Considering the amount of doctor shopping that people have been admitting to lately on this forum, I decided to do a little research. You all seem to have similar questions concerning this issue, mainly about the consequences, so here is what has started happening at the beginning of 2009, and will be spread through most of the united states by 2010. I am not entirely sure what the consequences are if you do not live in the U.S.
I hope this helps, and my intentions are to save Robert a little time when he's jumping around here answering everyone's post's. Let me know if this helps!
Doctor Shopping
State health regulators today proposed a major campaign to catch patients who visit multiple doctors and pharmacies in pursuit of powerful painkillers that can feed addictions.
The practice, known colloquially as "doctor shopping," has drawn increasing attention from substance abuse specialists and regulators who are concerned that prescription medication abuse is as serious a health threat as heroin and other street drugs.
The tracking system, which needs the approval of the Public Health Council, would set off an alarm when a patient appeared to be abusing prescription medications, alerting the doctors who prescribed the drugs.
Paul Dreyer, the Department of Public Health official in charge of the initiative, said in an interview that the campaign is not designed to be punitive but, instead, "to hopefully catch patients who might be drifting into the direction of abuse before they drift too far. It gives physicians an early warning about the behavior of their patients."
For more than 15 years, the state has had a system to monitor the prescribing and dispensing of narcotics, such as
OxyContin,
Percocet, and derivatives of
morphine. But that network was intended to nab doctors and dealers engaged in major drug dealing rings, as well as patients with significant abuse problems. The existing monitoring program estimated that the number of people caught doctor shopping soared by 170 percent from 1996 to 2007, when it reached nearly 3,000.
As part of the proposed push, anyone presenting a prescription for a narcotic would be required to show identification to the pharmacist. Additionally, the patient's name and other identifying information would be entered into the state database.
Then, a tracking system that has yet to be designed would hunt for patients who seek an excessive number of prescriptions from multiple doctors and pharmacies.
Doctor Shopping and Prescription Fraud
“Doctor shopping” by drug addicts is one of the most common ways that addicts get illegal controlled substances. Generally, this term refers to the visit by an individual—who may or may not have legitimate medical needs—to several doctors, each of whom writes a prescription for a controlled substance. The individual will visit several pharmacies, receiving more of the drug than intended by any single physician, typically for the purpose of feeding an addiction.
Associated illegal activities may include the forgery of prescriptions, or the sale or transfer of the drug to others. Unfortunately, in many states, physicians and pharmacists have not been able to automatically cross-check multiple prescriptions given to the same patient.
To address this problem, Congress first appropriated funds to the Department of Justice in 2003 to promote the deployment of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) by States. That commitment continues as part of the Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy for 2006. PDMPs help cut down on prescription fraud and doctor shopping by giving physicians and pharmacists more complete information about a patient’s prescriptions for controlled substances.
While the specifics of these programs vary from state to state, they generally share the characteristic of allowing prescribers (for example, a physician) and dispensers (for example, a pharmacist) to input and receive accurate and timely controlled substance prescription history information while ensuring patient access to needed treatment. Most states also have some mechanism for law enforcement to receive this information in cases where criminal activity is suspected. Some states also allow health care providers to use this information as a tool for the early identification of patients at risk for addiction in order to initiate appropriate medical interventions. In other states the justice system can use this information to assist in the enforcement of laws controlling the sale and use of controlled substance prescription medication.
The PDMP program has steadily expanded through the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, with a total of 33 states with active or planned PDMPs as of July 1, 2006. These grants can be used to implement or enhance PDMPs at the state level. The Administration plans to continue its work with states that have PDMPs to obtain better data as to the extent and nature of the controlled substance prescription drug abuse threat, to encourage the expansion of the PDMP program nationwide, and to share best practices information with states that already have PDMPs (e.g., on cost effectiveness, the benefits to monitoring all scheduled controlled substances, and measuring performance).
(So in other words, you will get caught. And if it's a first offense, you will most likely walk away with a slap on the wrist. But if you are guilty of this now, I would STOP. Gathering from everything I've read, they are seriously cracking down. I really hope this saves you some time Robert
~Heather
Calling ALL Doctor Shoppers, READ This!!! 
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