Hawaii: The Worst State?
Monday, March 25, 2013 | 0
Analysis of data from 1,500 drug toxicology tests performed by Millennium Labs (consulting client) indicates things are pretty bad in Hawaii.
Here are some of the “highlights”:
- Less than 21% of tests were “in full agreement with reported medications” (national average is 40%).
- 45% detected unreported prescription meds (national average is 34%).
- Tests with illicit substances and unreported medications – 15.3% (national average 3.8%).
The research was based on more than 1,500 lab (not physician office) tests in the second half of 2012; the results indicate Hawaii’s well outside national averages for illicit usage, use of unreported prescription meds, and tests where the drug the patient was supposed to be taking isn’t there. One normally thinks of other states as havens of drug abuse; this data clearly shows they’ve got nothing on Hawaii.
There’s something more troubling here…and that is the rampant growth of physician dispensing of drugs – including opioids – in the Aloha State. Two bills that aimed to control the cost of those drugs are going nowhere, as the chair of the Senate committee responsible for the bill, Clayton Hee, would not let it come up for a vote.
Hee received large donations from a physician dispensing company and their allies last year. His fellow legislator also was the beneficiary of a donation from a dispensing company that “The city of Honolulu estimates that in some instances, the [dispensing] company charged the government a 4,000-5,000% markup over the cost of prescriptions, and anywhere from 30-50 times what it paid to physicians. The city, which owes an estimated $600,000, has so far refused to pay those bills until the company brings the cost of its services closer in line with local pharmacies.”
That’s $600,000 just for the drug costs, on top of the extended disability duration and higher claims costs associated with physician dispensing of repackaged drugs.
And this in a state with what may be the worst patient compliance with prescriptions in the nation.
Nice work, senators.
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