Princess Health and Kentucky is cracking down on Suboxone, a heroin substitute that has become a big part of the illegal trade in painkillers.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Kentucky is cracking down on Suboxone, a heroin substitute that has become a big part of the illegal trade in painkillers.Princessiccia

doctor shopping doctors drug abuse drugs health insurance health reform insurance coverage narcotics obamacare pain clinics physicians pill mills state government

Gusty 09:40 Add Comment

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 for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The drug is buprenorphine, the active ingredient in the brand-name drugs Suboxone and Subutex, which became more popular in 2012, when the state cracked down on "pill mills" that were freely handing out prescriptions for painkillers. "A lot of the pill mills morphed into facilities that dispense these prescriptions," Dr. John Langefeld, medical director for the state's Medicaid program, told Meehan.

Also, Meehan writes, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act required insurance plans to cover treatment for substance abuse, and "as more Medicaid patients and others got health-insurance coverage, more people obtained prescriptions for buprenorphine, Langefeld said. . . . According to a state report, one user obtained prescriptions from nine doctors."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/06/20/3910362_the-drug-that-was-supposed-to.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/06/20/3910362_the-drug-that-was-supposed-to.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Lexington Herald-Leader chart by Chris Ware from state data

Use of the drug in Kentucky "has increased 241 percent since 2012," Meehan reports. "And 80 percent of the prescriptions for it were being written by 20 percent of the state's 470 certified prescribers, said Dr. Allen Brenzel, medical director of the state's Department of Behavioral Health. . . . Since 2011, 10 doctors have been sanctioned by the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure because of problems prescribing Suboxone."

Suboxone is supposed to be taken in conjunction with therapy and drug testing. "a patient receives a controlled dose of a legal drug as the dose is tapered by a physician for a safe and effective withdrawal," Meehan notes. However, "doctors started to see Suboxone patients on a cash basis, asking for as much as $300 for an office visit that included a prescription for the maximum allowable amount of Suboxone. Patients often received no therapy or drug testing. Some patients were on the maximum dose indefinitely, Brenzel said." Some doctors prescribed the drug with other painkillers, creating an illegal market.

To prevent such abuse by unscrupulous doctors, the medical-licensure board has issued regulations that require "more physician education and the requirement that the drug be prescribed only for medically supervised withdrawal and not be given to pregnant women," Meehan writes. "Patients should also be closely monitored and drug tested. If those rules are not followed, a doctor can face sanctions or restrictions to his medical license."

Suboxone was in the national news recently because the accused killer in the Charleston, S.C., shootings was arrested for illegal possession of it four months ago at a South Carolina shopping mall, the Herald-Leader notes.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/06/20/3910362_the-drug-that-was-supposed-to.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/06/20/3910362_the-drug-that-was-supposed-to.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Princess Health and Princess Health andNew rule allows Medicare to drop doctors for irresponsible prescribing.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andNew rule allows Medicare to drop doctors for irresponsible prescribing.Princessiccia

doctor shopping doctors Medicare physicians pill mills prescription drug abuse prescription drugs

Gusty 17:28 Add Comment

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 the availability of prescription drugs to abusers in Kentucky. More than 1,000 Kentuckians die each year from prescription drug overdoses, and the state has the third-highest overdose death rate in the nation.

Opoids, which are often found in pain medicine, are the most commonly abused prescription drugs, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Hydrocodone, an opoid, is the most commonly prescribed controlled substance in Kentucky, according to the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting (KASPER) system, and is also the most prescribed drug in Part D program, according to ProPublica's Prescriber Checkup, a tool that compares physicians' prescribing patterns among specialties and states.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed the new rule after ProPublica documented "how Medicare's failure to oversee Part D effectively had enabled doctors to prescribe inappropriate or risky medications, had led to the waste of billions of dollars on needlessly expensive drugs and had exposed the program to rampant fraud," Ornstein writes.

