Tag: doctor shopping
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Kentucky is cracking down on Suboxone, a heroin substitute that has become a big part of the illegal trade in painkillers
A drug that was supposed to help people get off heroin has “created a new cash-for-pills market and a street trade” that state officials are trying to stop, Mary Meehan reports...
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New rule allows Medicare to drop doctors for irresponsible prescribing
Medicare physicians who prescribe drugs in abusive ways can now be expelled by the federal government, Charles Ornstein reports for ProPublica. This increased oversight of Medicare Part D prescribers could help decrease...
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Legislature sends fix of last year’s pill-mill bill to Beshear
“After more than a year of debate, a bill that would revamp Kentucky’s prescription-drug law to more strictly focus on pill abuse and ease requirements on patients is heading to...
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House sends Senate pill-mill and Medicaid managed-care fixes
The state House yesterday approved without dissent two bills aimed at improving Kentucky’s health care. House Bill 217 addresses some “unintended consequences” of last year’s “pill mill bill” by easing some of the bills...
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House panel approves bill easing rules of 2012’s pill-mill bill
They could call it the pill they’re taking to fix the pill-mill bill. A state House committee approved a bill Tuesday that would tweak last year’s legislation aimed at cracking...
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Beshear calls for action to improve state’s health, but says only that ‘It’s time for us to begin looking seriously’ at a smoking ban
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News His priorities were education and tax reform, but Gov. Steve Beshear mentioned several health issues in his State of the Commonwealth speech tonight to...
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FDA likely to make hydrocodone painkillers harder to prescribe
Prescription painkillers containing hydrocodone should be placed in a more restrictive federal category, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel of experts voted on Friday. The changes would be an effort to...
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Legislature likely to tweak, clarify and limit last year’s ‘pill mill bill’
State lawmakers could narrow the focus of last year’s “pill mill bill” during the legislative session that begins tomorrow, to concentrate on adults with long-term prescriptions for frequently abused painkillers,...
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Painkiller epidemic was driven in part by drug makers’ financial relationships with researchers who discounted the risks
For almost a decade, medical officials and experts claimed OxyContin rarely posed problems of addiction for patients. The drug’s label, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, said addiction...
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Managed-care doctor creates process to steer pregnant Medicaid recipients who are using dangerous drugs into treatment
When Dr. Jeremy Corbett of Lexington found that “nearly one in five pregnant women enrolled in the Medicaid managed-care program where he works were using narcotics or other harmful drugs,” he...