Should 'Doctor Shopping' be a crime?

Published on July 12, 2005 By dharmagrl In Current Events

Just when we thought Rush Limbaugh and his addiction to prescription drugs were old news, we're informed that he could be facing criminal charges for 'doctor shopping'.

For those who don't know, 'doctor shopping' is a term used to describe drug seeking activity by patients with either a dependency on or a taste for prescription narcotics. Patients will go to a variety of different physicans, sometimes with a real ailment that they milk for all it's worth or an exaggerated/false illness, and they'll ask for a prescription for pain medications. Usually none of the physicans are aware that they're not the only one treating the patient, and if they do know about their shared care they're not usually aware that multiple prescriptions for narcotics are being written.

People who enagage in this activity will fill their prescriptions at different pharmacies, pay cash for their medications rather than file an insurance claim, and sometimes will use an assumed name in an effort to avoid detection.

At the moment, only one state in the nation (Florida) has laws against doctor shopping.

So, should this behaviour and activity be a crime?

Tell me what you think...

Comments (Page 3)

dharmagrl

on Jul 13, 2005

deception or subterfuge would cover seeing four different doctors if he didn't inform any of them about the others.

That's what I keepsaying as well, but apparently nobody wants to understand that.
This isn't about Rush Limbaugh either, I just used him as an example to try and explain that doctor shopping is a pretty common practice.

dharmagrl

on Jul 13, 2005

Another important thing I see people missing is the fact that your tolerance for these drugs makes ever-increasing amounts necessary in order to achieve the same amount of pain relief.

Good point.

Why doctors are so obsessed with preventing addiction in a person who has a permanent, lifelong, excruciating condition is beyond me.

Some people who doctor shop don't have an excruciating condition. Some of them have a condition that caused them pain at one time but it not so painful now...but they've got a taste for the meds and use their condition as an excuse to get prescriptions. My friend's late mother in law did just that. She was a very well-to-do, educated woman, but she was a percocet addict who doctor shopped to get her fix.

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