Doctor shopping
Doctor shopping is the practice of visiting multiple physicians to obtain multiple prescriptions for otherwise illegal drugs. It is a common practice of drug addicts and suppliers of drug addicts.[1] A doctor who for a price will write prescriptions without the formality of a medical exam or diagnosis is known as a "writer" or "writing doctor".[2]
Description
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A doctor shopper will visit multiple health care providers as a "new patient" or "visiting from out of town," and will exaggerate or feign medical problems to obtain prescriptive medications.[3]
Frequently involved in prescription fraud are narcotics, stimulants, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, tranquilizers and other psychoactive substances manufactured for use in legitimate medical treatment. Law enforcement officers spend a significant amount of time investigating cases involving prescription fraud, many of which also involve insurance, Medicare or Medicaid fraud.[3]
Prescription drug diversion occurs by faking, forging or altering a prescription; obtaining bogus prescriptions from criminal medical practitioners; or buying drugs diverted from health care facilities by personnel. Pharmacy thefts are increasing nationwide to feed the growing demand for prescription drugs. The rising cost of prescription drugs has also enticed senior citizens to join in the diversion and sell their prescriptions.[3]
Doctor shopping is a kind of malingering with the specific goal of procuring prescription drugs. Malingering is underdiagnosed, often because of the physician's fear of making false accusations. Covert surveillance has indicated that as many as 20 % of pain clinic patients misrepresent the extent of their disability. The judgment of the morality of malingering is largely a matter of the observer and circumstances. Most people would regard the defraudment of an insurance company, through a false injury, as an antisocial act. In contrast, the malingering of a prisoner of war, who is attempting to manipulate his or her captors, would be seen by most compatriots as a skillful coping mechanism.[4]
Doctor shopping is associated with the ubiquitous medicalization of drug use as an alternative to criminalization and legalization.[citation needed]
See also
- Forgeries in medical prescription
- Magistrate shopping by the police, to obtain arrest and search warrants from judges who would give only minimal scrutiny to the application
- Shopping while black
