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Well, I have finally gotten settled back home in Texas (and re-discovered how much I hate moving), but that story is for a later post.
I have a new doctor that a friend recommended and in the course of reviewing my records and getting me back on my meds, we got into a conversation about politics. In the course of that he confirmed that as of September 1, 2008 ALL PRESCRIPTIONS, scheduled and non-scheduled, written by any physician in Texas will be reported and recorded into the PMP. And, apparently unlike Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere, this PMP is going to be used for active enforcement purposes, and having your name appear too often getting a script that the DPS doesn't think you should have too much of is sufficient probable cause (under the law that established the expansion from schedule II only) for a search warrant and/or arrest warrant in and of itself. Be forewarned, the new Texas PMP is an enforcement, not a treatment, tool.
Big brother lives, and this is really scary. Only 6 months and counting until Bush is out!
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JUL 21 -- Columbia, SC - United States Attorney W. WALTER WILKINS stated that Harold Eugene Gillung, age 49, of Myrtle Beach, pled guilty in federal court in Florence to tampering with consumer products, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1365(a)(4). United States District Judge R. Bryan Harwell accepted the plea and will impose a sentence upon Gillung at a later date.
Evidence established that Gillung has been a registered pharmacist since 1984. From February to August 2006, Gillung was working as a part-time pharmacist at CVS locations in and around the Myrtle Beach, SC area. An investigation began after a CVS pharmacy technician witnessed Gillung crushing a pill and putting the powder on an open wound. Video cameras were installed and recorded Gillung emptying capsules of meprozine and refilling them with crushed hydrocodone, both Schedule II controlled substances. Customers with prescriptions for meprozine were unwittingly given hydrocodone in capsules meant for meprozine.
Gillung was interviewed by CVS and admitted to having a meprozine addiction, and taking the meprozine from CVS stock. CVS thereafter quarantined all of its meprozine stock in the pharmacies where Gillung had worked, and contacted customers who had filled prescriptions for meprozine during the period in which Gillung switched the medications. No injuries were reported by affected customers.
Mr. Wilkins stated the maximum penalty Gillung can receive is a fine of $250,000.00 and imprisonment for 10 years.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Diversion Unit. Assistant United States Attorney William E. Day, II, of the Florence office handled the case.
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When looking for/switching to a new PCP would I have to go through my insurance co.? Or is it something I can just do w/ little question or concern from Drs or insurance?
When/if I do is it bad form to ask the new Dr for a certain RX even if it's not the one my original PCP wanted me to try?
My reason:
Migraines get me. They do not get me often, but when they do it's long & hard.
My PCP's aware they happen & they've been discussed at annual physicals. We've tried a few RXs: different narcotics & Fioricet -- Fioricet has worked the best for me since high school. I'd like to also add I am against taking an RX daily, thankfully this is one thing my PCP *does* respect.
Recently, at my last physical, my Dr stated he wanted to try something new (blah, blah, blah... I've given way to many boring details, sorry) & prescribed 2 mg hydromorphone.
I'd like to mention here that I've been exclusively breastfeeding my first baby for the past eight months & intend to continue to at least one year. My Dr knows this.
Beginning to see my problem?
Thanks for listening!
Long-winded
(But, the question wouldn't have made much sense otherwise)!!!
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...cuz i just know this is gonna be a dumb question. but bear with me, one never knows?
is there a way to track an order on DHL w/out actually having a tracking number?
w29, tiptoeing away as this question may truly be asinine. i dunno?
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FYI: As reflected in the latest Rasmussen Reports, "Just 9 percent (of Americans) say Congress is doing a good or excellent job." It is the first single-digit approval rating for Congress in Rasmussen's history, and it makes Bush's 30 percent approval rating seem like a stat to boast.
C/K
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Check this out:
"Australian doctors have published in a medical journal the case of a 17-year old held for observation, suffering the first observed case of “climate change delusion phenomenon” (CCD). It seems that he suffered from fears that “due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead to days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies.” This particular product of modern education techniques “was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood…He also…had visions of apocalyptic events.” Where ever would he get such an idea?
OK, this is where it gets uncomfortable, but…first observed case? Sure, and I just swerved from the first observed case of road rage. Good grief, you could have padded the walls at last year’s Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. Bring the giant butterfly nets to any college campus, and call avant garde “artist” Cristo to surround the European continent in bubble wrap, stat, because this mania long-ago reached epic proportions. Better late than never, and all that. But please tell me the difference between this kid and Al Gore? "
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I'm not making this up. I got it from some Australian newspaper (I forget which one offhand). What next? Jeez....
