The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning those who take medication for ADHD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, could face a disruption in accessing care after two executives were arrested for a $100 million fraud scheme.
The CDC issued a health advisory to inform public health officials, clinicians and patients about the potential for medication distribution to be affected.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) released information Thursday on the arrests of a California-based digital health company’s CEO and clinical president.
The duo was arrested for their alleged participation in attempting to distribute Adderall over the internet, commit health care fraud by submitting false claims for reimbursement for the drug, and obstructing justice, the DOJ’s release said.
ADHD meds have been basically non-existent for the last few years. When will they actually make the medication available to us?
Fucking right?! I want to go back to college but its a waste of time if I have no focus to get through classes.
This may actually make the medications more available for those who are not patients of “Done Global, Inc” which was a telehealth company that specializes in ADHD.
But those who are patients of Done Global Inc are going to have a hell of a time finding a different doctor and getting back on their meds.
Major pharmacies like CVS Health and Walmart have stopped filling prescriptions from Done
I couldn’t find the specific regulation they violated, but reading this and from the vague description, my best guess that they may have been playing loose with “establishing a patient relationship” and doing thorough evaluations of patients to ensure they had ADHD (and possibly skipping alternative lower Schedule medications).
Edit: From the DEA announcement
In many cases, Done Global prescribed ADHD medications when they were not medically necessary.
You can call it what it is. They were operating an online Pill Mill. While I really hope those patients using this service can find healthcare elsewhere I am very glad to hear this place was shut down.
Yeah, quite a few people on this 3 year old reddit post talk about that experience:
https://old.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/p86sjw/a_warning_for_people_considering_donefirst_for/
Done (DoneFirst), also charged an initial $200, then $79 a month though more current reviews mention $90 a month.
The comments on that thread are enlightening.
Why the fuck are they working SO HARD to not name the company? Found it, company is called “Done Health”
“Ruthia He, the founder and CEO of Done Global Inc., was arrested in Los Angeles and will make her initial appearance at 1:30 p.m. PDT/4:30 p.m. EDT in Los Angeles. David Brody, the clinical president of Done Health P.C. (collectively, Done), was arrested in San Rafael, California, and will make his initial appearance at 10:30 a.m. PDT/1:30 p.m. EDT in San Francisco, California.”
Here is an article: https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/done-executives-arrested-adhd-fraud-19515199.php
CDC released the statement on Wednesday and it looks like the AG likely made this public on Thursday, or that’s at least when arraignments were.
OP’s linked article does mention Done Global.
Ruthia He, the founder and CEO of Done Global Inc., was arrested in Los Angeles, and David Brody, the clinical president, was arrested in San Rafael, Calif.
Adderall is a drug that:
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If your brain typically produces very reduced amounts of dopamine (as it’s usually the case with people with ADHD), it helps your brain achieve more standard levels of dopamine. This usually means that you go from a need for constantly get new, interesting stimuli (so that your brain generates dopamine until it reaches standard levels), to actually become capable of focusing on what you want to do, which usually means in not getting fired and being capable of putting your life in order.
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If your brain typically produces standard amounts of dopamine (as it’s usually the case for neurotypical people), it acts as an stimulant, gets you high and is potentially addictive.
There are countries that have extremely tight regulations on Adderall, to the point of enforcing how much it should be produced based on old data from doctors’ prescriptions who may or may not be predisposed against believing their patients, for the sake of protecting morons who want to irresponsibly get high, even if it provokes shortages that may potentially destroy the lives of people who do need the drug in order to function without issues.
Do you see the problem with priorities here? If you have to choose between protecting people consistently choosing to behave irresponsible until they need treatment, and people who, beyond their own capacity to choose one way or the other, do need treatment now in order to have a good life, choosing to restrict its production and distribution provokes widespread healthcare issues (with ramifications at the economical, social, and most importantly, human level) in order to prevent another that may or may not actually take place. It’s completely moronic.
I’m guessing it does help keep the price of Adderall-class drugs artificially high though.
It’s time to cook, Jesse.
