News / Education
Medicaid: Prescription Drug Abuse Rampant
Millions Spent By Medicaid Contributes to Prescription Drug Abuse
“This is consistent with the modus operandi of a drug addict,” comments Mary Rieser, Executive Director of Narconon Drug Rehab. “Whether someone is addicted to street drugs like heroin or addicted to prescription drugs like OxyContin, they will do whatever it takes to get more of the drug- lie, cheat, steal, apply for Medicaid.”
Federal and State officials, according to the GAO, failed to detect millions of dollars spent by Medicaid on prescription drug abuse.
The audit of the Medicaid program in 5 large states revealed overt 65,000 instances of beneficiaries improperly obtaining potentially addictive drugs.
“Apparently thousands of these prescriptions were written for dead patients or by people posing as doctors,” comments Ms. Rieser. “This is only the tip of the iceberg: May people addicted to prescription drugs don’t have Medicaid- they ‘doctor-shop, steal the drugs, or buy them on the street. Addiction to prescription drugs is as bad as addiction to street drugs.”
It is estimated that hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted on Medicaid fraud for prescription drugs, when one takes into account that not all states have been audited and add in the bills for the doctor’s visits.
Joseph Rannazzisi of the Drug Enforcement Administration stated that abuse of prescription painkillers and mind-altering medications is "second only to marijuana."
“While we definitely need to make it harder for people to cheat the system,” comments Ms. Rieser, “the answer is to get the drug addicts into rehab. Otherwise they will continue bleeding the system dry at a great cost to themselves and to society at large.”
