NarxCare database: horrifying

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Hi peeps. I read about something very infuriating, unfair, and irrational today. It made my skin crawl. Given how many of us here experience chronic pain ourselves and have loved ones in our life who also experience chronic pain, I think we need to know about this. I'm surprised I've never heard about it before. I don't personally take opioids - for now - unless I've had surgery, because they barely help my pain for some reason. But after reading this, I'm wondering why I haven't been prescribed more opioids with everything I've survived and continue to survive. I 2016 survived an 8"x8" 3rd-degree-burn that took nine months to heal with daily hospital and doctor appointments; guess how many pain pills I got (and only inadequate 5/325 Lortab at that)? 30. Guess how many I got when I fell down the cliff? ZERO. After my last knee surgery that required I be in a wheelchair for two weeks then a walker for two weeks, I got 10. I suspect NarxCare is to blame. This is one of the most obnoxious and inappropriate exercises of "Big Brother" that I've ever heard of. Every American needs to read this:

The Pain Was Unbearable. So Why Did Doctors Turn Her Away?

A sweeping drug addiction risk algorithm has become central to how the US handles the opioid crisis. It may only be making the crisis worse.

www.wired.com

 

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Very illuminating article Snow. This is like invasion of privacy that the medical field is so adamant about protecting!!

 

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The only thing the medical field is adamant about protecting is their profits. They certainly don't care about your pain, or about your quality of life, just theirs.
Snow: I read that story. It needs highlighting, so thanks.
Alaska has a data base for all narcotics prescribed and sold, to keep track, to prevent fraud and overuse. Fine. Sounds responsible, in this day and age; unpleasant, but "necessary".
But! The State Of Alaska also has a long history of losing data. For example, I haven't paid for Credit Monitoring from the 3 major companies (like Experian) in well over 15 years (I'm pretty sure it's over 20), because the State periodically loses State Employees' data. They then have to buy us protection. They have "lost" it. They have given it to consultants - who mysteriously lose it. They give it to some company who gets hacked. They have left our medical files in unlocked and un-monitored rooms, in a building to which the public has access - much less unauthorized State employees. (Was that a scandal? Nah, we expect no less from the State.)
They have lost our entire medical files - which fortunately does not include our doctors' files. They gave them to some company who then proceeded to lose them. And these are just the cases we know about. It isn't hard to look at an employee's medical file - even the limited one kept by an employer - and tell what their conditions are. And it takes less for a gossip or a malicious person to spread it around. So, got incontinence? Prostate Cancer? Let the State of Alaska tell the whole world.
Our medical files include our Workmen's Comp, I do believe.
This is but one of the many reasons why narcotics prescriptions have to be hand-carried, on special paper, and the prescription has no refills. Shall we go into how this nation got into this addiction mess?
So, we should trust the State of Alaska (or the Feds) not to lose that Database? Which has the drug name, the amounts, your name and all your other identifiers, the identifiers and codes to your Insurance & Medicare, your phone and address and street address, your email address.
Gaining access to that list would be an unparaleled opportunity for a drugee to score, or a theft-ring. Once again, we State Employees, and Retired Employees, would have to go through the security routine, maybe even having to cancel ID cards, get new Credit Cards, etc.
Oh, by-the-by: The State has a mainframe computer. There were political disputes between the Governor and the legislature - different parties, doncha know. (Sound familiar?) So, to punish the administration, the Legislature refused to replace a computer so old it needs "hour maintenance to avoid catastrophic failure". The software is - to put it nicely - "legacy". That went on for years - and could still be on-going.

 

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Thank you for posting this! Very enlightening, and frightening.

 

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I have had one experience which speaks to a very caring doctor. My dad lived in Florida and had been fighting cancer. His doctor told him the fight was over and that cancer had won. There was nothing else medically they could do. I took dad to a pain doctor who wanted to put my father on opioids. I was a little panicked because of everything I had read about opioid addiction. The doctor looked at me sideways and said, "So what if your dad gets addicted?" At this point in his life cycle the #1 concern is quality of life. The doctor insisted that my father get the appropriate medications so he was not in pain. I was very lucky to have a doctor who understood what was important and insisted we do the right thing. I guess it is very important to have the right doctor.

