Thread by @tal7291

The Secret Role of Insurers in Medicare Opioid Policy — Pain News Network painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2017/1…

This is an important piece of the design to reduce and deny opioids for palliation.

cms.gov/About-CMS/Agen…

This site describes the healthcare fraud prevention partnership (HFPP) a collaboration of 270+ insurers, data tracking organizations, and state attorneys general in tracking of patient and physician data, and provides the blueprint for prosecution.
cms.gov/hfpp/about

Jeff Sessions role in creating secret surveillance of physicians and patients resulted in his infamous news conference where he stated that patients should just tough it out and use 'Bufferin.'
justice.gov/ag/bio/attorne…

justice.gov/opa/speech/att…

"...in addition to the 12 prosecutors I sent to prosecute opioid fraud in “hot spot districts.” To help them do that, I have begun a new data analytics program at the Dept called the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit to use data to find opioid-related health care fraud."

Since January 2017, we have charged more than 200 doctors and another 220 other medical personnel for opioid-related crimes. Just sixteen of those doctors prescribed more than 20.3 million pills illegally.

Last summer we set a record for the largest health care fraud enforcement action in American history.

This summer, we broke that record. We coordinated the efforts of more than 1,000 state and federal law enforcement agents to charge more than 600 defendants—including 76 doctors—with more than $2 billion in fraud.

270+ federal, state, and private partners are sharing data about patients who use opioids and physicians who prescribe them.
cms.gov/files/document…

While Jeff Sessions spewed tired tropes about how the world gets by without pain care and people in the USA expect more than they are entitled to, @HRW shares their investigation into exactly what this means -

https://twitter.com/GhanaboyPharmd/status/1419743890916233216?s=20

@AshleyJudd You had an experience that elaborates the horror of traveling for emergency lifesaving care after a catastrophic injury. Is this something you could get behind?

Meanwhile, @HRW brought facts derived from investigation of access to pain palliation around the world

https://twitter.com/GhanaboyPharmd/status/1419743890916233216?s=20