanny.
> Are you arguing that opioids should be served recreationally in bars
Maybe, actually. When my brother died of a heroin overdose it was ultimately his mistake but the "market" failed him because there were no standards for purity or strength.
Bear this in mind: heroin is illegal. My brother is dead. What protection was offered there? The cops laughed at another dead junkie.
Do you drink alcohol? Are you fat? Do you ride a bike without a helmet? Smoke cigars? Do rock climbing? Ride motorcycles? Skydive? etc. etc. etc. If so, you must now stop. I'll let you know what you can there going forward, thank you very much.
Are you aware of the history of drug prohibition in the fact that it had absolutely nothing to do with preventing self harm but was an excuse for using the laws for oppressing the underclass.
I know you are arguing in good faith with good intentions but you are horribly, dangerously wrong.
People are stupid, kids are dumb, people are in great pain and want oblivion, people are bored, people just want to have a good time. There are numerous reasons people abuse drugs.
The greater the access to drugs, the greater the potential damage to drug consumers and people around them.
> I'm arguing against making drugs illegal to "protect" people.
Contrary to your comment on society not deeming alcohol worth banning, we actually ban those things in most situations due to the damage they do. We do that to protect people. Riding a bike without a helmet is against the law where I live, thankfully.
I like that there are laws that restrict what I, a grown man, can do. I don't think there's an inherent need to have the freedom to do anything I want. I can't shoot a man in the head, I can't rape and pillage, I can't take some drugs that science has proven that many humans don't have the capacity to safely consume on a recreational basis.
"It's my body and I'll do what I want with it. You're not my mom!!" isn't something I'd ever say. I live in a community. I have a family and friends.
We'll have to agree to disagree.
We can disagree on personal liberties but not on history. The history of drug prohibition is rife with the oppression of minorities. Here's something to consider: http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/race-and-drug-war
> "It's my body and I'll do what I want with it. You're not my mom!!"
That's really patronizing and doesn't help your argument at all.
It's clear your mind is made up so I won't push the issue, but while you are well-intended you appear to be rather naive about this subject.
Being that your attitude helps prop up this madness and actually contributes to more misery, I can't help but strongly resent your nanny-state inclinations.
Unless you're under a certan age, or driving a car, or piloting a plane the next day, or etc etc.
And there is strong societal pressure against pregnant women drinking any alcohol at all despite there being no evidence that small amounts of alcohol are harmful during pregnancy.
What's your point?
I don't understand this at all. Most opioids are legal prescription drugs. The problem is that they are highly addictive, so despite trying deal with addition as a "personal medical problem", which is how many opioid addicts are treated in the US, it still results in a huge increase in dead people.
> I don't understand this at all. Most opioids are legal prescription drugs.
It's pretty straightforward. "Legal prescription drugs" are drugs you're not allowed to have without permission, and doctors face prosecution for giving you permission. This doesn't really promote safe availability -- it's specifically intended to do the opposite.
The point is that opiates from a reputable distribution channel wouldn't be laced with fentanyl. Have the state run the stores, appropriate security on duty, set the price just below market level, and use the profits to fund treatment programs. Tie the treatment programs into the retail stores, for immediate feedback for when people deviate. The treatment programs could even do things like accept returns for full refund, so people who are trying to quit aren't tempted to keep a stash laying around.
I doubt most people addicted to opiates actually want to be addicted - an aspect that gets left out of the righteous narrative.
Making fentanyl available at CVS would probably increase the number of people addicted to opioids, but would also vastly reduce the risk of death in those people (due to better quality control and consistent dosage).
This is disgusting on so many levels.
If this is true I hope they throw the book at all of them and anyone else involved as well.
Follow your doctor’s recommendations and communicate how the pain is.
Some people need opioids for relatively minor surgery while others can get by with NSAIDS for relatively major surgery.
I was really annoyed when my wife’s doctor freely prescribed her oxi after her delivery even though my wife never asked for it and never showed any sign of needing it.
Having free flowing prescriptions is how we end up with so many addicts.
Good way to avoid getting addicted.
about 7 years ago my wife got sand in her eye - was problematic enough that we went to a local clinic. she wasn't going to go blind, but it was irritated enough that after flushing it out, it still looked... bad. and she indicated it was a bit sore, that she wanted to get home to just try to get to sleep.
The doctor there offered a prescription for percocet. We said "no, no need - we'll call if there's a problem". They handed us a prescription for... either 7 or 14 pills. we took it and didn't use it.
A few years later I ended up with extreme lower back pain. I could hardly move - was bed/chair-bound for 4 days. Had called around to see if any clinic would see me to prescribe some pain killer. NOPE. Don't want to create any addicts. Clinics all have signs on them saying 'no prescriptions for...' then a list of 4-5 things.
We were basically force-fed a prescription for something way out of line with what was necessary, then when something was necessary... not available.
Yep, just my anecdote, but it's stuck with me, mostly because I don't have that many medical interactions in the first place, so the outliers tend to stick out.
Asking for a referral for an x-ray/ultrasound for your back pain will often make them go "Here, why don't you try this opioid first and see if it gets better?"
one office offered to schedule an appointment for about 4 weeks later, which I didn't take.
This situation has happened to me twice, both times this pain came out of nowhere, and first time it took me out of commission the better part of 4 days. Tried to get any medication (per above story) - nothing. Second time this happened, 2 years later, it lasted about 3 days, and I didn't even bother trying to get anything - just took a lot of OTC stuff. If this happened regularly, I might be able to figure out if there's some trigger to avoid, but... 2x in the last 6 years - hard to pinpoint!
I should add that this gave me a little bit of insight as to how people who live with chronic pain might feel all the time. Just a few days of that was maddening. Thinking it might be the 'new normal' - constant intense pain that rarely lapses - would really have been difficult to cope with, and I probably can emphathize (or is it sympathize?) a bit more with the prescription drug abuse situation.
Oversteer is the norm. Precautionary principle and all that.
Patients with chronic pain have to train their care givers, just as they have to train you. You're building relationships, trust. Just like dating, jobs. Unhappy or uncomfortable? Move on to others you can work with.
But I do remember that, even though I filled the prescription, I never ended up taking it. A few days of higher-dose ibuprofen (taken with food) was enough.
1. Make sure we're in agreement as to the things being done. Yes, it's been discussed multiple times, but best to be clear!
2. Ask what kind of pain killers I'll already be on when I wake up.
Recreational drug use can be fun but I don't think that's your prerogative here.
https://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/no-significant-diffe...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180417181101.h...
Either way, after an operation might as well suck it up a bit, like they did before Oxy and the likes came.
As a disclaimer, you may have poor liver or kidney function which would contraindicate some of the medications I mentioned, your surgical team will make that call.
maybe this is reading too much into it, but might this be evidence that government health care funds are poorly managed and pay out too much, too often, asking too few questions in the process?
To note it, the article's figures are for submitted claims, not for approved claims.
I can't wait for them to do this to the military black budget one day.
One of the Doctors mentioned is in Ada which is near Grand Rapids and clear across the state!
It was interesting work: we had data tapes shipped from CMS to us, we loaded the data into a Sybase database, and then used an analysis tool (which I can't recall the name of) to look for patterns of fraud - again, this was what now seems like a lifetime ago.
Is anyone currently working detecting Medicare and Medicaid fraud?
This breaks the rule about not breaking the law while breaking the law.