CNN and their Horsesh$t Title
CNN recently put out an article called For doctors, more opioid prescriptions bring more money. Really? I don’t make any money off any drug I prescribe. CNN then doubled down with their subheadline:
CNN Exclusive: The more opioids doctors prescribe, the more money they make
They weren’t giving up on this. Here is what they came up with:
In 2014 and 2015, opioid manufacturers paid hundreds of doctors across the country six-figure sums for speaking, consulting and other services. Thousands of other doctors were paid over $25,000 during that time.
Wow. Great reporting. The problem is that there is over a million doctors in the country. So less than 1% made any money. I hate using this term, because of the political connotation, but this really is “fake news”. They are blatantly trying to scare patients and make them NOT trust doctors.
Then there was this:
The CNN/Harvard analysis looked at 2014 and 2015, during which time more than 811,000 doctors wrote prescriptions to Medicare patients. Of those, nearly half wrote at least one prescription for opioids.Fifty-four percent of those doctors — more than 200,000 physicians — received a payment from pharmaceutical companies that make opioids.
Shame on you, CNN. You are a tabloid now. You are a joke.
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Funny but since more Nurse Practitioners are on the Rise they are now the largest group prescribing narcotics for things like headaches and abdominal pain.
At least half wrote at least one prescription for opiods? Who were the other half? Pediatricians? Our job is to help the patient. Sometimes that means an opiod. Stupid reporting and whack numbers
I think my patients trust me enough to know I haven’t made any money from narcotic pushers, but the implication that this is a widespread practice is maddening. The only antidote to letting the parasitic media tear apart the fabric of our society is to talk to people. We still have more credibility than the media!
I get your frustration, Doug, but stories such as these:
http://breakingnewshome.com/index.php/2018/03/17/5-doctors-are-charged-with-taking-kickbacks-for-fentanyl-prescriptions/
are sensationalized and manipulated to support the evil, lascivious, greedy doctor image. On reading it, I think that the Pharma reps who were profiting big time on these doctors must have gotten pissed at them for something and then decided to roll on them. There is no mention of chastising the Pharm reps or the big company for not notifying the authorities about this sudden rise in sales among a small group. (listen for the crickets).
Also, there is this story:
http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/13373830-74/2-allegheny-county-doctors-arrested-charged-with-conspiracy
The Attorney General is on the warpath against physicians and opioid “over prescribing”- see this inflammatory language from the doj:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/pittsburgh-doctor-charged-unlawfully-dispensing-vicodin-and-defrauding-university- (it refers to the second story above)
While I was looking for this article, numerous others came up of physicians being charged for over-prescribing or illegally distributing controlled medications. This is sensationalizing news and gives the impression (falsely) that this behavior is on the rise. And news outlets can get a lot more eyeballs if they report a significant change that the general public “needs to know”. But this is the state of the world and the position that organized medicine holds, through every fault of their own.
We need to answer back and have some “official” body respond back that all doctors should not be painted with the same tarnished brush. But we are, quite fortunately for the administrators and politicians involved, quite easily colonized- easy victims and more sickeningly, easily turned against one another-the same game that the British in particular used to subjugate their natives in any country they overtook.
If we don’t recognize the need to band together and take a stand, then we are weak voices in the night while the rest of the world remains sleeping.
I read this article when it first came out – completely misleading, so much so that you have to think that was CNN’s intent.
But there is intent! Doctors are the obstacle in getting drug to the client. Doctors are seen as no-nannies by the drug vendors-for testosterone and B12 pepper-uppers, speed for ADD and benzodiazepines and opiates.
The answer is to burn the doctors using propaganda. When the consumer regains the right to make their own choices – i.e. everything’s OTC then direct sales will have triumphed.
I parted company with CNN due to their biased reporting on Hillary care. 25 years later CNN still has a real problem with the accuracy of their reporting.
I parted company with them in 1995, when they had that scumbag Peter Arnet spouting bullshit from Palé, where he was smoking cigars and enjoying hookers with Karadzic and Mladic, while they shelled Sarajevo. They knew damn well that he was full of shit, but broadcast it anyway, because it made them look like they were hooked up. If they’d been able to have a man in Berchtesgaden in the ’40s, they’d have done that, too.