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Not being diagnosed with ADHD until my 30’s, I was concerned about taking stimulants… Man did they ever highlight all the ways I had adjusted my life to try and cope, and all the self-medicating I was doing with caffeine and energy drinks. While some adjustments were still necessary, I could finally do things like:
- wash the dishes without wanting to peel my skin off
- regularly cook meals instead of eat garbage
- get my work done in a normal 8 hour day instead of taking 12 hours and stressing out all day about the time I was wasting and ultimately having no time for my chores
Considering how damn hard it is to get meds now because everyone else is abusing them, I’m off them more often than I’m on them. Back to negative performance reviews, stressful days, viciously hating what should be boring or mildly annoying tasks for anyone else. Only difference now is I don’t hate myself because I finally understand what parts of this are and are not my fault. I mean that helps me live with myself but I’d really rather just have meds again.
Shit like this is why I haven’t bothered trying to get a diagnosis as an adult. Even if I get it, and get prescribed anything, there’s no point if you can’t reliably get meds to take consistently.
The news would lose their shit if it was drugs for diabetes, but fuck people with ADHD I guess, jump through the flaming hoop and juggle pharmacies.
but fuck people with ADHD I guess, jump through the flaming hoop and juggle pharmacies.
For a condition whose primary symptom is [checks notes] reduced capacity for things like jumping through bureaucratic hoops, no less!
It’s sadistic.
Here’s a list of 10 pharmacies in your area you can try having your prescription sent to, get there, and find out they don’t have it (a tale I’ve heard many times…), WHILE you don’t have the meds that makes that not a monumental task! While being judged by every pharmacist for daring to need a CoNtrOlLed SUUUUUUBSTAAAAANCE.
For those with ADHD having issues pharmacies: I recommend understanding what the rules are for schedule ii medications and print them out to show the pharmacist because a lot of pharmacists do not know what is allowed and what isn’t. Here are the two big ones you need to know of and keep in mind your state laws may supersede them.
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A pharmacy may partially fill a schedule II prescription if they are unable to fill the full quantity. The remaining portion must be filled within 72 hours from the partial filling. If the remaining portion cannot be filled within 72 hours a new script must be sent in before the remaining portion may be filled. [21 CFR 1306.13(a)] A prescribing practitioner or patient may request a partial filling [21 CFR 1306.13(b)]
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The transfer for initial dispensing of an electronic prescription for a controlled substance in Schedule II is permissible between retail pharmacies, upon request from the patient, on a one-time basis only. [21 CFR 1306.08(e)] (this means you do NOT have to call to your doctor to have them void your script and send in a new script to a different pharmacy however the script may only be transferred ONCE so you will have to ensure the receiving pharmacy has your medication or else you will have to either wait or get a new script sent in)
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There are non stimulants that aren’t in a shortage, like strattera.
Ahhh, Strattera. I remember being on that as a kid. Made me noxious and suppressed my appetite (apparently you’re supposed to eat before taking it?) but from what I remember worked pretty well.
The appetite suppression is why my parents took me off of it and replaced it with
checks notes
Absolutely nothing. And didn’t keep records of my medical history. And made no attempts to have me treated for it after the age of 10.
And those are getting harder to acquire because of the difficulty in getting the regular stimulant meds like adderall. People are switching meds to avoid the issues, but now that’s creating the same problems with some of the alternatives.
FWIW the main meds can be started/stopped at will. They aren’t like the drugs that mess directly with neurotransmitter chemical reactions directly.
It is, however, very upsetting to go from functional to dysfunctional for reasons outside of your control. Experienced that a lot with the last shortage.
As a farmer, especially during something like seeding or harvest where focus and not making mistakes are critical.
Fortunately I got my doc to prescribe me XR dexadrine + IR to use as a top up/enhancer. I rarely take the IR or just add a half pill on long days, but always fill the prescription as if I take it every day, giving me a large supply to ride through shortages.
Very fair point.
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To clarify why you’re getting downvoted:
ADHD is among the most studied of psychological disorders. It is caused by physiological differences in the prefrontal cortex. You come across as ableist, dismissing this very real and frequently debilitating psychological disorder that people are born with. Like telling someone with recurrent major depressive disorder to “just cheer up” or someone with a compound fracture to “walk it off”.
Would you tell someone with a black mamba bite that was begging for antivenin that they sounded like an addict due to their desire for medicine to treat their medical condition?
