Doctor, it hurts when I do this

It's an old joke. A man walks into a doctor's office and announces, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” To which the doctor replies, “Then don't do that.”

Pardon me if I don't tell the joke well. Henny Youngman killed with material like that.

Time's have changed however. In many cities and towns around the country if a patient was to walk into a doctor's office and announce, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this,” the reply just might be, “No problem, I can give you a prescription for that.”

The federal government, several state governments, and more than a few sheriff's departments have taken notice of this change in pharmacological distribution lately. And they're not laughing. It's not that anyone is particularly upset that exceptionally effective pain medication is available through licensed medical professionals working out of established medical facilities. It's that Medicare and Medicaid are footing the bill for much if it, and the volume of prescriptions some professionals are writing appears to be excessive. The combination of those two issues has gotten a spotlight shining on pain clinics and medical specialists, from coast to coast.

How much is too much? Nobody knows for sure, but the discussion is underway. A doctor in Texas wrote more than 14,000 prescriptions for a single anti-anxiety drug in 2009. A Florida doctor wrote nearly 97,000 prescriptions in 18 months. That works out to an average of more than 150 prescriptions a day. In Ohio, another doctor wrote over 100,000 prescriptions over a period of two years.

It would certainly appear that the substantial volume of prescription drug use is on the rise. That may cause all of us who access medical care to have to jump through more hoops, wait longer for care, and pay more for our medical needs than we might have if the use of prescription drugs was somewhat less dramatic in nature.

With the focus on healthcare, fraud, and funding becoming a triple hot potato at all levels of government in recent years, it is reasonable to assume that this issue will be even more a part of our daily lives in the years to come.