Tag: pill mills
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Study finds no link between tighter controls on prescription opioids and increased use of heroin; some researchers disagree
National overdose-death rates for heroin (red) and prescription opioids (blue) By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Soon after Kentucky cracked down on “pill mills” where prescription painkillers were easily available,...
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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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Paducah Sun looks at two local doctors who write many prescriptions for painkillers; such local data are easily available
The Paducah Sun has used some easily available information about two local doctors to shine a local light on their heavy prescribing of opioids. The story by Laurel Black begins,...
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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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More treatment needed to deal with painkiller abuse, expert witness tells Senate caucus; McConnell says jail helps, too
Addiction to prescription painkillers, and increased addiction to heroin by people originally hooked on prescription medicine, is “a public health disaster of catastrophic proportions” that “was caused by the medical...
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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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Cheaper heroin showing up in Eastern Kentucky as crackdown on pain pills makes that trade less attractive
About 60 grams of heroin, worth about$8,000. (AP photo) It was only few months ago that Northern Kentucky law enforcement officers and substance abuse clinics began expressing grave concern that...