Government

New Gov’t Report: Your Tax Dollars Supporting Medicare Drug Abuse

Taxpayers Paying for Drug Users Abusing MedicareWASHINGTON (AP) — Drug abusers are exploiting Medicare prescription’s benefit to score large quantities of painkillers, and taxpayers have to foot most of the bill, congressional investigators say in a report.

About 170,000 Medicare recipients received prescriptions from multiple doctors for 14 frequently abused medications in 2008, the Government Accountability Office found in an investigation for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A Medicare recipient in Georgia got prescriptions for 3,655 oxycodone pills – more than a four-year supply of the painkiller – from 58 different prescribers. Another, in California, got prescriptions for a nearly five-year supply of fentanyl patches and pills from 21 different prescribers. Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic used to treat relentless cancer pain.

The cost of the questionable prescriptions amounted to $148 million in 2008. Overall, taxpayers pay three-fourths of the cost of the Medicare prescription drug program, which covers some 28 million seniors and disabled people for about $55 billion a year.

Prescription drug abuse is a growing problem for all types of insurance plans. Narcotics obtained with a prescription from unwitting doctors can feed a personal addiction, or be resold in a lucrative underground market.

Medicare, however, may be hobbled in its ability to confront the situation. Program officials told investigators that federal law does not allow Medicare to limit the access of beneficiaries who appear to be abusing drugs. Many private insurance plans and state Medicaid programs restrict patients who appear to be abusing drugs so they can only get narcotics from specific doctors and pharmacies.

Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Scott Brown, R-Mass., are seeking ways to tighten Medicare rules. Carper chairs a subcommittee scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on the problem.

It’s known as “doctor shopping.” By visiting different practitioners, an addict can get multiple prescriptions for powerful drugs. Often, the doctors are unaware their patient is going to other physicians as well. To avoid suspicion, drug abusers often get their prescriptions filled at different pharmacies.

Using claim records, investigators illustrated how the strategy works: One unnamed Medicare beneficiary visited four doctors over 10 days to obtain a 150-day stock of oxycodone. The first doctor wrote a prescription for a 15-day supply, the second doctor for 20 days, and so on.

The investigation, first reported by The New York Times, found the worst abuse among 600 Medicare beneficiaries, each getting prescriptions from more than 20 doctors. Painkillers hydrocodone and oxycodone were involved in more than 8 out of 10 cases of doctor shopping identified by investigators.

In the context of the program as a whole, the number of drug abusers is small. The 170,000 whose prescription-use patterns aroused suspicion accounted for less than 2 percent of all the Medicare recipients who received prescriptions for the 14 frequently abused drugs.

Investigators attributed most of the cases of questionable behavior to younger beneficiaries, eligible for Medicare because of a disability and not their age. Nearly three-fourths of them also had low incomes.

In its response to the investigators’ findings, Medicare said it recognizes the need to prevent abuse of the prescription program and is looking for ways to best accomplish that.

Comments (34)

  • jcp37ppp41
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:20pm

    Fraud is as clear as the nose on our face. Just watch the daily Judge Shows. You will see on a daily basis how people are ripping of the system and the Judges scold them for doing it. Is anyone prosecuted for these crimes, No, Why, because if the justice system makes loads of money off these shows and should they report these rip offs to the authorities, bye bye show. For example many of these crooks are on section 8. We the taxpayers pay close to $2500 a month for a four bedroom house for these so called poor, destitute familites. They in turn rent these rooms to friends and make a bundle of unreported money each week or month. They come on these shows saying social security disability is their prime source of income yet they are having one baby after another, no pain there of course, and it goes on and on. Watch just one day and you can learn a lesson on how to beat the system and nobody cares or reports it. Shameful.

    Report Post »  
  • QuantumVerp
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 3:28pm

    Oh come on America! All you have to do is raise taxes on your selves and you can pay for this, and then more of this, and then more OF THIS, and THEN MORE OF THIS…

    until they get all they want, which, since they had no clue in the first place, is EVERYTHING!