Part D covers 37.5 million seniors and disabled patients, and one in every four prescriptions in the U.S. is paid for by Medicare, costing taxpayers $62 billion in 2012, and experts have complained that Medicare is more interested in providing drugs to patients than in targeting problem prescribers, Ornstein notes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general has called for tighter controls.

The new rule allows Medicare to drop doctors "if it finds their prescribing abusive, a threat to public safety or in violation of Medicare rules," or if their Drug Enforcement Administration registration certificates are suspended or revoked, Ornstein writes. Problem providers will be identified by prescribing data, disciplinary actions, malpractice lawsuits and other information.

Opponents of the rule have called its definition of "abusive" prescribing too vague. Some worry that patients will lose access to necessary medication if their doctor is removed from the program, Ornstein writes. Medicare officials said they intend to expel providers only in "very limited and exceptional circumstances," saying "It will become clear to honest and legitimate prescribers . . . that our focus is restricted to cases of improper prescribing that are so egregious that the physician or practitioner's removal from the Medicare program is needed to protect Medicare beneficiaries."

The new rule also allows the Medicare center to "compel health care providers to enroll in Medicare to order medications for patients covered by its drug program, known as Part D," Ornstein writes. Now, doctors not enrolled in Medicare can prescribe for Part D patients; they will have to enroll or opt out of the program by June 1, 2015.

The doctors most affected by this will be dentists and Department of Veterans Affairs physicians who provide services not covered by Medicare but have patients who fill prescriptions covered by the program, Ornstein notes. Most health providers are already enrolled. (Read more)

Princess Health and Legislature sends fix of last year's pill-mill bill to Beshear.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Legislature sends fix of last year's pill-mill bill to Beshear.Princessiccia

doctor shopping doctors drug abuse General Assembly legislation legislature physicians pill mills prescription drug abuse prescription drugs state government

Gusty 18:06 Add Comment

"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 the governor�s desk," Mike Wynn reports for The Courier-Journal. On a 36-0 vote, the Senate sent House Bill 217 to Gov. Steve Beshear, who said he will sign it tomorrow.

The chief lobbyist for the Kentucky Medical Association said the physicians' group did not get all the changes it requested in last year's law but is satisfied with the bill. It "would exempt hospitals and long-term care facilities from many of the requirements that doctors must follow before prescribing drugs," Wynn writes. "It also creates a 14-day exemption for surgery patients and gives doctors more discretion in examining patients before a prescription is given." (Read more)

Princess Health and House sends Senate pill-mill and Medicaid managed-care fixes.Princessiccia

Princess Health and House sends Senate pill-mill and Medicaid managed-care fixes.Princessiccia

doctor shopping legislation legislature managed care Medicaid pain management pill mills prescription drug abuse prescription drugs state government; General Assembly

Gusty 10:38 Add Comment

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 regualtions. The bill also tightens restricitions on prescription drugs, reports Ryan Alessi of cn|2.

The other measure, House Bill 5, deals with payment problems of the Medicaid managed care system. Itl would apply the prompt-payment laws to managed-care organizations and would move Medicaid late-payment complaints and disputes to the insurance department; those are now handled by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which administers Medicaid.

Both bills are expected to see action in the Senate.

Princess Health and House panel approves bill easing rules of 2012's pill-mill bill.Princessiccia

Princess Health and House panel approves bill easing rules of 2012's pill-mill bill.Princessiccia

doctor shopping drug abuse drugs General Assembly KASPER legislation legislature pain clinics pill mills prescription drug abuse prescription drugs state government

Gusty 13:04 Add Comment

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 down on prescription drug abuse through doctor shopping and "pill mills" where painkiller prescriptions are easily available for a fee.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo told the House Judiciary Committee that House Bill 217 would fix �unintended consequences� of 2012's House Bill 1 while still requiring that health-care providers use the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system to track painkiller prescriptions.

