H.R. 3015 Continues War Against those Suffering From Chronic Pain. Urgent

I hate newsmax but in this case I must post this!
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/22/142125.shtml
H.R. 3015 Continues War Against Pain Patients and Doctors
Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., and Robert J. Cihak, M.D., The Medicine Men
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004
The current Congress has a few lame ducks, but they're still mighty busy birds - trying to push through lots of big legislation such as 1,000 pages of a $338 billion omnibus spending bill.
They're also hoping that little bills zip right through, below the public's radar – bills such as H.R. 3015, which targets physicians and pharmacists in the take-no-prisoners war on pain drugs and patients suffering chronic pain.

H.R. 3015, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in October. It's now before the Senate, where it's slated for a voice vote before the current session of Congress expires on January 2, 2005. A voice vote is a way to pass a bill quickly without a record of which way each senator voted.

This bill would encourage states to establish programs requiring physicians and other providers such as pharmacists to report any and every prescription for a wide range of commonly prescribed drugs, including pain medications and antidepressants. In addition to the medicine and dose, the doctor would have to give the government the patient's name, address and telephone number.

This private prescription information would then become part of a national computer database, available to the police and also possibly to employers, newspapers, blackmailers or anybody else curious about such information.

The patient would not even know about the release of this prescription information, much less consent to its release or review. Police would have access to personal prescription information without having probable cause to believe a crime had been committed and without having to convince a judge to issue a search warrant.

story continues click the link at the top to finish reading..................................

Here is a link to the contents of the bill!

http://www.gop.gov/Committeecentral/bills/hr3015.asp

"Directs the Secretary to specify the electronic format for information reporting. Allows the Secretary to provide monitoring system information to practitioners and specified government personnel under certain circumstances. States that this Act shall not preclude any authority from securing information as otherwise authorized by law."

I am a survivor of a chronic pain condition. I feel very passionately about this bill. I have a very uncommon nerve entrapment called Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome. For those of you who don't know what that is I'll give you a quick rundown on it. The tarsal is on the inside of ones ankle. A nerve entrapment of this kind can be caused by injury, tumors, standing and working on cement floors, poor shoes, alcoholism, back problems and genetic mechanical make up of the foot. It is an excruciatingly painful condition that robs folks from having a normal life. The best way I can describe this is that it feels like one is walking on broken glass. Each step is excruciating. There is burning, numbness, muscle twitching or spasms, etc.............The treatments are varied and have little success rates. There is a surgery but it is risky and only used in the worst case scenario. There is a 50% chance that the patient will have some improvement and 50% chance that the patient will be crippled further. Not a good success rate and something one does not want to do unless there is no other recourse. Conservative treatment may include anti-inflamatory medication, steroid shots in the foot (this is a 4 inch needle folks) or oral steroids, icing, physical therapy, massage and stretching.

This is a clinical description of a nerve entrapment: Clinical: The exact signs and symptoms depend on the particular nerve involved. In general, the temporal sequence of neurological manifestations is as follows: irritative sensory symptoms, such as pain and paresthesia; ablative sensory symptom of numbness; and, finally, ablative motor signs, such as weakness and atrophy. In a major mixed nerve, such as the sciatic or median, signs of sympathetic dystrophy, which include dry, thin, hairless skin, ridged, thickened, crackly nails, and recurrent ulcerations, may be prominent features in chronic cases. Most entrapment syndromes involve mixed sensory and motor nerves and, thus, conform to the aforementioned pattern. The 2 exceptions are the deep branch of the ulnar nerve (pure motor) at the Guyon canal and the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (pure sensory) near the anterior superior iliac spine. http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic2909.htm

I was in a wheel chair and scooter for a while. Try teaching from a wheel chair............surprisingly the kids were very considerate.I have crawled and spent most of my day in so much pain I actually considered amputation. My doctors didn't know how to treat my condition and I had online to locate knowledgable doctors. I take a combination of two medications: Neurontin ( WebpageGabapentin)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a694007.html and Elavil ( WebpageAntidepressants, Tricyclic )
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202055.html. Although elavil is a common anti-depressant I am not being treated for depression. People with untreatable nerve entraptments have found relief from their pain by taking a small dose of elavil.
Neurontin was aproved just last spring for nerve damage. It was initially used to treat epilepsy. Today I enjoy a fairly normal lifestyle. I can stand in line at the bank, stores, and can even go to a mall. I sold my scooter. I can walk. I can be productive.