    Report Post » QuantumVerp  
  • MUDFLAPS
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 1:38pm

    Id be surprised if it wasnt. that would be a bigger story.

    Report Post »  
  • AllAmericanG
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 12:55pm

    My mother died in 2009 because of this very thing. She was 53. She had prescriptions for Valium, Ativan, Demerol and Methadone – 100′s a month. They paid for her to get non-stop prescription drugs, but they wouldn’t pay the money for her to have her tooth pulled or for the treatment that would have prevented the onset of attacks of the disease that made her disabled in the first place.

    YAY government health care.

    Report Post »  
  • hi
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 12:17pm

    This is why the government should stay out of medicine. Private insurers would make darn sure this didn’t happen.

    Report Post » hi  
  • Midwest Blonde
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 11:38am

    Entitlement reform my azz! Lets get the FRAUD and ABUSE cleaned up and see just how much money we can save!

    Report Post » Midwest Blonde  
  • Smoke Ranch
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 11:33am

    My neighbor is also a Social Security fraud who get her free pain drugs from the government for free. She has a job too. She buys and sells her drugs as she sees fit. Worst of all she is now not paying her mortage so she can save money and move to a better place. I have too work and save to just get by and this neighbor of mine is playing the system and doing better than I am. You report these people to Social Security but they do very little. No wonder why the country is going broke.

    Report Post » Smoke Ranch  
  • Callie369
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 10:59am

    I am 71 years old and on medicare plus I have an Advantage Plan. My medicare costs me $1800/yr PLUS what I paid in all my working life and what my husband paid in all his working life which he didn’t live to use as he died at 65!.

    I am in pain 24/7 because of several severe back injuries which cannot be repaired. I take percocet for pain. While my perscription allows 4 PER DAY, I generally take no more than 2. When I do my grocery shopping once a month, a chore that takes about 2 1/2 hours on an electric cart, and when I clean my apartment. both of which results in hellacious pain, I may take 3 in a day. My 30 day prescription of 120 tablets lasts 70-75 days. Why? Because I will not allow myself to become addicted to percocet. Do I suffer? Damn straight I do.

    Report Post »  
    • PApeacemaker
      Posted on October 4, 2011 at 12:37pm

      I hate to break the news to you but you are already addicted. Try going 48 hours without taking 1 percocet I guarantee you get cold sweats, you’ll get antzy, & wont be able to sleep. That my friend is called addiction. It doesnt matter if you only take 1 percocet a day once your body gets used to that opiate on a daily basis after a few months yo will need it to function. An eventually you will build a nice tolerance & you will need more to feel the same pain revealing effects. I know I went through it for 5 years & now Im on suboxene to maintain my habit so I can function. It sucks but its what I have to do & eventually you will go down the same road.

      Report Post » PApeacemaker  
    • JD2020
      Posted on October 4, 2011 at 2:38pm

      pacemaker you are wrong she is not addicted, she is dependent on the drug. Addiction is where you crave the drug 24/7 and take it more than prescribed and abuse the drug per it’s directions. That is a big difference. Anyone taking the meds as prescribed will handle withdrawl and weening off the drug with other meds better than someone addicted.

      Report Post » JD2020  
    • loriann12
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:28am

      There are some conditions that they claim they can do nothing for, except prescribe pain killers. I have a degenerating spine. I was prescribed hydrocodone (7.5/325), to be taken every 4 hours. they gave me 60 with 2 refills. I can only actually take a half one without throwing up, so they last over a month (I also only need a couple a day, and somedays only 1 or none).

      Report Post »  
  • murraylane
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 10:58am

    just saw this-the entitlement mentality has led to a perversion of compassion

    http://potterwilliamsreport.com/2011/10/04/anonymous-source-provides-inside-look-at-medicaremedicaid-fraud.aspx

    Report Post »  
  • motherof18
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 10:57am

    This isn’t one of those drugs Rush was having his servants buy for him is it?