The bill "would exempt hospitals and long-term care facilities from HB 1�s per-unit patient dosing restrictions and ensure that physicians decide when physicals are needed," the Kentucky Press News Service reported. "It would limit restricted access to narcotic pain medication for surgery patients, end-of-life patients, cancer patients and a few other categories of patients who may need increased pain management, Stumbo said." (Read more)

Princess Health and 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.Princessiccia

Princess Health and 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.Princessiccia

doctor shopping drug abuse governor legislation legislature neonatal care pain pain clinics pill mills prescription drug abuse smoking smoking ban smoking ordinances state government tobacco

Gusty 20:57 Add Comment

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 a joint session of the General Assembly.

Beshear called for action to correct the state's "fundamental weaknesses," including "a population whose health ranks among the worst in the nation." Near the end of his speech, he said, "We need to continue improving the health of our people," but after about a minute of discussing tobacco and smoking he stopped short of endorsing a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace. (KET photo)

"It's time for us to begin looking seriously at doing this on a statewide level," he said to some applause, after noting that nearly half of Kentuckians live in jurisdictions where smoking is legally restricted, that the state has the highest or next-to-highest smoking rate overall and among teens and pregnant women, and that "Our smoking-related mortality rate is the worst in the nation. . . . Our addiction hurts productivity, jacks up health care costs and kills our people."

Beshear called for improving prenatal care and newborn screening, and for minor improvements in last year's bill to fight prescription drug abuse. He said the bill has caused a precipitous drop in abuse of prescription painkillers. "Kentucky at one time had the sixth highest rate in the nation, but . . . we improved 24 spots," he said. "Nearly half of the state's known pain management clinics have closed rather than submit to new rules that protect patients." He said use of the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system "has increased nearly seven-fold . . . and prescriptions for some of the most abused drugs have dropped up to 14 percent from a year ago."

However, the problem of babies becoming addicted to drugs in their addicted mothers' wombs has skyrocketed in the last decade or so, Beshear said: "In 2000, reports showed 29 babies in Kentucky born addicted to drugs. But in 2011, there were 730 babies � more than 25 times as many. And that figure is thought to be under-reported." He did not say how he wants to improve screening.

Beshear did not mention perhaps the biggest health policy question facing the commonwealth, whether to use federal subsidies to expand the Medicaid program to people in households earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty threshold. Now the program covers people in households earning up to 70 percent of the poverty line. The federal government would pay all the cost of the additional enrollees through 2016, when the state would start picking up part of the tab, up to 20 percent in 2020.

Some Republicans say the state can't afford the expansion, while some Democrats say it would be a good long-term investment in the state's health and economy. Beshear has said he wants to do it if the commonwealth can afford it, and expects to get cost estimates around the end of March -- about the time the legislature must adjourn.

For a PDF of the speech text, click here. For an audio recording, go here. For video from KET, here.

Princess Health and FDA likely to make hydrocodone painkillers harder to prescribe.Princessiccia

Princess Health and FDA likely to make hydrocodone painkillers harder to prescribe.Princessiccia

addiction doctor shopping drugs pain prescription drug abuse prescription drugs

Gusty 10:34 1 Comment

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 stem the tide of prescription painkiller abuse and addiction in the U.S., much of it in rural areas, beginning in Central Appalachia. Painkillers containing hydrocodone are the most widely prescribed drugs in the country.

Sabrina Tavernise of The New York Times reports the FDA is likely to adopt the panel's recommendations, which include limiting access to hydrocodone drugs such as Vicodin by making them harder to prescribe. Refills wouldn't be allowed without a new prescription, and faxed or called-in prescriptions wouldn't be accepted. Only a hanwritten prescription from a doctor would be allowed, and pharmacists would be required to keep the drugs in special vaults.

Many said these changes would be a key step in reducing painkiller addiction. However, dissenters in the vote were concerned that this move wouldn't make a difference. Oxycodone, the main ingredient in the highly-abused painkiller OxyContin, has been classified in a restrictive category since it was first introduced on the market but it is still widely abused, dissenters said. They also said the change could create unfair obstacles for legitimate patients. (Read more)