Doctor Shopping: Ideas for Putting a Stop to This Dangerous and Illegal Act

Doctor shopping, or the act of visiting various doctors in order to receive prescriptions for controlled substances to treat the same problem, has become a serious problem. Individuals engaging in this type of behavior often suffer from a chronic pain or depression problem in which they're trying to self-medicate. They will visit many different doctors who they've never seen before within the same time period, requesting duplicate prescriptions. The prescriptions that doctor shoppers are seeking are addictive drugs like narcotic pain medications, sedatives, amphetamines, and muscle relaxers. Not only are these drugs potentially addictive, but they are potentially deadly when abused. Many celebrities have died as a result of doctor shopping, including Corey Haim, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith. It's often quite easy for doctor shoppers to trick new doctors because they often have no way of verifying the information that the patient is giving them. Doctors everywhere agree that doctor shopping must be stopped, and the following ideas are some ways to possibly put an end to this dangerous practice.

Special databases

In an effort put an end to doctor shopping, in 2002, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) was put into place by Congress, and amended and updated in 2004. Despite this system, which required all doctors to report certain prescriptions in order to track patients' prescription histories, there have admittedly been some loopholes, enabling those seeking certain addictive medications to continue to have their needs met. I believe that with more effort, the NASPER can be improved in order to better prevent individuals from tricking numerous doctors. It should be imperative that whenever a doctor has prescribed any of these controlled substances, it be recorded in the electronic database so that when a potential new doctor considers writing a new prescription for a patient, he or she can check the database and find out exactly why a patient was prescribed a certain medication, where it was filled, etc, etc. By tweaking the system, it can be successful, and it also needs to be active in all 50 states instead of less than half.

Restrictions For New Patients

I am a person who suffers from chronic pain and I often find it necessary to take certain pain medications. One of these medications is Vicodin, but I very rarely take this narcotic drug because I simply don't like taking medication unless absolutely necessary. I would rather suffer from pain sometimes rather than take medication, which isn't always practical, I know. Despite this fact, I feel that it's my right to be able to go to my own regular doctor and have access to certain drugs when I need them. I would never go to a new doctor and request a prescription for the muscle relaxers that I take, or the Vicodin. Doctor shoppers shouldn't be allowed to see new doctors and immediately receive such medications either, unless their condition has been verified through medical records and NASPER. If a patient requesting such a drug doesn't have a verifiable reason for taking a controlled substance, the doctor should consider giving the patient a safe alternative until he or she has seen the patient for several visits, or immediately refer the patient to a pain management clinic where patients taking controlled substances are more strictly monitored.

Unfortunately it will take some time and great effort in order to completely stop doctor shopping from occurring, especially since people often use aliases when seeing various doctors. With great vigilance and compliance by all medical professionals, however, this act of fraudulently obtaining controlled substances can be decreased a great deal and hopefully some day be totally abolished.

　

　　

　

References:

CNN Doctor Shopping Information - www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/07/doctor.shopping.haim/index.html

Pain & Law Website - www.painandthelaw.org/mayday/brushwood_102802.php