Legislation to curb prescription-drug abuse introduced by U.S. Sen. Brown
Columbus Dispatch – Legislation to curb prescription drug abuse by cracking down on “doctor-shopping and pharmacy-hopping” was introduced today by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
The Stop Trafficking of Pills Act would mandate national adoption of Medicaid “lock-In programs” in use in 20 states. Such programs provide close monitoring to reduce the number of doctors from which “high-risk patients” can get prescriptions and pharmacies from which these patients can fill them.
Brown, a Democrat, said a Government Accountability Office audit of Medicaid programs in five large states found 65,000 cases where patients “visited six or more doctors and up to 46 different pharmacies to acquire prescriptions.” The report also uncovered 1,800 prescriptions written for dead patients and 1,200 “written” by dead physicians.
Ohio’s Medicaid program covered $820 million in medications last year, many of them pain medications. He said while most people are using their medications correctly, some are defrauding the system by selling them.
