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Does your doctor or specialist push expensive drugs on you that you don’t need?

This seems to be the new thing. It has happened to be 4 times in 2 years. We are talking $1000 medication that I did not need upon a second opinion. It has gotten egregious. It’s like they are trying to make your symptoms fit something just so they can prescribe the medicine.

Do they get a kickback from pharmaceutical companies? Why don’t the insurance companies push back? It’s such a rip off.

by Anonymousreply 44April 21, 2021 4:09 AM

I don’t want my doctor to also be a salesman for big Pharma. You can be a sales person or a doctor but not both.

by Anonymousreply 1April 20, 2021 4:19 PM

You would think that a doctor would have some basic ethics but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

by Anonymousreply 2April 20, 2021 4:21 PM

Anyone else have this experience? There is a new commercial for NUCALA which is supposed to give asthma relief but doesn’t really seem to do so in the studies. Very marginal.

And it’s 2k. I think these things are invented to rip people off.

Another thing they do is combine two medicines and then charge 100times what it would be to buy them separately.

by Anonymousreply 3April 20, 2021 4:27 PM

And they never say to stop stuffing your fat face and get up and walk in the diabetes and HBP med commercials. I just was prescribed HBP meds because I'm a fat whore and I know that but they never say it on the commercials.

These two conditions could bring the price of healthcare down in ungodly amounts. But why say that when you sell more meds?

by Anonymousreply 4April 20, 2021 4:35 PM

No.

by Anonymousreply 5April 20, 2021 4:35 PM

These medicines scare me. The side effects are terrifying....cancer for example. It's mostly a money making scheme for the pharmas, and the kickbacks for doctors. It's greed and irresponsibility. Why don't pharmas put money into antibiotics? Because you take it as a session until the prescription runs out, then the health problem is done. There's not enough profit in it. They like chronic illnesses, because you have to keep taking medication and they make $$$$. Then the side effects cause another illness, which means more money in medications. It all comes down to money.

by Anonymousreply 6April 20, 2021 4:38 PM

I did go to a doctor who tried to sell me his “specially designed and approved nutrition pills,”

My first thought was WTF? Never went back

by Anonymousreply 7April 20, 2021 4:41 PM

Have you ever waited extra time for your dad’s appointment because there was an army of drug reps pulling their roller luggage?

by Anonymousreply 8April 20, 2021 4:42 PM

Sadly, we’ve stuck to the medical model of health— wait for the disease to hit and then use medicines to treat.

The more effective is the public health model—prevent disease

by Anonymousreply 9April 20, 2021 4:44 PM

Big pharma begins the grooming process very early on in a physicians career (even while a student) and never stops.

by Anonymousreply 10April 20, 2021 4:46 PM

Yes, in the USA many doctors also conduct studies on their patients for big pharma and research institutions while experimenting with new drugs.

Don't be afraid to ask your MD about this when new meds are prescribed. Call him out.

by Anonymousreply 11April 20, 2021 4:47 PM

Doctors are trained that the only answer is pills, plus they find that patient satisfaction goes up if they are given a prescription (instead of being told—don’t do anything or just change your diet).

It’s a perfect storm for crazy amounts of pharma

by Anonymousreply 12April 20, 2021 4:54 PM

I pressed the doctor on the last visit when he tried to push this crap on me. I had learned by then and kept asking very specific follow-up questions. She basically had a melt down and at the end could not specifically tell me why I was a candidate. She knew she was busted. She said “you just have to trust me”

by Anonymousreply 13April 20, 2021 5:15 PM

My doc gave me opium, paracetamol, and xylophan

by Anonymousreply 14April 20, 2021 5:21 PM

My experience is: BLOODWORK. Always bloodwork. If you sneeze, you need to have some bloodwork. Then--based on the bloodwork--you're sent to ANOTHER doctor. There's no end to it.

by Anonymousreply 15April 20, 2021 5:26 PM

Here's a little cheat for antibiotics. My stepfather, a gunowner, gets ads for prepper gear. Drives my mother nuts but that's another story.

