Prescription Drug Data-Mining: Federal Appellate Court Upholds Law that Guards Privacy of Prescribing Practices and Rejects Free Speech Challenge – IMS Health, Inc. v. Ayotte

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 588-590
Author(s):  
Mitchell B. Klein
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria (Shu) Zhang ◽  
Marissa D. King

Although a substantial body of work has investigated drivers of tie formation, there is growing interest in understanding why relationships decay or dissolve altogether. The networks literature has tended to conceptualize tie decay as driven by processes similar to those underlying tie formation. Yet information that is revealed through ongoing interactions can exert different effects on tie formation and tie decay. This paper investigates how tie decay and tie formation processes differ by focusing on contentious practices. To the extent that information about dissimilarities in contentious practices is learned through ongoing interactions, it can exert diverging effects on tie formation and tie decay. Using a longitudinal data set of 141,543 physician dyads, we find that differences in contentious prescribing led ties to weaken or dissolve altogether but did not affect tie formation. The more contentious the practice and the more information available about the practice, the stronger the effect on tie decay and dissolution. Collectively, these findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of relationship evolution as an unfolding process through which deeper-level differences are revealed and shape the outcome of the tie.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.L. McCauley ◽  
G.H. Gilbert ◽  
D.L. Cochran ◽  
V.V. Gordan ◽  
R.S. Leite ◽  
...  

Introduction: The American Dental Association recommends that dentists use a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) prior to prescribing an opioid for acute pain management. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine dentists’ experiences using their state PDMP, as well as the impact that state-mandated registration policies, mandated use policies, and practice characteristics had on the frequency with which dentists used their PDMP. Methods: We conducted a web-based cross-sectional survey among practicing dentist members of the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network ( n = 805). The survey assessed prescribing practices for pain management and implementation of risk mitigation strategies, including PDMP use. Survey data were linked with network Enrollment Questionnaire data to include practitioner demographics and practice characteristics. Results: Nearly half of respondents ( n = 375, 46.6%) reported having never accessed a PDMP, with the most common reasons for nonaccess being lack of awareness ( n = 214, 57.1%) and lack of knowledge regarding registration and use ( n = 94, 25.1%). The majority of PDMP users reported the program to be very helpful (58.1%) or somewhat helpful (31.6%). Dentists reported that PDMP use most often did not change their intended prescribing behavior (40.2%), led them not to prescribe an opioid (33.5%), or led them to prescribe fewer opioid doses (25.5%). Presence of a mandated use policy was significantly associated with increased frequency of PDMP use across a variety of situations, including prior to 1) prescribing any opioid for pain management, 2) issuing refills, 3) prescribing to new patients, and 4) prescribing to patients deemed high risk. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the majority of dentists find PDMPs helpful in informing their opioid-prescribing practices. Whereas the existence of a state-mandated use policy is a consistent predictor of dentists’ PDMP use, outreach and education efforts may overcome key barriers to use identified in this study. Knowledge Transfer Statement: Findings from this national survey suggest that the majority of practicing dentists find PDMPs helpful in informing their opioid-prescribing practices; however, consistent PDMP use was not common. Whereas the existence of a state-mandated use policy is a consistent predictor of dentists’ PDMP use, outreach and education efforts may overcome key barriers to use identified in this study.


Author(s):  
Thomas F. Babor ◽  
Jonathan Caulkins ◽  
Benedikt Fischer ◽  
David Foxcroft ◽  
Keith Humphreys ◽  
...  

There is extraordinary cross-national variation in the availability of prescription psychoactive drugs, with most prescription drug use being concentrated in developed countries. A variety of measures aim to prevent abuses such as ‘doctor shopping’ and diversion of psychopharmaceuticals from the medical and pharmacy systems. The evidence suggests that prescription regimes affect the prescribing practices of doctors, often resulting in substitution. Price can be used to channel demand between two drugs that are substitutes for each other, moving demand from a drug with more adverse consequences to a less risky alternative. Advice to physicians on prescribing, has limited effect unless it concerns a new and serious side effect and alternative medicines can be prescribed. The development of a strong pharmacy system can limit illicit diversion of prescription medications, but cannot always prevent periodic epidemics of prescription drug misuse.


1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-205
Author(s):  
choeffel Amy

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld, in Presbyterian Medical Center of the University of Pennsylvania Health System v. Shalala, 170 F.3d 1146 (D.C. Cir. 1999), a federal district court ruling granting summary judgment to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in a case in which Presbyterian Medical Center (PMC) challenged Medicare's requirement of contemporaneous documentation of $828,000 in graduate medical education (GME) expenses prior to increasing reimbursement amounts. DHHS Secretary Donna Shalala denied PMC's request for reimbursement for increased GME costs. The appellants then brought suit in federal court challenging the legality of an interpretative rule that requires requested increases in reimbursement to be supported by contemporaneous documentation. PMC also alleged that an error was made in the administrative proceedings to prejudice its claims because Aetna, the hospital's fiscal intermediary, failed to provide the hospital with a written report explaining why it was denied the GME reimbursement.


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