With that said I do not want my employers to be able to view my files for treatment. They are not physcians and know nothing of nerve damage and in my case have never even heard of a TTS. I own a medical site for folks who have this and other foot ailments. Most folks don't like to share their ailments on line so that means I answer many emails by folks who are in such horrific pain they don't feel as though they can go on living like this.

So please for all of those who suffer with chronic pain conditions take a minute of your time to share our concerns with your state elected officials. This issue transcends party loyality.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
You can find all of the countries Senatators contact information at this site.

I have contacted Lugar and Bayh

Thanks! best wishes marie

Thanks for the information, marieaey.

now i get to be spied on because of my need for medication! Wow, they just make it easier an easier,to violate me.

Sad. All sad.

i herniated a couple of discs in my back and went to the ER at Weustoff hospital in melbourne florida where a catty doc said all he could do for me was give me an epidural. i find out later this was meant to scare me off b/c he thought i was just looking for pain meds. i didn't really know what an epidural was, but i was in so much pain i readily agreed.

the needle was dirty and i got an infection in my spine and spent the next 5 months in and out of the hospital in excruciating pain.

i now have constant chronic extreme pain in my back. everyday.

my ortho doc, my GP and my neurosurg have all refused to treat my pain. i have to go to a pain clinic that is dirty and weird. i DO have a great doc there, tho.

i am so angry that i contracted this life-long condition from a hospital and i can't sue (florida laws are so stringent with regard to malpractice that i can't find anyone to take my case) and on top of it all i am now going to be spied on -- they are going to put me in a freakin' database and track me b/c i require medication to get out of bed in the morning.

god! this pisses me off.

but thank you for the link! i was unaware of this!

Any time there is a chance your problem may be the result of another doctor having made a mistake, you will come across what I call the "white coat wall of silence". To begin with, all doctors do fear malpractice suits and they do tend to be suspicious of any patient who claims that ANY doctor might have made a mistake. They can easily imagine themselves in the other doctor's shoes... and of course, no doctor in that situation would want some other expert to say something to a patient that would STRENGTHEN a malpractice case against them.

I hear from doctors all the time who are very upset about how a former doctor had treated the patient. They really want to say more but cannot. All they can do is correct the damage from the first doctor.

When someone is in agonizing pain they aren't always able to think clearly when making a decision for relief. I always recommend a friend or family member be present for pain treatment. Make sure that person has the strength to ask the hard questions of the docs.

best wishes marie

H.R. 3015, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act --

please please vote against this atrocity!

i am new to chronic pain.

i herniated a couple of discs in my back working on my parent's house in florida and went to the ER at Weustoff hospital in melbourne florida where the doc said all he could do for me was give me an epidural. i find out later this was meant to scare me off b/c he thought i was just looking for pain meds. i didn't really know what an epidural was, but i was in so much pain i readily agreed.

the needle was dirty and i got an infection in my spine (osteomylitis) and spent the next 5 months in and out of the hospital in excruciating pain.

i now have constant chronic extreme pain in my back.

my ortho doc, my GP and my neurosurg have all refused to treat my pain. know why? they are AFRAID! they are afraid they are going to loose their lisence for treating pain. for treating PAIN! isn't that why we go to the doctor in the first place?

i have to go to a pain clinic that is dirty and weird. i DO have a great doc there, though, and i am grateful.

i am so angry that i contracted this life-long condition from a hospital and i can't sue (florida laws are so stringent with regard to malpractice that i can't find anyone to take my case) and on top of it all i am now going to be spied on -- put in a database and tracked like a pedophile.

my employers have no business knowing what medication i take. the government has no business knowing what meds i have to take. YOU have no right to this information!

i thought you Republicans were supposed to be against government intrusions in our private lives. this is an outrage. what happened to privacy? do we no longer have a right to the healthcare we pay through the nose for? is it not enough for you people to allow the insurance companies to run rough shod over us with their excessive premiums and co-pays?

stay out of my medical records!

drugs for pain. You know the big fat nasty pimple on his ass.

I assume we'll be able to look up the president's ritalin prescriptions as well ... right???

This is important information for my sister to know. Thank you!

It's already horrendously hard to get pain medication. When I was passing a gallstone a couple years back, I had to threaten my then-doctor with a lawsuit in order to get adequate pain relief. (Having a college roommate who is now a lawyer is such a wonderful thing!) Everyone's so convinced you're an addict trying to get a fix that they won't use the medications for their actual purposes.

And now they're gonna report me to the government? Where does the abuse end?

