Nationwide Arrests for Opioid Fraud & Prescription Abuse

[de officiis]

U.S. charges more than 400 people in health fraud schemes and opioid scams worth $1.3 billion

A nationwide law enforcement push aimed at the opioid crisis netted more than 400 arrests nationwide, top federal officials announced Thursday.

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said the record number of arrests, which included more than 120 people allegedly involved in prescribing opioids, are a preview of a more aggressive approach to combating the nation’s spiraling epidemic of drug addiction.

“We believe there are a lot more cases that need to be brought,” Sessions said, saying that some of the arrests started with computer work to identify “outliers” who were prescribing far more drugs than average.

Most of the arrests took place this week, including 77 people in Florida who were charged in various schemes — including recruiting addicts to move to Palm Beach in return for gift cards, casino trips and visits to strip clubs.

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said the record number of arrests, which included more than 120 people allegedly involved in prescribing opioids, are a preview of a more aggressive approach to combating the nation’s spiraling epidemic of drug addiction.

“We believe there are a lot more cases that need to be brought,” Sessions said, saying that some of the arrests started with computer work to identify “outliers” who were prescribing far more drugs than average.

Most of the arrests took place this week, including 77 people in Florida who were charged in various schemes — including recruiting addicts to move to Palm Beach in return for gift cards, casino trips and visits to strip clubs.

[heydaralon]

Im glad that the addicts wont switch to heroin now that their local pill mill closed.

[SuburbanFarmer]

which included more than 120 people allegedly involved in prescribing opioids,

So, they're arresting doctors that prescribe too many opioids?? There'd better be a high bar on that...

[Ph64]

Im glad that the addicts wont switch to heroin now that their local pill mill closed.

I'm sure Sessions is offering drug treatment for all those pill addicts.

[Speaker to Animals]

It's the role of state governments, not the federal government, to provide rehab.

These people were violating federal laws in an interstate criminal racket. It's definitely his job to prosecute them.

[brewster]

which included more than 120 people allegedly involved in prescribing opioids,

So, they're arresting doctors that prescribe too many opioids?? There'd better be a high bar on that...

It's not too tough, some of these guys are writing dozens of opioid scrips a day. Most of this can be narrowed to a few docs. What doesn't get much press is how this whole crisis is the creation of the drug industry looking to expand sales. They created a whole crisis of "undertreating pain" in order to hustle their oxycontin. My wife runs an urban (real urban) mental health clinic and see a shitload of this. She thinks these docs would be easy to stop with a little oversight, but no one has bothered.

[SuburbanFarmer]

which included more than 120 people allegedly involved in prescribing opioids,

So, they're arresting doctors that prescribe too many opioids?? There'd better be a high bar on that...

It's not too tough, some of these guys are writing dozens of opioid scrips a day. Most of this can be narrowed to a few docs. What doesn't get much press is how this whole crisis is the creation of the drug industry looking to expand sales. They created a whole crisis of "undertreating pain" in order to hustle their oxycontin. My wife runs an urban (real urban) mental health clinic and see a shitload of this. She thinks these docs would be easy to stop with a little oversight, but no one has bothered.

Absolutely agree. But the unintended consequences could be drastic, if this scares all docs into under-prescribing.

[brewster]

Absolutely agree. But the unintended consequences could be drastic, if this scares all docs into under-prescribing.

According to the wife, the main problem is the prescription data is collected, and then nothing is done with it. She gets guys in her clinic all the time looking for benzos who have 5 other scrips, but no one ever checks up on this even though the data is there. In the age of "big data", this is a huge data analysis failure. It should be easy to see who's writing 10x the number of Oxy scrips of any other docs in the area.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Absolutely agree. But the unintended consequences could be drastic, if this scares all docs into under-prescribing.

According to the wife, the main problem is the prescription data is collected, and then nothing is done with it. She gets guys in her clinic all the time looking for benzos who have 5 other scrips, but no one ever checks up on this even though the data is there. In the age of "big data", this is a huge data analysis failure. It should be easy to see who's writing 10x the number of Oxy scrips of any other docs in the area.

Yeah, the medical system is still woefully behind in tech (along with most other areas). It's sad that we can't seem to get this figured out.

[brewster]

Yeah, the medical system is still woefully behind in tech (along with most other areas). It's sad that we can't seem to get this figured out.

It's a pattern of profitable entities are cutting edge tech and regulatory entities are in the 80's. Not hard to figure why.