Federal Law News

Identifying Prescription Drug Fraud

Prescription fraud is defined as the illegal acquisition of prescription drugs for personal use or profit. This phenomenon is an increasing problem, to the point where almost half of all law enforcement agencies polled in a 2000 survey admitted having problems with prescription fraud. The alarming increase in prescription fraud has led to more and more prescription drug arrests recently.

Prescription fraud can take place in various ways, such as:

• Stealing a real physician’s legitimate prescription pad to write a prescription for a fictitious patient.
• Altering a physician’s prescription in order to increase the quantity of the prescription drug that will be delivered.
• A fake prescription is created using a computer, either using a false physician name or copying an existing prescription from a real physician
• Calling in your own prescription and giving your own number for callback confirmations.

These, of course, are only some of the more known ways in which prescription fraud is committed. It is hard to determine the extent to which this problem has evolved.

Prescription drug arrests have been taking place all over the country, and some cases have even involved public figures, like Rush Limbaugh and Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s daughter. This is a problem that transcends social class and education, and threatens every household. With the increase in prescription drug availability in the market, it is obvious that prescription fraud will increase along with it. And, as a result, more arrests will be made as long as law enforcement officials are on the lookout for this crisis.

Ways of identifying possible prescription fraud include:

• Prescriptions that display “prefect” handwriting; that is, perfectly legible handwriting (which is not usual among physicians).
• Quantities and dosages for the prescription drug vary from the regular, known ones.
• Directions are written in full, with no abbreviations or medical “lingo”.
• Prescription written in different-colored inks.
• Prescription showing different handwritings.
• Prescriptions that seem to be photocopied.

Prescription drug arrests can only be reduced if prescription fraud is closely scrutinized. This requires extreme attention from many parties, including physicians, pharmacists, pharmaceutical companies, and law enforcement agencies. Stronger measures can be taken to make prescription drugs more difficult to obtain, by increasing the security efforts surrounding the process.

Prescription drugs are undoubtedly necessary for our health and well-being, but must be carefully monitored in order to prevent prescription fraud and hence prescription drug arrests.

Contact our New Mexico Federal Lawyer Now!

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