Best to all,
C/K
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Today I learned that the Police were investigating a pharmacists assistant at the local pharmacy where I get a lot of my prescriptions filled.
Apparently she was copying prescription that other people dropped off, and filled them for herself.
Well, during the Police investigation, the detective called my doctor to see how many prescription he wrote so he could figure out how many the girl at the pharmacy forged.
The detective also was given information as to what medications I have been prescribed.
All of my medical information was given to this police officer OVER THE PHONE without my knowledge or permission!
Now keep in mind I am in no trouble, all of my prescriptions were legal and in good standing.
So after hearing of this I contacted two lawyers in my area and they both said that under new HIPA rules, a police officer can go into a persons medical and prescription records with NO warrant if the officer is conducting an investigation.
I cannot describe how violated and angered I am about this.
Our personal medical records are supposed to be SACRED. And yet any person who may or may not be a cop can call up a Dr's office and get personal information on people?
This is insane!
I feel like I am living in the old soviet union. Or communist China.
Do the police officers who do these type of things have no morals? Or have they been brainwashed so bad that they think they are above the law.
My lawyer is going to check into this further to find out if I can take any legal action at all. If I can sue, I am going to bleed that Police department dry.
What do you folks think about this?
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Hi everyone. Does anyone know what a valid UPS tracking number looks like? Does it have any letters in it and how many digits total does it contain? Any help will be appreciated.
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I did a search and didn't find where this article had been posted, so please forgive me if it has been. The title of the article is very interesting. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/...ts.373c4df.html
Medical insurers Aetna, Cigna agree to pay for online doctor visits
12:34 AM CST on Saturday, February 16, 2008
Los Angeles Times
Consulting your family physician is finally moving into the 21st century and out of the doctor's office.
Since the dawn of e-mail, patients have been pleading for more doctors to offer medical advice online. No traffic jams, no long waits, no germ-infested offices.
There was always one major roadblock: Many health insurers wouldn't pay for it.
Until now.
In recent weeks, Aetna Inc., the nation's largest insurer, and Cigna Corp. have agreed to reimburse doctors for online visits.
Other large insurers are expected to follow, experts say.
These new online services, which typically cost the same as a regular office visit, are aimed primarily at those who already have a doctor.
The virtual visits are considered best for follow-up consultations and treatment for minor ailments such as colds and sore throats.
But some specialists, including cardiologists and gynecologists, also see these e-mail visits as ideal for periodic checkups that don't require in-person presence.
"People can wait a long time to get in to see their primary-care doctor and longer for a specialist. ... To have immediate access is huge," said Dr. Melissa Welch, Aetna's medical director for northern California.
As more doctors move online, others are looking ahead and adding webcams, even if the video quality remains spotty.
Dr. Christy Calderon, a family physician at Kaiser Permanente in Whittier, Calif., conducts up to half her appointments over the phone or online with a 3-inch camera affixed to her desktop computer.
"It adds a more personal touch," she said.
Although visits to the doctor's office certainly won't disappear, the recent moves are evidence that long-delayed efforts to bring American medicine into the digital age may be gaining momentum.
"Paying doctors to do more patient care over the Internet is a small but important step in a good direction," said David Cutler, a Harvard University health care economist. "It increases patient access and could significantly improve their satisfaction."
If so, it comes at an auspicious time. Doctor visits in the United States have surged 20 percent in the last five years to more than 1.2 billion visits annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Even as the population ages, the number of doctors is falling across the country, and experts predict that office wait times will increase in the coming years.
Meanwhile, at-home devices that check patients' blood pressure and diabetics' sugar levels are becoming cheaper.
Tech leaders Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are expected to introduce products in 2008 to simplify patient care and put medical records online. Neither company plans to assist in online physician appointments.
Some in the medical community envision a day when patients take their vital signs each morning and send the results to their doctor by computer.
But can a doctor really diagnose patients via pixels?
Critics, including many doctors, contend that online medical care carries risks. Some worry that mistakes are bound to happen and that the practice raises several hard-to-answer ethical questions.
"It's perfectly appropriate that we use 21st-century technology in the 21st century," said Dr. Richard Frankenstein, president of the California Medical Association.
"The concern I have is that [online visits] are simply not a substitute for an actual doctor," said the pulmonologist, who practices in Orange County.
Doctors and patients have many ways to communicate over the Internet. Some doctors and their office staffs already e-mail patients free of charge, especially when it involves minor questions or prescription refills.