They must be exposed and forced to retract this travesty against the citizens of America. The America we had better start fighting for.

for pain. I am all too familiar with these practices. I come from a family of doctors. I also have a family of pain. The other side is a family of preachers. Now Faith is to one's self. You can have a team of prayer warriors but it does no good at all if people don't believe. My husband has migranes from the war and he used to get a shot when in so much pain, now he gets an aspirin. Wonder how Bush's big drug companies are gonna like the downsizing of the meds.
I have no doubt he will never last the 4 year term. The man will resign or die. I wish no death but there are plenty of people who do,

Chronic pain is horrid, and it's one of the emerging conditions in today's society we are going to have to deal with. It's a well-documented fact that mental stress adds to physical pain, that emotional trauma adds to pain.

Where there is no hope of proper treatment, the body's immune system does not respond properly, endorphins are not generated. Doctors will protect themselves before they will go out on the smallest limb to protect their patients.

This is going to create a new black market, wait and see. My tinfoil hat is getting signals that this is precisely what the government wants. Entrap and penalize.

I can't effin' believe this crap.

Here are a few other media sources.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1104/medicine.men1.asp

http://www.painreliefnetwork.org/?id=50&mnu=50

http://nurse-practitioners.advanceweb.com/common/editorial/editorial.aspx?CC=34612

H.R. 3015 was introduced by Rep. Whitfield on September 4, 2003. The bill was reported from the Energy and Commerce Committee, as amended, by voice vote on September 30, 2004.

He is fighting something similar on a personal level, isn't he? I hope he's been informed of it.

Because I agree, I think it is worth it to get this information out to everyone, no matter their party; the issue is what's important.

-wildflower

One must be a member of Limbaugh's website to contact him. I am not a member and don't intend on being one. If someone here is please contact him. I do feel this isn't just a violation of progressive's rights but of all Americans.

Perhaps the Bush/Cheney/Rove/Ahmundson/Scaife regime is trying to redefine what it means to be a pain it the ass!

I have been on (and off - thank goodness) pain meds, I've had "nerve blocks" to L5 & L4, and physical therapy. It's agony to sit for too long (so what am I doing at the pc!?) Anyway, I will do what I always do: call members of congress, email them, write them. I will also call my physician, my pain doctor and my physical therapist. I'll urge them to make calls send letters, etc.

Chronic pain is not a good thing - it is there for no purpose. It took my pain doctor a very long time to convince me of that and when I finally got relief from the meds while I decided what to do next, I actually had a life again!!

Same thing with cancer patients - pain must be managed. It's the only humane route.

http://www.cpmission.com/main/painpolitics/paul.html

snip

"Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to HR 3015, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act. This bill is yet another unjustifiable attempt by the federal government to use the war on drugs as an excuse for invading the privacy and liberties of the American people and for expanding the federal government's disastrous micromanagement of medical care. As a physician with over 30 years experience in private practice, I must oppose this bill due to the danger it poses to our health as well as our liberty.

By creating a national database of prescriptions for controlled substances, the federal government would take another step forward in the war on pain patients and their doctors. This war has already resulted in the harassment and prosecution of many doctors, and their staff members, whose only "crime" is prescribing legal medication, including opioids, to relieve their patients' pain. These prosecutions, in turn, have scared other doctors so that they are unwilling to prescribe an adequate amount of pain medication, or even any pain medication, for their suffering patients.

Doctors and their staffs may even be prosecuted because of a patient's actions that no doctor approved or even knew about. A doctor has no way of controlling if a patient gives some of the prescribed medication away or consumes a prescribed drug in a dangerous combination with illegal drugs or other prescription drugs obtained from another source. Nonetheless, doctors can be subjected to prosecution when a patient takes such actions."

more at link

http://www.cpmission.com/

Thank you for sharing this site. I have it bookmarked!

... less prescriptions for pain sufferers. Sounds like a great method to get people hooked on heroin.

to right wing tactics...I'm having a little trouble here.

It is very anti-right wing to deny the pharacuetical companies the profits that would come from pain killers.

No one on the right wing side has ever uttered a peep aganist the pain killing abuse of their spokesperson and lie dispenser - Rush.

Don't tell me that they want the information only to calculate future medicare costs.

I can't feel the depth of 'from serfdom to 2004' type evil that they have in mind for this bill.

The bill also serves to ensure patient safety (because, contrary to popular belief, most patients are not very good at "doctoring" themselves).

However, the possibility of such information getting into the hands of those who seek to go on a "witch hunt" is very disconcerting. The potential for abuse must be prevented.

Very clear guidelines are necessary to protect the privacy and procedural/due process rights of American citizens.

