Out Of Pain Meds

[TALON II FE]

I read all this and it disgusts me.  What happened to civil liberties?  What the hell did we fight for?  My wife was born in the Soviet Block and they had more freedom, seriously.  Since when does an "insurance company" have the legal right to invade our bodies?  I was piss tested for 20 years on AD, I signed a contract for that;  I did not sign a contract for this crap.  Meanwhile, a lot of vets pointing the finger at each other, symbolically...sounds like they already won.

BTW, the only way I am going to get pain meds is to buy them on the street, they don't care about pain anymore.

[Chuck75]

I cannot help but wonder if the VA's present practices fail to meet the "standard of care" that they are required to meet.

Denying needed pain medication for administrative reasons, I would think, would be cause to believe that they failed standards of care.

The real question is how to hammer the VA until they do something more reasonable.

[Vync]

6 hours ago, Chuck75 said:

I cannot help but wonder if the VA's present practices fail to meet the "standard of care" that they are required to meet.

Denying needed pain medication for administrative reasons, I would think, would be cause to believe that they failed standards of care.

The real question is how to hammer the VA until they do something more reasonable.

I tried asking my doctor about meeting the "standard of care" and all they told me was "no".

Even if we did try to publicly raise the issue about substandard pain management, I would anticipate the VA would try to blame it all on the change in DEA rules for stronger medications. They are pretty good about trying to deflect the blame.

[Chuck75]

8 hours ago, Vync said:

I tried asking my doctor about meeting the "standard of care" and all they told me was "no".

Even if we did try to publicly raise the issue about substandard pain management, I would anticipate the VA would try to blame it all on the change in DEA rules for stronger medications. They are pretty good about trying to deflect the blame.

Bureaucrats, according to them, cannot be blamed for anything! The  bureaucratic system by design, is such that personal responsibility is virtually non existent. (We are just following the rules, don't you know!) Further, finger pointing was developed into a fine art long ago.  Ultimately, it will take congressional action to overcome the VA's over reaction.

(I spent decades working within (but not part of) DOD's bureaucratic entities. Eventually, I got thrown out (retired), due to my pointing out that we were "at war", and peacetime acquisition rules were resulting in too much delay.) Things would have been a lot cleaner if the VA hadn't been dragging it's feet the whole time!

 

[GuaymasJim]

I believe the information contained in this article, especially the criminal charges, perfectly sums up the current opiate war between patients, doctors, and the DEA.  This type of behavior, as isolated as it is, is being used as a reason to curtail the use of opiates.

If you read my previous posts in this thread, you will see that my statements are all born out.

For full disclosure, I am going to hurt (pun intended) as much as all the other chronic pain patients, if not more.  We are going to lose this battle, but it is worth fighting.

 

http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/05/va-chief-of-opiate-safety-charged-in-drug-deaths-of-three/

[Vync]

1 hour ago, GuaymasJim said:

I believe the information contained in this article, especially the criminal charges, perfectly sums up the current opiate war between patients, doctors, and the DEA.  This type of behavior, as isolated as it is, is being used as a reason to curtail the use of opiates.

If you read my previous posts in this thread, you will see that my statements are all born out.

For full disclosure, I am going to hurt (pun intended) as much as all the other chronic pain patients, if not more.  We are going to lose this battle, but it is worth fighting.

 

http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/05/va-chief-of-opiate-safety-charged-in-drug-deaths-of-three/

"He allegedly had a pattern of giving obvious drug addicts frequently-abused drugs without medical cause, and billing the charges to Medicaid."

I guess the VA equates "obvious drug addicts" as being all veterans...

And from that mugshot, it appears he was probably writing his own prescriptions.