NPR's show, 1A, had our VP, Bev Schechtman on a panel on November 11, 2021. The name of the segment is "Against The Pain: The Opioid Crisis and Medication Access." NPR became interested in the show after reading Maia Szalavitz's article about NarxCare in Wired.  Listen to the recording of the show.  You don't want to miss this!  

"We have these people who have been on these meds for 20-30 years and doctors are under extraordinary pressure to get their numbers down" ~Maia

"In a criminalized environment where doctors are not only afraid of losing their license, but of going to prison, and where patients are being squeezed because they're being told 'you can only have x amount because otherwise my numbers are too high,' you end up with a lot of untreated pain." ~Maia

"I'd like to see context added (to these algorithms), if someone moves 3 times in 2 years, it needs to not look like they're 'doctor shopping,' I'd like to see a return to individualized care and stop these arbitrary guidelines where people are having a hard stop on what they can and can't have and they're not looking at what's actually going on with the patient." ~Bev

"I was treated like a criminal; I was mocked, laughed at, scolded, I was embarrassed...I felt revictimized." ~Bev

"There are tremendous gender and racial bias in these algorithms and in this false narrative." ~Bev

"No one should ever be denied care, that's just cruel and unusual punishment." ~Dr. Dombrowski

"Electronic Health Records are just a billing system, not to make patient care better...if you hit something by accident like malingering, next thing you know it's in the chart permanently. It's dangerous." ~Dr. Dombrowski

Dr. Mark Ibsen, who is a fierce advocate for the CPP community, recorded the show with running commentary.  

Many of you have heard Kolodny or other anti-opioid zealots make comments like "pharma pays doctors to prescribe opioids." So first, let's address that. It is illegal for a pharmaceutical company to pay doctors specifically to prescribe their medication. What they can do, though, is pay them as "consultants" or for "speaking engagements." Do I think it's ethical? Probably not, but that's how it works. Medical device companies do the same thing. Well, actually, they often pay more than pharma, as seen in this article called "Medtechs top pharma in cash to doctors for consulting, travel.."  If you ever want to look up a company and see how much they pay doctors, or look up doctors to see how much they've accepted, you can look up these two websites. Open Payments and Dollars For Docs. So, do opioid makers specifically "pay doctors to prescribe"?  I would say no more than any other company does. For anyone to specifically state that companies that make opioids pay doctors to prescribe is incredibly misleading. But, that doesn't stop doctors from making that statement or from media repeating it. Why would people want to mislead the general public about opioids? It helps vilify these companies for the litigation narrative we're always talking about. This whole narrative was done in preparation for opioid litigation, which we see taking place across the country now. There are around 3,000 lawsuits that the Attorneys General have brought against pharma, pharmacies, and manufacturers. 

What they don't mention is that doctors are now getting paid more money to NOT prescribe opioids? Yes, you read that correctly. BCBS of Michigan actually incentivizes doctors by paying them 35% more money if they don't prescribe opioids after certain procedures. Read all about it in this article called Fewer Opioids, More Pay: New Tack on How Doctors Prescribe Them . So, if you live in Michigan and have BCBS, this might be the reason why your surgeon isn't treating your post-op pain with opioids. I'll include the rest of the article below.