Attorney Andrew S. Feldman Speaks at the Annual Meeting for the Florida Academy of Pain Medicine on Patient Access to Controlled Substances
During the annual meeting of the Florida Academy of Pain Medicine, Mr. Feldman participated in a panel discussion, Patient Access to Controlled Substances. During the panel, Mr. Feldman addressed the aggressive government response to opioid abuse and pharmaceutical diversion and emphasized that “if you are operating in the controlled substance universe, you are operating in a law enforcement universe.”
Mr. Feldman further underscored that the reaction to the “pill mills” era has been devastating to patients seeking treatment for pain. Similarly, costly enforcement actions against major retail pharmacies, like Walgreens and CVS, and against distributors such as Cardinal Health coupled with FDA litigation for false promotion of opioids against major pharmaceutical manufacturers, have resulted in unintended consequences to patients seeking treatment for chronic and acute pain. Likewise, Mr. Feldman noted that the Drug Enforcement Administration recently issued a final rule rescheduling hydrocodone containing products to Schedule II, “yet when you read the entire final rule and the 35 pages of the rule, DEA only included a single paragraph about patient access to care.”
Significantly, during the panel, it was also noted that, the current Drug Enforcement Administration approach to problems related to the prescription and dispensing of opioids, has created an environment where everyone is practicing scared. In doing so, the Drug Enforcement Administration appears to have frustrated relationships between pharmacists (and big box pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS) and pain physicians. This current approach has impacted patient access to drugs, caused distributors to take a more conservative approach to shipping opioids to pharmacies, and has forced physicians to prescribe alternative methods, albeit sometimes reluctantly, for the treatment of pain.
Finally, based on questions and comments from physician-attendees during the panel, there is a collective need to begin a dialogue among pain physicians, the Board of Pharmacy, and the Drug Enforcement Administration to implement policies and procedures which do not put patients at risk of not receiving their medications.
Author: Andrew Feldman
Mr. Feldman represents professionals, corporations, health care providers, and health care marketers in government investigations and prosecutions throughout the United States. Mr. Feldman works tirelessly for his clients from the time an investigation begins until the time a jury renders a verdict.
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