New York Times: Report on Medicare Cites Prescription Drug Abuse

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
letters@nytimes.com
October 5, 2011

Dear Editor:

The problem of drug abuse of some medicare-PartD beneficiaries may be addressed by creating a centralized prescription portal that can be updated by any prescriber. Since this system would not be an extensive health record system, it would be easy to implement. The R&D costs would be minimal since it can be easily simplified and adopted from any currently existing healthcare system. The money invested in such a program would not only help with public health efforts of curtailing drug abuse but also help alleviate the growing cost of medicare in the coming future for our aging population. Imagine preventing the exploitation of the man with 1,758-day-supply of fentanyl-patches/pills and distributing that over five beneficiaries (1758-day-supply/365-days-per-year). Establishing this precedence can lead to future expansion to all of population, so that it is no longer merely preventing misuse of federal spending but also enforcing public health to prevent drug abuse feasibility.

Sincerely,
Anupriya Dayal
anu_priya@berkeley.edu

3056 Bruce Drive

Fremont, CA 94539

510-456-5972 (daytime and evening phone number)

In Response to:
Report on Medicare Cites Prescription Drug Abuse
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: October 3, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/health/policy/04medicare.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y