That’s also exactly how an addict is any drug feels
Uh, I’m not talking about withdrawals. I’m saying that after 20 years of being a failure and “slacker”, I finally got my life together. Heck, I could make goals and achieve them. And then to go back to what it was. Fucking hurts.
It was more than upsetting
So it sounds like it was different then lmfao
There’s another side of the coin due to that: when faced with scarcity some people tend to adjust their medication, taking half dosage in order to ration for example, and given the addictive qualities, probably not good for some of those people to wind up with a lack of structure in regard to adhering to the dosage and a surplus of amphetamines.
It’d be interesting to see some studies come out looking into any correlation between disruptions in supply and negative outcomes due to addiction
I mean… it doesn’t need time to build in your system. ADHD meds work from after you take them until they wear off (the extended release is about 7 and a half hours for me) so even if you can only get them sporadically, some help is better than none.
Yeah, but most people would like to consistently be a functioning adult, not “when they can be on their meds”.
Still, I should. I’ve got a long list of things to talk to a doctor about (when I get to it. Eventually.)
Obviously that’s the case. I didn’t make a statement contrary to it. My point was “even if it’s not guaranteed, some is better than none,” not, “be happy to get anything at all.”
We should be pissed we don’t have guaranteed access to the meds that make us function! It’s our entire lives in jeopardy! But the person I’m replying to doesn’t yet know that they can have at least some help, and that was the point I was making.
If this seems aggressive it’s because I’m constantly being attacked on the internet for saying something I didn’t say.
(I’m the person you were replying to 😜) i looked into it plenty like 4 months ago and got a doctor in mind to go to for diagnosis, definitely worth a try when the brain go brrr BRRR (again, amongst the ever growing pile of "oh hey my family has a history of _____ i should look into that sooner rather than later)
I read like 3 chapters of a “PowerShell in a Month of Lunches” the other day and was surprised at myself. I’ve had the book for almost a year now, got about halfway through it, and it’s been living in my work backpack directly next to my work laptop ever since 🙃
This has made me wonder how difficult it is to make the drug and if NileRed could make a video on how to do it. 🤔
If they were fraudulent, is it really an interruption of care?
I expect they had some or mostly legitimate clients. Really hard to hide a drug distribution network in the open without legitimate traffic to hide in.
Just because they overprescribed, doesn’t mean that all of their patients don’t actually have ADHD.
I really hope Pharmacist and doctors take the CDC’s recommendations seriously because it’s the complete opposite right now especially with pharmacy/pharmacist. The fact the CDC has to remind the pharmacist that you can transfer a schedule ii medication is really sad. There are way too many Pharmacists out there who like to hold your prescription hostage when they are out because “you might be a drug seeker”.
I’m a pharmacist. This is mostly not true. There is a way to transfer it under very specific circumstances. However the majority of pharmacies do not have the appropriate functionality within their software to do so.
Under very specific circumstances what circumstances? The DEA’s regulations is pretty cut and dry. A patient can request the transfer of a schedule II prescription on a one-time basis.
Also how is it that “the majority of pharmacies do not have the appropriate functionality within their software to do so.” when NCPDP’s SCRIPT standard version 2017071 has that feature according to the DEA and NCPDP and version 2017071 is required if a pharmacy accept Medicaid which a CDC paper says is 90% of pharmacies outside of small rural areas…
Edit: just would like to point out that this proves my original point about pharmacist not understanding the rules of schedule II prescriptions.
That’s by intentional design choice though.
Motherfucker, what do you think has been happening for years???
The fucking government is more concerned with punishing made up “criminals” than ensuring people have access to the doctor-prescribed drugs they need to function.
Doctor-*“prescribed”.
This kind of comment just stigmatizes people getting actual medical help. Be better
The article quotes the DoJ as saying it was “for no legitimate medical purpose”.
And you trust the fucking DoJ to decide what medical purposes are legitimate?
Are you just a bigot or do you care to explain? There is people that actually needs these, and getting a prescription is how you tell them from people that just wants to get high. So, what’s exactly your point?
Same thing we do with assistance for low income people - withhold it from everyone because a few people will abuse it.