    Report Post »  
  • JRook
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 10:13am

    Ah yes Bush’s government check to Big Pharma. Typical responses in terms of blaming a government program designed to help the needy elderly being exploited and gamed by physicians, who bill a visit for each prescription written and Big Pharma who knows fully which physicians are providing the excess supply. Perhaps it is campaign contributions that keep program controls fuzzy. How about a report on who’s getting money from Big Pharma.

    Report Post »  
  • GENEPAGLIARI
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 10:06am

    It is a gov’t program, right? It is just like the earlier article about the U.N. We give them money to do whatever and they do whatever. Just like the billions in waste in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is money that is turned around and used against us. Throw money at it and maybe some good will come out. Just not feasible. Now is the time to make it all stop. 10th amendment rules. Put the senate back to work for the states. Stop the redistribution of wealth (like as if I ever had any wealth) but they will settle for what little I have.
    15 years ago it took one job to make 40k now it takes two. What a world progressives have created for us. And the national debt is so massive a mountain it almost seems impossible to move. Soon, if the progressives have their way, every baby will be born over 100k in debt.

    Report Post »  
  • Rational Man
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:50am

    SHOCKER!
    Nothing new here. I just wish that this was the worst abuse of tax dollars.

    Report Post » Rational Man  
  • gwssacredcause
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:46am

    I haven’t heard how many prescription drugs are being carried over the border by illegal aliens with backpacks. It may soon be more profitable for the Coyotes to use their human mules to care explosives for “Islamic extremists” of course if the backpacks were rigged with a remote control detonator the evidence could be destroyed before they were captures.

    Report Post »  
  • TWO BITS
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:36am

    Waste, fraud, and abuse are always going to be remedied according to political pushers. If these agencies cannot deal with 170,000, imagine what Obamacare is going to produce. Many of these disability claimants are alcoholics and drug abusers and they know exactly how to manipulate the system, as do unethical physicians who profit from it.

    Report Post » TWO BITS  
  • ByDawnsEarlyLight
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:31am

    Ok so we have identified at least 600 of them, so we flag their accounts , let them know they are only aloowed to get scripts from one local Dr., and if they try to go to another Dr., there card is denied when they swipe it at the new Dr.s office. We may have a tough time doing an immediate system wide overhaul, but when we find the troublemakers they need to be curbed immediately.

    Report Post » ByDawnsEarlyLight  
  • TomFerrari
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:24am

    obama promised obamacare was going to cure all this.
    That was his justification for stealing 500BILLION dollars from it.
    Of course, if he had just fixed the problem, and NOT stolen 500BILLION, then our taxes could have been lowered by 500BILLION dollars.

    @hobbs – you are wrong – this is the channel by which the drugs make it into the underground.
    people DO go to multiple doctors and get multiple Rx, and fill one at one pharmacy, and fill another Rx at another pharmacy. There is loads of medicare fraud, including multiple accounts, fake doctors, and even fake pharmacies. Don’t ask me how they get by with it, even temporarily, but, I have read too many reports of police sting ops/busts where they have found empty offices with fax machines, etc.
    It is so common back in KY, they call it “hillbilly heroin”.

    Report Post » TomFerrari  
    • DanWesson455
      Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:32am

      Oh boy!! I’m pushing 60. I can hardly wait until I hit 65. vicatin, occycotin, hydrocodenin, boy oh boy will I ever have a party. This is exactly why Gernment can not run anything. It becomes so large, so bloated that it can not be managed. Programs like this need to be administered by the private enterprise. If private enterprise is allowed to make a small profit off these programs it will be administered much more effectively and the waste would be cut dramatically.

      Report Post » DanWesson455  
  • hempstead1944
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:02am

    Move on folks…. nothing to see here……just another misuse of government funds……no big deal…..