I don't buy that there is ANY legitimate purpose to it, any more than the Patriot act has a legitimate purpose other than destroying the Bill of Rights. What they hell?? Do they not give a shit about privacy or civil rights anymore?? I already know the answer the that. Fuck these Republicans. I hate these assholes so much I can't even express it.

Dear Senator

I am a victim of chronic pain. Due to a degenerated disk and arthritis in both hips, I must take a pain medication and antidepressant for the pain and depression that it causes. I now find that HR 3015 will make me a potential criminal. I will be listed in a database of those who seek illegal drugs, so anytime I'm stopped for a traffic infraction I will be subject to suspicion, and probably a search of my car since I have no doubt that this will be approved as 'probable cause'.

Senator, I have been a law abiding citizen all my life. I served my country in the United States Air Force. In my youth I worked as a deputy sheriff. My last moving violation on the road was in 1970. I have tried to live my life so as not to give harm to anyone. Now my government, in spite of everything I've tried to do, will call me a potential criminal. Why, Senator? Why is the government inserting itself between my physician and myself? Since this bill also applies to pharmacists, will I be refused medication by my pharmacy since I'm in that database? Some pharmacists now refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives, being opposed to the concept morally. Will they now refuse MY medications in the guise of the "Drug War"?

It just occurred to me that my sixty four year old wife will be subject to this atrocious law also. She fell at work several years ago and damaged her knee. Because of this she has to take medications for the pain. Senator, if you knew her you'd know that she is one of the true innocents. But the law is the law, so she will be listed as a 'suspicious person'. This law is an atrocity. It must not be allowed to go into law.

Of course, the big question is just why the party in control of congress and in favor of less government intrusion into the lives of the people doing this. I have been unable to come up with an explanation, perhaps you can.

This is not the nation that I was born into these 64 years ago. Freedom has escaped us. I wonder what country would accept a couple of senior citizens?

A very well written letter.

You just have to shake your head and wonder what they are thinking.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR03015:@@@P


Rep Bachus, Spencer - 10/17/2003
Rep Bass, Charles F. - 3/18/2004
Rep Biggert, Judy - 1/20/2004
Rep Blunt, Roy - 10/1/2003
Rep Bono, Mary - 10/17/2003
Rep Boozman, John - 2/25/2004
Rep Brown, Henry E., Jr. - 9/15/2004
Rep Brown, Sherrod - 9/9/2003
Rep Chandler, Ben - 9/15/2004
Rep Christensen, Donna M. - 4/27/2004
Rep Davis, Danny K. - 10/17/2003
Rep DeLauro, Rosa L. - 10/1/2003
Rep DeMint, Jim - 10/17/2003
Rep Deutsch, Peter - 4/27/2004
Rep Dicks, Norman D. - 9/9/2003
Rep Emanuel, Rahm - 9/25/2003
Rep Engel, Eliot L. - 5/6/2004
Rep Evans, Lane - 11/7/2003
Rep Ferguson, Mike - 3/25/2004
Rep Fletcher, Ernie - 10/1/2003
Rep Forbes, J. Randy - 4/20/2004
Rep Gillmor, Paul E. - 4/1/2004
Rep Gonzalez, Charles A. - 6/17/2004
Rep Green, Gene - 9/9/2003
Rep Hall, Ralph M. - 2/26/2004
Rep Hoekstra, Peter - 5/18/2004
Rep Jefferson, William J. - 9/17/2003
Rep John, Christopher - 4/1/2004
Rep Johnson, Nancy L. - 3/16/2004
Rep Kildee, Dale E. - 9/17/2003
Rep Kleczka, Gerald D. - 9/9/2003
Rep Lucas, Ken - 9/9/2003
Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. - 9/9/2003
Rep Musgrave, Marilyn N. - 10/17/2003
Rep Napolitano, Grace F. - 9/17/2003
Rep Nethercutt, George R., Jr. - 9/17/2003
Rep Northup, Anne - 9/9/2003
Rep Pallone, Frank, Jr. - 9/4/2003
Rep Pascrell, Bill, Jr. - 9/9/2003
Rep Pickering, Charles W. (Chip) - 2/26/2004
Rep Pitts, Joseph R. - 3/2/2004
Rep Ramstad, Jim - 9/17/2003
Rep Rush, Bobby L. - 4/27/2004
Rep Sandlin, Max - 9/17/2003
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. - 3/9/2004
Rep Sessions, Pete - 9/9/2003
Rep Shays, Christopher - 12/8/2003
Rep Shimkus, John - 2/11/2004
Rep Souder, Mark E. - 9/25/2003
Rep Stupak, Bart - 9/9/2003
Rep Sullivan, John - 4/2/2004
Rep Terry, Lee - 5/13/2004
Rep Vitter, David - 9/17/2003
Rep Weldon, Dave - 9/17/2003
Rep Wexler, Robert - 9/17/2003
Rep Wynn, Albert Russell - 4/20/2004

the people ! No argument there ! I noticed Lane Evans deals with Veterans Affairs..Wonder how long before some of the vets feel this.
We got Dems and republicans alike wink wink nod nod. Well they all voted for the Patriot Act or most anyway......Time to wake up America !
Dems and Republicans and Libeterians and those of no party alike.
This is our country..We pay them...This is big government at its screwiest !

