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Monday, August 20, 2012

Anti-pill-mill law makes some Ky. doctors stop, or threaten to stop, writing prescriptions

Fighting prescription drug abuse, which has become epidemic in Appalachia and many other rural areas, isn't a simple matter of passing a law. Kentucky, one of the most over-medicated states, is learning that as some doctors are putting up their prescription pads, or threatening to stop prescribing, because they find a new law aimed at "pill mills" to be confusing and overreaching, reports Mike Wynn of The Courier-Journal in Louisville.

"Patients who have never been a problem are bound up in all of this," Greg Hood, Kentucky chapter governor of the American College of Physicians, told Wynn. "There are so many unintended consequences." Hood's group and the Kentucky Medical Association are trying to determine how many clinics are declining to write prescriptions, but neither is advocating that approach. According to state offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration, only three in-state doctors have voluntarily surrendered their DEA registration — required for prescribing controlled substances — in recent weeks for reasons related to the new law. (Read more)

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