Fishmoxy is available on line and cheap. It's the exact same thing as human amoxyclin. Same pills and everything.

by Anonymousreply 16April 20, 2021 5:28 PM

Lots of people can’t tolerate Amoxicillin so do they make a ZPack for fish?

by Anonymousreply 17April 20, 2021 5:55 PM

They opioid thing is an eye opener. The sackler family makes El Chapo look like a Boy Scout. The death and destruction and in my opinion straight up murder of hundreds of thousands of Americans and bet that they will skate with their billions.

by Anonymousreply 18April 20, 2021 6:00 PM

I think HBO will be showing, The Crime of The Century...about the opioid epidemic and the Sackler family, next month. Looking forward to it.

by Anonymousreply 19April 20, 2021 6:06 PM

And we only know tip of the iceberg.

CEOs of Pharma companies are going to be increasingly in the hot seat.

All those doctors who get suckered into perscibing the unnecessary drugs need to be held accountable. They don’t get to skate because they wear a white coat.

by Anonymousreply 20April 20, 2021 6:09 PM

What ever happened to DO NO HARM?????

by Anonymousreply 21April 20, 2021 6:09 PM

Where is PNP and the other healthcare posters? VOTN?

Cat got your tounges?

by Anonymousreply 22April 20, 2021 6:10 PM

tongues?

by Anonymousreply 23April 20, 2021 6:10 PM

It's 2021. We've been on a downward slope, for years, on healthcare, police, government, religion and every aspect of authority, where we felt there was a level of trust and who we could turn to when we were in trouble, or needed help. I don't trust anyone anymore.

by Anonymousreply 24April 20, 2021 6:17 PM

I was waiting for the fearmongering over opiates. It really doesn't help pain patients to not understand the full story of what happened with the prescribing at the time. Most opiates are actually dirt cheap (not a lot of money to make off the pills) and that's not where the entire source of the issue came from.

You need to be aware that them doing a 180° on opiates sprung up entirely new ways to profit, which is why it's now bordering on cruelty. In NYS, when you'd call about expensive med marijuana, they were outright calling it "the opiate replacement program". 🙄 Don't think certain restrictions weren't incentivized by profits (new addiction meds, rehabs, etc.)

The "epidemic" is no epidemic at this time. Go ahead and try to find legitimate pills. They cut off or reduced patients by 70% and that was AFTER measures in place that got it under control. Drug testing, random pill counting, having to be out before you fill again, computer tracking, etc. Nipped it right in the bud.

And it wasn't all about the drugs making all the profits, since many were old and had no patent. It was crap like Flordia, where quacks were setting up clinics to make money off the numerous visits. There were other problems, like overprescribing, keeping bad patients, or using unnecessarily, but it's well established that when correctly used/ prescribed, less than 2% become drug addicts. A lot of the deaths at the peak were deceptive as well, with multiple drugs being abused at the same time. Suicides were ruled as overdosing. Drinking (that was never advised) was involved. People jumping to heroin, when pills weren't enough.

There was a lot of people decieving doctors, stealing pills from grandma, drug dealers, and shit like pill mills. It's swung so far the other way, that people getting limbs amputated, or dying of cancer, have to beg for a piddly script of hydrocodone (which is loaded with tylenol). Like always, sweeping movements let people fall through the cracks.

by Anonymousreply 25April 20, 2021 6:32 PM

Not arguing pill pushing doesn't happen. It obviously does, but it gets pushed aside to focus on just those "evil" narcotics, that still have medical merits when used properly. The antidepressants, with no scientific justification, are handed out like crazy. They can't even explain how they are supposed to work. Faith I suppose.

Doctors aren't allowed kick backs either, so it's kind of a mystery. They even stopped allowing paid lunches and other gifts. I think some of it is doctors wanting the free samples for poorer patients that will inevitably ask for it after seeing commercials.

The other reason for pills over care, is because of patient's financial limits or lifestyles. Doctors know ther can't buy groceries for them, make insurance pay for alternative therapies, or whatever else; therefore pills end up being the easiest, sometimes cheapest, thing they can do.

by Anonymousreply 26April 20, 2021 6:40 PM

“And it wasn't all about the drugs making all the profits, since many were old and had no patent.”