But, of course, he's not a junkie, he just got addicted to pain killers by accident.
Worse yet...Bush wants the power to test every schoolchild for mental illness, and eventually, every citizen.
What a windfall that would be for the pharmaceutical companies.
Yet another reason to grow your own.

I've witnessed the encroaching oversight between doctors and patients. (Not to mention the ignorance of many docs to the "Pain Syndrome") It has become harder and harder to get adequate medicines over the years.

A number of years ago, pharmacies hooked up to the net/central info banks so that they could watch every single move patients made in terms of purchasing medicines. What the hell do they care?!

Yes, there are those that abuse medicines so that practices like these give the Government a way to track that, but get this...I have been in PAIN for a few years now. I had NO insurance for 23 yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs!

When I went back to College I received a PELL grant. I use that to buy my way into a doctor visit and purchase anti-depressants. When that RAN OUT, my hubby went out on a limb to help me but going to different doctors to request the medicine for himself but actually giving it to me!! One doctor actually "understood" that action, though he was worried for his own neck, understandably.

Then came these recent years where my bones have rotted. Osteo Arthritis in BOTH hips, up my spine, and plantar fascitis in my foot along with a mild neuropathy in both feet. I'm already "knowing" that docs don't want to give out pain meds. They will give out Celebrex, Vioxx =o[], or some other combo of "new" pharma med. FEW PAIN MEDS if they can get away with it.

I was finally able to get onto Medicaid but went on in pain for a couple more years until it BECAME TOO MUCH. I geared up my nerve and went to doc to ask her to help me relieve even a few hours of pain. I couldn't sleep, walk, sit, think. My mood worsened behind constant chronic pain. She gave me a "lesser" pain med. I still have it because it doesn't work so good and makes my mood even worse.

Soooooo, back to handicapped hubby. He gets stronger meds (just by the skin of his teeth--other docs didn't want to give them to him anymore) but he doesn't use all of them. Again, I depend on him to supply me with something stronger. I'm very careful; I don't like being medicated, but I do like being pain free for a few hours at least. Does this make us criminals? I don't think so. It makes me desperate and I'm outraged!

"Tracking" people's medicines/use? GET OUTTA MY FACE!! I'm telling ya folks, our go along to get along Dems are NO BETTER. They are merging with neocons/republicans to form a darkside/lightside of one single party! Jesus God, let me hit the lottery and I'm outta here!

http://footchat.jrmhost.com/
Please feel free to visit my site. There may be some information there to help you.

Healthy people don't understand what it's like to live in chronic pain. It's not their fault. It just isn't a concern they have experienced.

Are you on Neurontin? If not you should talk to your doctor about it. Pfizer is the mfg. & they do provide meds for the most needy. You may want to contact them.

This is such an important issue. I am especially upset that my state Representative is a cosponsor of this bill.

I don't plan on being quiet on this issue.

People with Chronic Pain conditions need a helping hand. I am well and I am strong. I will do my best to fight for those who still suffer.

footchat is your site? I've been to some painmanagement/advocate sites in the past. Good stuff in them.

I have Medicaid insurance now..it's just about trying to convince the docs that I could use the help without them freaking out...

Matter of fact I have an appt. on Tuesday. My female NP left.. (geez) so I have to see her boss the big doc. I have to start all over again trying to win this man's trust.. (Big Geez) Annnnnnyway, I'm going to ask him if I can have hip replacement, if not, why not.

My whole life has been reduced to a room about 20 x 20...I can't just get up and "go" do whatever needs to be done. Even having my groceries delivered these days. I'm miserable.

I'll check you out at footchat. Thanks again :hi:

Hope you get to feeling better soon. I know how painful PF is. I have it also. However it was the tts that put me in a wheel chair. I am fortunate to have such knowledgable and talented doctors who help me with the site.

marie

Important stuff

This is wrong to single out those of us in chronic pain

best wishes marie