 

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Stuart: Amen.
You probably know, this. In that situation, also find a place that allows Respite. Check out the local "Hospice" - the Caretakers (like you) need help, too. Try to learn in advance the process you'll go through - the stages of grief. The books of authors C.S. Lewis (A Grief Observed) and Gawande Atul (Being Mortal) have helped a lot of people.
There is help, out there.
"The end comes to all of us; and that is cause for grief and celebration."

 

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My shrink pulled up my NarxCare file a few weeks ago and when I was in the hospital they knew all of the scripts I filled last. It’s absolutely nuts. I wonder how much has changed since I’ve been in and out of the hospital getting IV morphine each time. After the first 3 day stint I got sent home with OxyContin and my last visit (yea I was back on Tuesday) I didn’t get anything sent home with me (didn’t need anything). I’ve been on and off pain meds for years. NarxCare is crazy and I know it will affect me as time goes on.

 

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justej: I know from whereout thou cometh. They can do that. Then - each and every time you visit a "new" doctor, even in the same facility - they want you to write it out bit by bit. Please don't reach 75 years old. Damned if I can remember which arm I broke when i was in summer camp when I was about 12 (or just how old I was). But they want it exact - as if it made any damn difference. (So I lie.)
I have so many meds, there isn't a fraction of enough room on their forms, so I print it up. It says, on the footer - put there by an automatic computer function - the date of printing, and I only print it up the previous day. I change the "as of _____" by hand, each time.
They say: "We need a new list."
It is. Look at the footer, and the date at the top.
"We need the bottles."
I've gotten a little testy, by then (What? Who me?)
Well, this is what you get. If it isn't enough, sorry I wasted both of our times. Let me know if you want me to come back. You call me; I won't call you. Bye-bye.
"Ah, wait! Let me read them off and you tell me if you take it and if the dose is correct. Where's the Gabapentin? I know you take that." [They are in alphabetical order.] {If she knows I take it, why ARE we going though this farce?}
She reads off "Gabapentin, 250 mg TR Caps".
Okay, lady. I wrote this list off the bottle labels. I do not have the dosages memorized. Too many. That's why I type it into the computer.
We go through the entire list, then she says:
"That Eliquis. Is it for the incontinence?"
How'd she know I have incontinence if she really needed me to fill out the forms all over again? Well, because I also print up my "signifigent medical events", also dated, also in the computer.
This is a nurse I'm talkin' to. Not right out of Nursing School, either.
Me: No it's for your incompetence.
Well, I really didn't say that last. I just wanted to. In all fairness, that was an exceptional nurse. The only one I ever met that was that clueless. Nurses, as a rule, are NOT clueless! I have some teeny-tiny amount of discretion. Teeny-tiny-yellow-polka-dot discretion.
Okay, I'm going in for day surgery, so when she asks, "How bad is your incontinence", it is a fair question. I will be unconscious. They want to be prepared. (Boy scouts, you know. Girl scouts. Whatevers, these days.) Someone here recommended we take our brand of protection to the hospital. I did. Great tip!
Is this fixable?
Should I write a poem, a song, or a parody?

 

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AlasSouth - Sure, why not. You might come up with a dandy!

 

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Stuart: Amen.
You probably know, this. In that situation, also find a place that allows Respite. Check out the local "Hospice" - the Caretakers (like you) need help, too. Try to learn in advance the process you'll go through - the stages of grief. The books of authors C.S. Lewis (A Grief Observed) and Gawande Atul (Being Mortal) have helped a lot of people.
There is help, out there.
"The end comes to all of us; and that is cause for grief and celebration."

Being in home hospice we had hospice nurses come to the house on a regular basis. I was also blessed enough to have by two sisters there so we were able to give each other a break. My father has passed, but being with him at the end was the greatest gift he could have give us. There was nothing left unsaid. How great is that?