You bring up an interesting point. Big Pharma is now adding a little of this and a little of that to older drugs to make them “new” and profitable again. Just ask for the old stuff separately.

But the rest of your post is garbage talking points straight out of a sales conference at Perdue Pharma.

by Anonymousreply 27April 20, 2021 6:41 PM

The hospitals systems are ever expanding and sucking up mom and pop doctors and clinics. So there is too much conglomerate medicine going on and many of these are supposed to be nonprofit. I think the pressure on the doctors comes from the CEOs of those systems who have cushy relationships with Pharma CEOs. Why do accountants run these non-profit hospital systems? Shouldn’t it be a doctor that runs them? Or a council?

They whole industry is a mess. Bring back small medicine!

by Anonymousreply 28April 20, 2021 6:44 PM

R27 I worked in healthcare and am now disabled from a painful injury, so I deal with the regulations upfront every month. I'm also a millennial that had many peers fall victim to addiction, so I know they weren't getting them legitimately.

Please explain what's incorrect there? If this wasn't anonymous, I'd send you my relatives hospital records, showing them being denied pain relief because of how strict it is now.

by Anonymousreply 29April 20, 2021 6:46 PM

Maybe it is too strict. I think anybody should be able to take a medicine if they want to (within reason). I think doctors have too much power over that. If I want to take a valum I should be able to. Or a hydrocodone.

But that doesn’t let Perdue or Sackler off the hook for a second. What they did was old fashioned drug dealing a la Pablo Escobar.

by Anonymousreply 30April 20, 2021 6:52 PM

“less than 2% become drug addicts”

Not buying this.

by Anonymousreply 31April 20, 2021 6:53 PM

As a matter of fact, Ocycontin was a good example of an old drug (codine) that they added something to (coating) and called it a new drug.

by Anonymousreply 32April 20, 2021 6:58 PM

R14 = Dorian Gray writing from the Great Beyond.

by Anonymousreply 33April 20, 2021 7:12 PM

My primary health doctor is a D.O. He rarely prescribes anything unless it is truly necessary. I had him before I moved to Phoenix. I had an M.D. in Phoenix and he was always trying to push things on me for the smallest sneeze. Now that I'm back in Tucson, I got my previous doctor back. I really missed him, he is a keeper and totally honest.

by Anonymousreply 34April 20, 2021 7:47 PM

I told him to take his pills and cram em up his ass.

by Anonymousreply 35April 20, 2021 7:50 PM

I ❤️ Tramadol

by Anonymousreply 36April 20, 2021 7:51 PM

I am shocked that he hasn't but so far no. I have been going to him for a little over 10 years and I only have gone once each year for my check up, so he isn't making anything off of me plus I am on medicare so he doesn't make much off even those check ups.

by Anonymousreply 37April 20, 2021 11:54 PM

My meds cost 159k yearly

by Anonymousreply 38April 20, 2021 11:57 PM

R32 Oxycontin does not contain "codine". It contains oxycodone, a far more potent opiate.

by Anonymousreply 39April 21, 2021 1:26 AM

Oxycotin is a wonderful med post surgery and for chronic pain. In typical woke style something good has been canceled.

by Anonymousreply 40April 21, 2021 3:06 AM

OP sounds like a classic opioid addict. He doctor shopped for pain meds and they all said no. Physicians are not the problem. OP is the problem.

by Anonymousreply 41April 21, 2021 3:17 AM

^ fuck you, ifiot. Some require pain meds, particularly the elderly. You'll be there soon enough.

by Anonymousreply 42April 21, 2021 3:42 AM

[quote] ^ fuck you, ifiot. Some require pain meds, particularly the elderly. You'll be there soon enough.

What you typed has NOTHING to do with ANYTHING I said. Typical for you. You talk a lot but never say anything.

by Anonymousreply 43April 21, 2021 3:54 AM

R28, someone on another thread said there's no reason for health insurance companies to exist, they only put a barrier between the patient and care and then makes them pay for this privilege. It's a parasitic business model. I'm a Canadian and I've worked for two different US health insurance companies, both for profit and non-profit, and I'm inclined to agree.

by Anonymousreply 44April 21, 2021 4:09 AM
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