Many of the new online consultations are far more structured than a simple e-mail. If insurance companies are expected to pay the bill, physicians need documentation of the event, including diagnosis and time spent.
As a result, service companies have emerged to help doctors handle this. They typically arrange the online visits, maintain records and handle insurance reimbursements, patient co-payments and other payments.
To begin using these online services, patients visit a doctor's Web site or go directly to one of the Internet companies that handle such services.
Doctors are encouraged to respond to patients within a day; they receive an e-mail reminder if they haven't, with a phone call on the second day. Prices vary from $25 to $125, which patients pay with a credit card at the end of the session.
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Mandatory reading for those of you who take darvon or Darvocet
Darvocet - FDA Getting Sued for Inaction
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Public Citizen Sues FDA for Failure to Act on Dangerous Drug
Propoxyphene (Darvon) Has Hazardous Side Effects And Is No More Effective Than Similar Drugs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public Citizen sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today for failing to act on its petition to withdraw Darvon, Darvocet and all drugs containing propoxyphene gradually from the market as has now been required in the United Kingdom (U.K.).
Public Citizen’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the FDA is violating the law by not acting on Public Citizen’s Feb. 28, 2006, petition. By not acting, the FDA is allowing drugs containing propoxyphene to remain on the market, putting patients at risk.
Propoxyphene is physically and psychologically addictive, is no more effective than safer alternatives and has been associated with more than 2,000 accidental deaths in America since 1981, Public Citizen told the FDA in its 2006 petition. Despite the drug’s health risks, however, it was one of the 25 most prescribed generic drugs last year, with 22 million prescriptions filled in pharmacies in 2007.
According to Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, “Top FDA drug officials, including Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Director Dr. Janet Woodcock and Dr. Robert Temple, are well aware that this drug has considerable human toxicity, addiction potential and abuse liability, but very limited therapeutic usefulness. Given this extremely unfavorable ratio of risks to benefits, it is inexcusable that the FDA did not take propoxyphene off the market long ago. It is our hope that this lawsuit will force the agency to finally begin this desperately needed regulatory process.”
The U.K. began a phased withdrawal of Darvocet from the British market in 2005, following the recommendation of the U.K. Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM). In its report, the CSM stated that it could not “identify any patient group in whom the risk-benefit [ratio] may be positive.” The withdrawal was completed at the end of 2007.
However, three years after the British government began its action to withdraw the drug, and two years after Public Citizen petitioned for its phasing out, the FDA still has not done anything to protect Americans from propoxyphene’s dangerous side effects.
A large proportion of the deaths from propoxyphene occurred because most of the drug is converted into a metabolite that is highly toxic to the heart, lasts longer in the body than the original compound and results in cardiac depression. Adverse cardiac events associated with propoxyphene include an interruption of heart transmission of electrical impulses, slowed heartbeats and a decreased ability of the heart to contract properly.
Propoxyphene-acetaminophen, or Darvocet, is more dangerous than acetaminophen (theingredient in Tylenol) alone, yet a study has indicated that Darvocet is no more effective in treating post-operative pain than acetaminophen. Reports on propoxyphene dosage suggest addiction can occur at less than the maximum recommended daily dose and unequivocally confirm addiction at just twice the recommended daily dose.
In addition, propoxyphene has been deemed inappropriate for the elderly because of its adverse effects on the central nervous system – such as sedation and confusion – that have been found to increase the likelihood of falls and fall-related fractures. Studies have shown that propoxyphene use is widespread in emergency rooms, institutionalized populations and retirement communities.
Public Citizen is asking the court to find that the FDA’s delay in ruling on the 2006 petition is unlawful and to order the FDA to issue a decision on the petition.
Public Citizen publishes Worst Pills, Best Pills, a monthly newsletter available in print and electronic formats through Public Citizen’s Web site, http://www.WorstPills.org. This site has other searchable information about the uses, risks and adverse effects associated with prescription medications, including all the information contained in Public Citizen’s best-selling book, “Worst Pills, Best Pills,” which has listed propoxyphene as a DO NOT USE drug since its first edition in 1988. Public Citizen has a strong track record of identifying dangerous drugs well before federal regulators take action to ban or put warnings on these drugs. For example, Public Citizen warned consumers about the dangers of Vioxx, ephedra, Bextra, Rezulin, Baycol, Propulsid and many other drugs years before the drugs were pulled from the market.
A pain management doctor made this comment after the article:
I still see this as a first line drug through my ER docs and PCP's. I just educate the patients when they come in. Only as strong as Tylenol with the potential of cardiac and neural toxicity. Lovely.
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