 

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AlasSouth - I went to the hospital yesterday for nuclear imaging/stress tests. My before visit instructions were to bring all my meds with me. Instead I made a handwritten list. When I got there they didn't even ask for any of that information. The only thing they really wanted to know was if I had had any caffeine since the day before. They have all my info in their computer. I was thinking however that the tests were more stressful than the thing I had experienced that brought me to the ER. Sometimes at least in my case, the best thing for me to do to avoid all the other stuff is just to suck it up.

 

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@AlasSouth I tried to take my diapers into my last surgery but they wouldn’t let me, and they didn’t even have any hospital diapers in the surgery area and wouldn’t get any. It was humiliating and not what I needed before going in.

 

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So my score on this thing is 470. It goes up to 999. I take tramadol off and on for residual limb pain but I end up taking 4 of them because I can’t get a script for anything stronger. It’s insane.

 

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@justej How did you get your score, and did it tell you you were at 470 and not higher or lower?

Also, ditto on the Tramadol. Doesn’t help enough, even when I take four.

 

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@snow - I asked my shrink to look it up for me (I’ve been seeing him for over 10 years. We are pretty close). It told me my score was 470 out of 999

 

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@justej Hmmm, now I need to figure out which of my doctors to ask to look it up for me. It’s not fair that we aren’t even entitled to our own scores. I wonder if we get points added for how many doctors and pharmacies reference our score. That would be extra unfair.

The more I think about this, the more pissed off it makes me, and the more I bet it’s the reason I didn’t get pain pills when I fell down the cliff. When an insurance company deems one’s injuries “catastrophic,” a person should get some serious pain relief and I don’t mean NSAIDs. If my score is high, I don’t know why. I’ve had 50 narcotic pain pills in my 45 years. But I’ve taken a benzo some days, since I was 15. I can’t stand this Narx”care,” given how uncaring it is.

 

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I’m bringing this up again. Before I had my accident I was a dog walker. I worked for a friend who has his own dog walking company. When he was working one day he was driving and got t boned by some idiot causing multiple major injuries and one of the dogs he had with him died. He has been fighting insurance companies for his medication since. Not even narcotics! Some dumb ass sitting in an insurance office gets to decide what medications we can take. A doctor says “I’ve been to medical school for years and have been practicing longer. You need this medication “. And the moron at the insurance company with NO TRAINING says “nah. I’m not gonna give it to you”. Ugh. Pisses me off!!!!

 

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I'm saying it is time to hold these people to account. It will take politics, probably. The big insurance companies have a loophole. They hire one doctor, and can claim that the dumb-ass chair warmer isn't the decision maker, they have a doctor that "reviews" the claim. Just try to find out how many doctors and which one - you won't get an answer. Consider how many doctors it would take to "review" all those hundreds of thousands (or millions) of claims that go through a big insurance company. Just don't ask me to believe they have that many, or that the "doctors" reviewed the claim in question until after you challenged them. (And probably not even then). Try to sue - then the insurance company pulls out an entire mob of lawyers - and an entire fortune, that they made off of those denials. Or hides behind some other loophole, like arbitration. Anyone ever won at an arbitration?
Sorry, gang. It's only gonna be solved by politics - and we can't afford to donate enough money to the politicians' campaigns to challenge Big Pharma, etc.
Grrrrrr.

 

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Hi @AlasSouth, "It's only gonna be solved by politics????" (quote is yours and ???? are mine!) To me that's like recruiting the fox to guard the chicken coop!!!!
To have politics help hold the insurance companies etc., accountable we're going to have to get some decent politicians in there!!! Uh-huh, right!!! It seems we can never vote the bums out of office and the same incompetent ones keep getting voted into office!!! We just can't get rid of them, particularly and especially here in Florida!!!

 

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SNOW -I thought there was a Patient's Rights document of some kind, In fact I've read it, that says a patient has a right to be provided with pain medication. Maybe it's just my particular medical insurance.