Drug Abusers Go Doctor Shopping With Medicare Benefit
Thousands of Medicare beneficiaries are using the program's prescription drug benefit to gain prescriptions for frequently abused medications, according to a new Government Accountability Office Report.
The Associated Press: Probe: Drug Abusers Exploiting Medicare Benefit
Drug abusers are exploiting Medicare prescription benefit to score large quantities of painkillers, and taxpayers have to foot most of the bill, congressional investigators say in a report. About 170,000 Medicare recipients received prescriptions from multiple doctors for 14 frequently abused medications in 2008, the Government Accountability Office found in an investigation for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/3).
The New York Times: Report On Medicare Cites Prescription Drug Abuse
Medicare is subsidizing drug abuse by thousands of beneficiaries who shop around for doctors and fill prescriptions for huge quantities of painkillers and other narcotics far exceeding what any patient could safely use, Congressional investigators say in a new report (Pear, 10/3).