Posted On: 11/21/2014 8:44:24 PM
Post# of 2155
Re: MattySimone #1226
MattySimone: I read in the local paper about people getting caught with small amounts of marijuana and being in the Bible Belt the courts here toss the book at ya and even if only 1 marijuana cigarette you will do some jail time here in SC at least 6 months but I read many 12 months in the slammer and that is with a squeaky clean previous record and in SC ya have to do at least 85 percent of the jail time. So way too risky for me to even try one puff plus I'm so ate up with Agent Orange caused medical conditions that because of the strong pain medications that I take my doctor does blood and urine test on me every three months to be sure than I'm not taking too much or too little of my pain medications and also that I'm not taking any other pain medications or marijuana because he does toxicology lab tests on me. I can see that if I pop for marijuana the first thing that he will do is cut off my pain mediations that would put me in unbearable daily pain and then the second thing that he probably would do is pick up the phone and call the police. SEE BELOW from a recent Wall Journal article.....
Doctors testing seniors for cocaine, other drugs -- and Medicare pays the bill
By Christopher Weaver and Anna Wilde Mathews
Published November 11, 2014
Doctors are testing seniors for drugs such as heroin, cocaine and “angel dust” at soaring rates, and Medicare is paying the bill.
It is a roundabout result of the war on pain-pill addiction.
Medical guidelines encourage doctors who treat pain to test their patients, to make sure they are neither abusing pills nor failing to take them, possibly to sell them.
Now, some pain doctors are making more from testing than from treating.
Spending on the tests took off after Medicare cracked down on what appeared to be abusive billing for simple urine tests. Some doctors moved on to high-tech testing methods, for which billing wasn’t limited.
They started testing for a host of different drugs—including illegal ones that few seniors ever use—and billing the federal health program for the elderly and disabled separately for each substance.
Medicare’s spending on 22 high-tech tests for drugs of abuse hit $445 million in 2012, up 1,423 percent in five years.
The program spent $14 million that year just on tests for angel dust, or PCP. Sue Brown, a laboratory director in Brunswick, Ga., said she has never seen someone over 65 test positive for angel dust, in 25 years in the business.
Doctors testing seniors for cocaine, other drugs -- and Medicare pays the bill
By Christopher Weaver and Anna Wilde Mathews
Published November 11, 2014
Doctors are testing seniors for drugs such as heroin, cocaine and “angel dust” at soaring rates, and Medicare is paying the bill.
It is a roundabout result of the war on pain-pill addiction.
Medical guidelines encourage doctors who treat pain to test their patients, to make sure they are neither abusing pills nor failing to take them, possibly to sell them.
Now, some pain doctors are making more from testing than from treating.
Spending on the tests took off after Medicare cracked down on what appeared to be abusive billing for simple urine tests. Some doctors moved on to high-tech testing methods, for which billing wasn’t limited.
They started testing for a host of different drugs—including illegal ones that few seniors ever use—and billing the federal health program for the elderly and disabled separately for each substance.
Medicare’s spending on 22 high-tech tests for drugs of abuse hit $445 million in 2012, up 1,423 percent in five years.
The program spent $14 million that year just on tests for angel dust, or PCP. Sue Brown, a laboratory director in Brunswick, Ga., said she has never seen someone over 65 test positive for angel dust, in 25 years in the business.
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