Oxycontin

[boglerdude]

Maybe they're libertarian? Who are you tell an adult he cant get high

[WiseOne]

Who are these "medical professionals?" How, in this day and age of computerized-everything, does this kind of prescribing pattern go unnoticed? Who in their right mind spends $200,000 for a medical degree and then risks everything? Who are these peoples' professional peers, and why aren't they speaking up? Cartels bringing in boatloads of heroin I get, but this kind of thing leaves me confused.

Excellent question. You have to be several kinds of stupid not to know that Big Brother is watching you, via pharmacy records and your DEA number. Unfortunately, it's not hard for a person with below average smarts and above average greed to get through medical training. Just go to a foreign medical school that's easy to get into, like Grenada, and get a residency spot in a noncompetitive field where the slots don't fill up (e.g. primary care in an out of the way location). It's even easier for a nurse practitioner, about 5 years less training and they never have to do overnight calls.

However, it's interesting how they're talking about this as an "epidemic" with implication that there is no voluntary act involved on the part of patients. Has no one considered that Appalachia also has high/increasing depression & suicide rates, and that this is part and parcel of the same phenomenon? For example:

Prosecutors also documented how patients traveled to multiple states to see different doctors so they could collect and then fill numerous prescriptions.

This is common, and there is no mechanism out there to alert physicians to this behavior. This might have been one of the benefits of a national EHR system, if the Obama administration had done it right instead of royally screwing things up.

[jacksonM]

Who are these "medical professionals?" How, in this day and age of computerized-everything, does this kind of prescribing pattern go unnoticed? Who in their right mind spends $200,000 for a medical degree and then risks everything? Who are these peoples' professional peers, and why aren't they speaking up? Cartels bringing in boatloads of heroin I get, but this kind of thing leaves me confused.

Back in my younger days there was an elderly doctor who was known for handing out prescriptions to anyone who asked and if you didn't have any money he didn't even ask you to pay. It wasn't oxycontin that people were mostly in search of back then but "downers" were all the rage. I think they called them "sobers". You had to take the prescription and shop it around a bit however, because many of the pharmacists wouldn't fill it.

I went to see him with a couple of friends who were also "patients" and we all sat in his office and sang together. I think he was as high as a kite himself. My impression was that he was just a lonely old man who enjoyed the company.

Unfortunately, he eventually got busted but I don't think he went to jail (at least I hope not). Just lost his license. Everybody complained about too many people spoiling a good thing by not keeping it a secret.

[dualstow]

Good times.

[WiseOne]

This might have been one of the benefits of a national EHR system, if the Obama administration had done it right instead of royally screwing things up.

LOL, aren't you in favor of some version of government run medicare for all? Why on earth would that not be yet another clusterf*ck? What are the chances a bunch of politicians, who know nothing about healthcare, don't make the problem worse, especially when you have people like AOC trying to control everything?

Point taken :-)

Except the private insurance companies are making a complete hash of things already. I fundamentally question the role of private insurance companies in catastrophic (not routine) health care, because there is a glaring conflict of interest involved. I think it's a safe bet that Medicare for all in that realm would be better. Medicare & Medicaid already cover the majority of high-cost/catastrophic health care anyway (about 2/3 of it). Not to say that stupid things don't happen, but it's probably not worth trying to optimize those away.

For routine health care though, I'm with you on that. Any form of insurance, whether public or private, makes zero sense, increases costs and headaches beyond belief, and prevents the kind of innovative strategies that we are seeing getting layered on to the existing system.

[vnatale]

The war on drugs is over.
Drugs won.

Time to declare defeat and get out.

The way I am leaning....

Vinny

[Maddy]

Lawsuit time.

Another money grab by politicians, IMHO. Not the mfg's fault if people abuse their legal products.

Legal, yes, but aggressively marketed without significant warnings about the risk of addiction.

Who doesn't know that these drugs are addictive? Who isn't able to discern this risk for him or herself?

I've heard a lot lately about people being given a modest number of opiate pain killers post-surgery or in some other kind of transient pain situation, and--POOF!--turning into a stark raving addicts. Mild dependence--the kind that might reasonably occur after short-term use--does not create an addict in the sense of rendering a person helpless to overcome his or her insatiable need for the drug. Mild withdrawal symptoms, sure, but conflating that with full-blown addiction in order to bolster the argument for draconian regulation (e.g., denying cancer patients reasonable pain control) is just plain wrong.

[dualstow]

I'm not responding to all these old threads that Vinny's digging up, but for what it's worth, Maddy, I love your recent posts.

[Maddy]

I'm not responding to all these old threads that Vinny's digging up. . .

Yes, somebody should tell him that executive members don't get corner offices.

[vnatale]

I'm not responding to all these old threads that Vinny's digging up. . .

Yes, somebody should tell him that executive members don't get corner offices.

However...…

Whoever responded me to my old one regarding Employee Fiduciary....many, many, MANY Thanks!

I finally have time today to investigate it and am going to town doing so. And, after thinking I'd finally wrapped all my investigation for retirement plans so that our committee could make a decision this coming Tuesday on the three options I'd been researching for like forever....I'm now getting this impression that this last minute latecomer - Employer Fiduciary - might / should be our choice. Their fees are incredibly low!

Vinny