    Report Post »  
  • biohazard23
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:33am

    Just go to any ER across the country. There are always people in there with “chronic pain” or some other vague “disease” looking for nothing more than another Dr Feel Good to give them their fix. A significant number of those patients are on Medicare and Medicaid and sometimes Workers Comp. They make the rounds of all the area ERs and urgent care centers to satisfy their drug-seeking behavior. And that’s the kind of thing the libs want us to keep subsidizing. Oxycontin, hydrocodone, dilaudid, morphine, etc will just keep going to addicts, the taxpayers will keep paying, and the liberal bleeding hearts will feel good about themselves for perpetuating Rx abuse in the name of “palliative care.”

    Report Post » biohazard23  
  • MARCH4HIM
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:31am

    I’m living in the wrong state i could walk into my E.R with a arm hanging by a peice of skin and they tell me shake it off and send me home with advil.

    Report Post » MARCH4HIM  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:35am

      Hey buddy, they have Mexicans with a cold to take care of…shake it off!

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • robert
      Posted on October 4, 2011 at 9:34am

      The authorities are losing the war on hard drugs and they want to include mom and pop who are just trying to relieve their pain in old age? They’re making them take off their shoes at the airport, because Muslims are committing terrorism, so I guess allowing big brother to check out their medicine cabinets because a few criminals are selling prescription drugs is just more of the same.

      I read where the cartels are beginning to intrude on the pain pill market as well, and they’ll soon be the only suppliers because the doctors are too terrorized to write prescriptions anymore.

      Since the Keystone Kops are abysmally unable to even slow the flow of hard narcotics into this country, they certainly will not be able to stop the sale of pain killers by the cartels either.

      What these Gestapo-like laws are doing is sending the sale of prescriptions underground, which will make them available to everybody, while the doctors are too intimidated to dispense them. And the additional sale of prescription drugs will make the cartels wealthier and more powerful.

      Get the Gestapo out of the medical field. They‘ll just botch it up like everything else they’re involved with.

      Report Post »  
  • Detroit paperboy
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:28am

    Anything the federal government touche becomes corrupt …
    Our founding fathers warned us about this, and they gave us the tools to fix it !!!
    Vote tea party in 2012……

    Report Post »  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:26am

    The cooling out of the masses must persist and increase as we collapse the system. j/k sort of but you know it is happening for a reason.

    Report Post » SamIamTwo  
  • kickagrandma
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:24am

    Oh, boy…. gas chambers or empty holes (they’re cheaper and shovel ready!) for anyone 55 and over.

    Did you notice article this a.m. on Drudge I think it was where “they” are saying aspirin causes blindness? Yes it does, and deafness, too, esp. if one is liberal. I guess Conservatives and CHRISTIANS don’t use aspirin. ; )

    BRIGHT SIDE TO THIS? soros, maher, fonda, piven all go, too, but not in my chamber or hole! Mine are for CHRISTIANS ONLY!!!

    Report Post »  
  • slr4528
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:08am

    I thought Obamacare,the plan that took 500 billion out of Medicaire, was suppose to fix all of this?

    Report Post »  
    • Hobbs57
      Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:28am

      Look at my photo ~ It says OxiContin Under Ground. I was mixed up in all this years ago and even sat in with the local congrersswoman a few times to explain to her what needs to be done. First of all, WOW, 148 million out of 55 billion, really, not a big deal if that estimate is even correct. Which is most likely not. It is just another stupid political maneuver to pretend they are doing something to stop fraud. You better believe these insurance company’s, medicare or medic-aide or otherwise. They are all represented by private insurance company’s that monitor this stuff. Believe me, it is heck to get them to even approve anything. These people are getting these drugs through private means, in other words, paying cash. They are getting the script and then paying cash for it. Nothing is tracked on the cash end, aside from the prescribing doctor, which is primarily only a paper trail to determine which doctor’s are prescribing to many narcotics. There is a million other things they could determine to be fraud and collect back in the insurance company, this is just a feel good kind of thing that can be easily pointed to do to law enforcement catching addicts with scripts. Many times, the addict legitimately needs the pain medication. No system that offers free stuff can ever be sustained, it is just impossible…… we are humans, look at out ways..

      Report Post » Hobbs57  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on October 4, 2011 at 8:06am

    No suprise at all.

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  

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