The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning those who take medication for ADHD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, could face a disruption in accessing care after two executives were arrested for a $100 million fraud scheme.
The CDC issued a health advisory to inform public health officials, clinicians and patients about the potential for medication distribution to be affected.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) released information Thursday on the arrests of a California-based digital health company’s CEO and clinical president.
The duo was arrested for their alleged participation in attempting to distribute Adderall over the internet, commit health care fraud by submitting false claims for reimbursement for the drug, and obstructing justice, the DOJ’s release said.
Why the fuck are they working SO HARD to not name the company? Found it, company is called “Done Health”
“Ruthia He, the founder and CEO of Done Global Inc., was arrested in Los Angeles and will make her initial appearance at 1:30 p.m. PDT/4:30 p.m. EDT in Los Angeles. David Brody, the clinical president of Done Health P.C. (collectively, Done), was arrested in San Rafael, California, and will make his initial appearance at 10:30 a.m. PDT/1:30 p.m. EDT in San Francisco, California.”
Here is an article: https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/done-executives-arrested-adhd-fraud-19515199.php
CDC released the statement on Wednesday and it looks like the AG likely made this public on Thursday, or that’s at least when arraignments were.
OP’s linked article does mention Done Global.
Ruthia He, the founder and CEO of Done Global Inc., was arrested in Los Angeles, and David Brody, the clinical president, was arrested in San Rafael, Calif.
Adderall is a drug that:
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If your brain typically produces very reduced amounts of dopamine (as it’s usually the case with people with ADHD), it helps your brain achieve more standard levels of dopamine. This usually means that you go from a need for constantly get new, interesting stimuli (so that your brain generates dopamine until it reaches standard levels), to actually become capable of focusing on what you want to do, which usually means in not getting fired and being capable of putting your life in order.
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If your brain typically produces standard amounts of dopamine (as it’s usually the case for neurotypical people), it acts as an stimulant, gets you high and is potentially addictive.
There are countries that have extremely tight regulations on Adderall, to the point of enforcing how much it should be produced based on old data from doctors’ prescriptions who may or may not be predisposed against believing their patients, for the sake of protecting morons who want to irresponsibly get high, even if it provokes shortages that may potentially destroy the lives of people who do need the drug in order to function without issues.
Do you see the problem with priorities here? If you have to choose between protecting people consistently choosing to behave irresponsible until they need treatment, and people who, beyond their own capacity to choose one way or the other, do need treatment now in order to have a good life, choosing to restrict its production and distribution provokes widespread healthcare issues (with ramifications at the economical, social, and most importantly, human level) in order to prevent another that may or may not actually take place. It’s completely moronic.
I’m guessing it does help keep the price of Adderall-class drugs artificially high though.
It’s time to cook, Jesse.
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Not being diagnosed with ADHD until my 30’s, I was concerned about taking stimulants… Man did they ever highlight all the ways I had adjusted my life to try and cope, and all the self-medicating I was doing with caffeine and energy drinks. While some adjustments were still necessary, I could finally do things like:
- wash the dishes without wanting to peel my skin off
- regularly cook meals instead of eat garbage
- get my work done in a normal 8 hour day instead of taking 12 hours and stressing out all day about the time I was wasting and ultimately having no time for my chores
Considering how damn hard it is to get meds now because everyone else is abusing them, I’m off them more often than I’m on them. Back to negative performance reviews, stressful days, viciously hating what should be boring or mildly annoying tasks for anyone else. Only difference now is I don’t hate myself because I finally understand what parts of this are and are not my fault. I mean that helps me live with myself but I’d really rather just have meds again.
If they were fraudulent, is it really an interruption of care?
I expect they had some or mostly legitimate clients. Really hard to hide a drug distribution network in the open without legitimate traffic to hide in.
I really hope Pharmacist and doctors take the CDC’s recommendations seriously because it’s the complete opposite right now especially with pharmacy/pharmacist. The fact the CDC has to remind the pharmacist that you can transfer a schedule ii medication is really sad. There are way too many Pharmacists out there who like to hold your prescription hostage when they are out because “you might be a drug seeker”.
I’m a pharmacist. This is mostly not true. There is a way to transfer it under very specific circumstances. However the majority of pharmacies do not have the appropriate functionality within their software to do so.
Under very specific circumstances what circumstances? The DEA’s regulations is pretty cut and dry. A patient can request the transfer of a schedule II prescription on a one-time basis.
Also how is it that “the majority of pharmacies do not have the appropriate functionality within their software to do so.” when NCPDP’s SCRIPT standard version 2017071 has that feature according to the DEA and NCPDP and version 2017071 is required if a pharmacy accept Medicaid which a CDC paper says is 90% of pharmacies outside of small rural areas…
Edit: just would like to point out that this proves my original point about pharmacist not understanding the rules of schedule II prescriptions.
That’s by intentional design choice though.
Motherfucker, what do you think has been happening for years???
The fucking government is more concerned with punishing made up “criminals” than ensuring people have access to the doctor-prescribed drugs they need to function.
Doctor-*“prescribed”.
This kind of comment just stigmatizes people getting actual medical help. Be better
The article quotes the DoJ as saying it was “for no legitimate medical purpose”.
And you trust the fucking DoJ to decide what medical purposes are legitimate?
Are you just a bigot or do you care to explain? There is people that actually needs these, and getting a prescription is how you tell them from people that just wants to get high. So, what’s exactly your point?
Same thing we do with assistance for low income people - withhold it from everyone because a few people will abuse it.