Pain cream phone calls: CBS News Investigates

The phone rings. You answer it. Someone asks you about pain medication & would you like to try a non invasive pain medication cream. Can we talk to your doctor about it? What you don't know is that they send your doctor a pre filled out form, a perscription, for him/her to sign. A couple, one of many, looked at the statement from the Medical insurance and found the insurance company had been billed almost $18,000.00 for 3 little jars of pain cream. Regular readers of 800 notes see these post from people and assume the calls are from Europe or Asia. Nope. All these calls are from a telemarketing company right in the US of A. CBS News investigated & this one you have to see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/phone-call-lead ... -unwanted-meds/

Makes me wonder even more since they did not mention it in the video, why would a doctor not talk to their patients about a supposed prescription? Wouldn't this be considered medical fraud as well?

I know my doctor would not be prescribing medication for me if a) has not discussed it with me b) He has never heard of the medication c) Possible side effects/interactions with other medications.

I wondered about that also.  I think I would be looking for a new doctor really quick if that happened.

If you check the story, the couple who were featured mentioned that he had been discussing pain with his doctor but no treatment was prescribed at the time. The prescription most likely included a list of ingredients since it was made by a compounding pharmacy and the report I first saw listed the ingredients of each of the three creams. I actually recognize most of the medications that went into those creams as pain treatments. I need to research the most expensive ingredient but it may just be a synthetic version of Capsaicin, the hot component of peppers, which is used in a topical diabetic foot neuropathy pain cream. I'll see what I can find.

Update: The video in the link does not show the compounds in the creams but I recall when I came across this story on the CBS News website the contents were listed. In addition, the video showing the prescription did not list the contents of the cream. If indeed doctors who signed these prescriptions were unaware of the formulation, they could be hit with malpractice lawsuits for any side effects or illness caused by the use of these creams.  Two of the compounds I do recall being present along with the cream base were Lidocaine and Gabapentin, both pain relief medications.  Gabapentin is not effective as a topical application although Lidocaine is. I did not see anything in the formulation that would act as a skin penetrating carrier to get the pain medications to the pain receptors so as the Express Scripts doctor stated, any relief from using these creams is almost certainly simply a placebo effect.

Thanks for the useful information Mike-in-MD.

Please do update us on any more information you find.

There is an actual pain cream that is only available through a prescription and actually does work.  Not this junk however.  That pain cream also comes with all the warnings any real drug would have and cannot be used on certain individuals with heart or liver conditions.  If these items really do contain Lidocaine or Gabapentin, they could potentially be very dangerous.
Lidocaine is generally injected into an area for a local anesthetic.  If a person was sensitive to those types of anesthetics, then an allergic  reaction to it might occur.  Gabapentiun is generally given as a pill for epilepsy and sometimes nerve pain from shingles or herpes, or restless leg syndrome.  It is again contraindicated for people with heart, liver,  or kidney problems.

Very interesting.  I had a conversation with a friend I had not heard from for quite a while after she had undergone hip surgery.  Shortly after I hung up, I got a telephone from a source I would not normally answer.  The person on the other end asked:  Is this (my name) I said yes, and he proceeded to tell me about a pain medication.  I was more polite than I should have been.  Seeing one of your posts above led me here.  Thanks for the heads up.

The wife of the lab owner looked like a deer in headlights.  She didn't know what to do at first.  Just shows that they are part of that criminal organization.  I must say though that from personal experience Express Scripts isn't any better, they steal from the elderly every chance they get.  The difference is that the people they steal from believe them and never complain.

Express scripts is the worst! Unfortunately we have to use them but they are thieves. My husbands Dr' s assistant ordered him a medication that he hadn't taken in over a year. ES shipped it. My husband opened the pkg, as he was expecting several meds, when he saw the unwanted meds and the $300 bill attached he freaked out. We called ES and the " consultant" said no problem, send it back and we will credit your cc. He sent it backed registered mail. A week went by and my husband called ES to check on our refund. Yes they received the medication but no refund because it was an unauthorized return and he had opened the pkg, not the meds but the shipping pkg. Months of fighting, holding meds hostage, we were only credited back $100. $200 loss and they refused to send the meds back. When he went from our private insurance, which I still have, to Medicare they treated me as a NEW patient and made me start over with my deductibles.
I filed a complaint with our AG and wrote letters to their corp. office. Still waiting to hear from either of them.
Express Scripts👿

You might want to also file a complaint with the CFPB as well.

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

Thanks Tami, I will

I ordered two meds from them.  I ordered a 90 day supply which was to cost me about $15.00  less each than buying it at the pharmacy at $45.00 a month.  i also order express processing at $15.00.  I sent the order by USPS with delivery confirmation, and they had it in 2 days.  Three weeks later, UPS brings my meds.  It took them 1 day to get them to me.  I checked my bank account and Express Scripts had removed $290.00 plus the $15.00 express shipping ( 3 weeks is not express anything in my book).  I opened the package and they sent me a 30 day supply.  I called them up and they claimed the prescriptions were only for 30 days not 90.  I said why did you charge me for 90 days then.  He told me that no matter what if it was 1 day or 90 days it was the same price.  I cannot write here what I said to him, but I told him he should be ashamed of himself for stealing from fellow Americans and mostly from the elderly.  I fought with the insurance carrier and they refund most of the money, but not the $15.00.    Why would I pay $290.00 for a 30 day supply when I could have gotten it for $90 from a local pharmacy.  Never again.

We use a different mail order pharmacy which shall remain unnamed except they are HUGE because we HAVE to due to our insurance. We ordered 90 days worth of a medication. The bank called and said "Why are you bouncing checks?  What?  We received 6 bottles in the mail. They said OOPS, so sorry! That was great! We had no idea they were taking all that money out of our account. Messed up our budget pretty badly plus the rubber check fees. The bank was so kind to excuse one.  So I don't think it is any one mail pharmacy, they all seem to have problems [:]

pookie, I think the point BigA was trying to make is that they were charging the same price no matter if it was 1 day, 10 days, 30 days, or 90 days supply.  What pharmacy that you go to does that?  Also, I have Express Scripts, and I ordered a refill.  Well it was a liquid and it worked out to 33 days.  They told me I had to pay the co pay for 2 months.,  So the pharmacist took part out and then I was 4 days short of my month.  But they get Express Scripts gets reimbursed for the full 30 days.  Not to mention that I have to buy it again in 26 days.  So I lose out also.

I guess I was trying to make the point that they all mess up. Guess I didn't explain it very well. We only NEEDED three months worth and had 6 months worth. It was prescribed for a short three month run because it was to be used to boost a chemical I was lacking.You are not supposed to even be on it for more than 3 months and their pharmacy did not know this? So we were stuck with 6 months of it and it got flushed because they also would not take it back. "Once you open the package" but you know that story. And so we paid for 3 months we did not need PLUS the bank charges. So, it was sort of like the same situation. So the question is, was it a scam to get the money or a mistake, because it was not the last time it happened, we were just able to catch the problem before it was a problem by keeping an eye on the bank for the "pending" before it actually went thru as a charge. Was that clearer, I hope, Cap't Sir? [:]