A recent Press Release from U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (Republican, Iowa) caught our attention (read the March 22, 2012 press release here.)
Here are some choice quotes:
“The Office of National Drug Control Policy describes prescription drug abuse as the nation’s fastest-growing problem, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified prescription drug abuse as an epidemic.”
“Over prescription of these types of drugs strains the financial viability of the Medicaid and Medicare systems and threatens the health and well-being of the American people.”
“In 2010, I sent a letter to all 50 state Medicaid directors asking them for their top ten prescribers of the top eight most over-prescribed drugs on the market. Many states provided the data I requested, and the statistics were alarming.”
“For example, the top prescriber of antipsychotics in Nevada wrote nearly 6,800 prescriptions for the drugs over 2010 and 2011 – more than ten times some of the other top prescribers identified. For context, no individual prescriber in Colorado wrote more than 2,000 prescriptions for the same drugs over the same period. This single doctor in Nevada accounted for $2.75 million in payments from the Medicaid system.”
As a result of Senator Grassley’s request, a number of states began investigations into possible insurance fraud regarding these massive drug prescriptions: South Carolina, Texas, California, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Nevada, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, and Hawaii.
Do we have to spell out how this kind of drug fraud and abuse raises health care and insurance costs for the rest of us?
Are there any other states that should be conducting these investigations into Medicaid and Medicare fraud? Perhaps your state? Write your state legislators and other officials and encourage them to do so.
Now, aside from plain greed, what is the real problem here?
If you said, “DSM”, take a win. The rest of you need to watch the CCHR video documentary “Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Psychiatry’s Deadliest Scam.” If you would like your own copy of this DVD, become a CCHR St. Louis member today and we’ll mail one to you.
You can also read Sen. Grassley’s press release at PsychSearch.net, and we encourage you to get the latest psych news there as well as from www.CCHRINT.org.