Drug testing

[Bunnykid68]

Drug testing to make sure you are taking drugs that are prescribed to you. I don't even know what to say about this. If you have chronic pain and take hydrocodone life just got more expensive for you.

Doctors get order to limit painkiller prescriptions

 

[hoosierdoc]

It is long overdue.TONS of people with "chronic pain" simply sell the pills. If you test negative for it, then you ain't taking it and thus don't need a script.

more people die as a result of prescription pain meds than illegal narcotics. This also will help curtail docs who simply charge $100 cash for a visit and drop script for high dose benzodiazepines and narcotics without bothering to do any background work.

 

[Bunnykid68]

So, it's punish the law abiding as usual.

 

[Classic]

I know you are right Hoosierdoc, I guess they have to do something. I am just so weary of the government and everyone else snooping around and collecting "data" on me all the time.

 

[atvdave]

I can see workman's compensation clams for back pain cut in half.

 

[Trigger Time]

So, it's punish the law abiding as usual.

I know you are right Hoosierdoc, I guess they have to do something. I am just so weary of the government and everyone else snooping around and collecting "data" on me all the time.

Yep. The innocent always get punished for the bad.

if people want to die from not wearing a seatbelt let them die. Same for pills.

We have so many stupid laws. If more doctors did their Job and actually spent time on their patients maybe this would help too? Sooo many pos doctors out there who could care less about their patients. I've fired more than 1. They work for YOU!
lock up the doctors who abuse their position.

 

[hoosierdoc]

So, it's punish the law abiding as usual.

Where is this "punishment"? Haiti is a country full of chronic, non-treated orthopedic injuries. They work their fingers to nubs hand-tilling fields their whole lives, yet they have no access to narcotic meds. Is the argument that Haiti would be better off if we supplied chronic narcotics to half of their population based on the American threshold for narcotics administration?

I have parents who want their 12 year-olds to get Vicodin for a butt bruise, an ankle sprain, a laceration, etc. it's absurd. They want them for menstrual cramps, sore throat, ear ache, finger sprain, etc...

Chronic pain management clinics are getting away from providing pills and switching to alternative therapies such as blocks, stimulators, biofeedback, etc. chronic pain meds have screwed up countless people I have seen and turned normal people into addicted depressed folks who have zero interest in life.

Long story short: narcotic scripts are MASSIVELY abused in this country and this is the next step to getting it under control.

 

[LostLake]

It is long overdue.TONS of people with "chronic pain" simply sell the pills. If you test negative for it, then you ain't taking it and thus don't need a script.

more people die as a result of prescription pain meds than illegal narcotics. This also will help curtail docs who simply charge $100 cash for a visit and drop script for high dose benzodiazepines and narcotics without bothering to do any background work.

As a former (legal and legit) patient who was regularly prescribed opioid medication, I would have been cool with the urinalysis. It won't affect a legit CP patient much and the extra hassle will be worth it for those living with chronic pain.

I never understood how so many people were prescribed heavy duty narcotic pain medications. It was a very long road of trial and error medicine's before I was ever prescribed a low dosage of Vicodin.

 

[LostLake]

Yep. The innocent always get punished for the bad.

if people want to die from not wearing a seatbelt let them die. Same for pills.

We have so many stupid laws. If more doctors did their Job and actually spent time on their patients maybe this would help too? Sooo many pos doctors out there who could care less about their patients. I've fired more than 1. They work for YOU!
lock up the doctors who abuse their position.

I can see both ends of the argument. I believe that many doctors do their best with what they have to work with. If I were a doctor, I'd be skeptical as hell prescribing medicine like this.

I'd say more than 50% of the population could not control themselves with heavy duty pain medicine. It's difficult and takes an iron will.

Rest assured, the for the folks taking this medicine responsibly and legally, this won't affect them much.

 

[forgop]

The United States alone uses 80% of the pain medications prescribed in the entire world. Do we really have more of a pain problem than everyone else or do we have a system of abusers? Luckily, we get to subsidize their prescription drug abuse.

 

[indianachris]

Limiting medication is a good thing but in the end more people will turn to harder drugs to get their fix. Anytime I was in pain at the doctor or hospital I just ask for the strongest non narcotic so I won't be labeled a pill seeker and hopefully get the pain relief I need.

 

[joneser49]

Heroin dealers are going to love this new law. Are opiate addicts just going to go clean because there are less pills? If heroin was on the stock market....

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

This is the kind of thing that continues to happen when people don't govern themselves. (Patient and doctor). Yeah people ought to have a right to kill themselves or whatever. But when spouses and kids watch their loved ones ruin their lives, when doctors don't uphold their oaths, people are going to demand action to stop it. And you're right BK, the law abiding always get wrapped up in the mess because of the ones that cannot/will not hold up their end of the responsibility.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Heroin dealers are going to love this new law. Are opiate addicts just going to go clean because there are less pills? If heroin was on the stock market....

Addicts can do addict behavior. No reason for a doctor to facilitate it.

 

[Bunnykid68]

As a former (legal and legit) patient who was regularly prescribed opioid medication, I would have been cool with the urinalysis. It won't affect a legit CP patient much and the extra hassle will be worth it for those living with chronic pain.

I never understood how so many people were prescribed heavy duty narcotic pain medications. It was a very long road of trial and error medicine's before I was ever prescribed a low dosage of Vicodin.

Do not forget the increased cost for those that use it. The drug test won't be free, the extra doctors visits won't be free. How long before they make me have to take a drug test for ephedrine? I already have to spend a $100 just to get the $9 scrip because it is too much of a PITA to shop around and try and find because of because of the meth heads.

 

[OkieGirl]

It eliminates a lot of those "new patients" that you only see once and don't really want to establish continuous care (the type Medicare/Medicaid tie your reimbursements to) but rather the type that come in for an initial appointment and on the phone they are healthy as a horse and just need a check up...and when they show up they keep your physician tied up in the exam room for hours with sob story after sob story...all the while your waiting room is backing up with sick patients who need to be seen or health patients rescheduling because they can't wait anymore. They leave with a dozen referrals to specialists they have no intention of seeing, and a script or two. And people actually wonder why care givers are just over it some days. This is a "people" job and you get "shat" upon day after day. You are danged if you do and danged if you don't, so now there's a law to take a little of the heat off the docs.

It's the annoyance of every Friday afternoon in the doctor's office being RX day! The same handful of patients calling, calling, calling, is my script ready? Why not? "I DEMAND TO SPEAK TO MY DOCTOR? "No, I can't come in for a visit!" "I will sue all of you, this is neglect of your patients!!!" I know people may not like this new law, but the physicians have to abide by it. I have been chewed out by patients who are taking medications as prescribed, and I've been threatened by those who are abusing. Now our physicians have rules they must abide by and whether patients like it or not, rules are rules.

If you don't like government intervention vote for candidates who will shrink this cancer we call "government".

 

[hoosierdoc]

I've had a suicidal patient come in for bogus complaints seeking drugs. I declined. They got pissed and swore at me, storming out. I checked on him later and found he went to a different ER that day, got his narcotics, and promptly overdosed himself. No one knew he was suicidal. Scary stuff.

 

[Sylvain]

 

[jagee]

 

[mom45]