New Texas Law Targets Pain Clinics
They’re known as “pill mills.” According to law-enforcement officials, each year hundreds of pain clinics dispense millions of drug prescriptions- which some believe contribute to a national epidemic of abuse that one Dallas physician has termed “Generation Rx.”
In the Houston area alone, as many as 200 cash-only dispensaries sell the pills, with more than 400 Texas physicians writing prescriptions. Describing themselves as “pain management specialists” doctors have been prescribing powerful medications such as hydrocodone (sold as Lorcet and Vicodin) and alpazolam (Xanax). The Houston High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area reports that the profit may be around $1.2 million a year.
Since 2006, according to the Houston Chronicle, prescription drug trafficking has led to skyrocketing levels of overdose deaths and emergency-room trips regionwide. Harris County reported 1,200 pill mill-related fatalities, Jefferson County 233 and 190 more in nearby Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana.
New Oversight, Control
In response, lawmakers have laid down new restrictions to monitor and control the operations of pain clinics.
- Every for-profit pain clinic must be owned by a physician/medical director, and he or she must work on-site at least a third of the time when the clinic is open
- Clinic physicians and employees are given criminal-background checks and must not have any DEA license restrictions nor prior disciplinary action
- The Texas Medical Board (TMB), in conjunction with police, is empowered to investigate complaints from patients, members of their families, pharmacists and other individuals
- The board also has authority to inspect pain clinics for violations
So far, physicians have registered 217 pain clinics with the TMB… Of the 217 clinics applying for registration, only four have been turned down, and on the inspection front, the nine registered physicians each oversee only four or five clinics; many others continue to operate unsupervised.
If you have any questions about the new restrictions on pain clinics and how they may affect you, please speak with an attorney knowledgeable in criminal law.
