Ore. drug rules tighten for foster children
6/15/2010, 12:11 a.m. PDT
The Associated Press
(AP) — PORTLAND, Ore. - Effective July 1, Oregon will have a new law and new rules to ensure closer scrutiny of psychiatric drugs given to children in foster care.
The change follows a November 2007 investigation by The Oregonian that found children in foster care were prescribed powerful psychiatric medications at four times the rate of other children covered by Medicaid.
A state audit the next year found one in five children in foster care was prescribed at least one psychiatric medication.
Under the new law, children must have a mental health assessment before they are given any anti-psychotic drug or more than one of another type of psychiatric drug. There will also be mandatory medication reviews for children younger than 6 who are taking psychiatric medications and for older kids with more than two psychiatric prescriptions.
Does this mean other Medicaid children are prescribed powerful psychiatric medications at a higher rate of children who hold private insurance? Well, of course!
How is this a fraud scheme, one may ask?
Well, the more drugs prescribed to foster children, the longer the lengths of stay.
Foster kids are lab rats, meaning, pharmaceutical companies conduct studies of its drugs on kids while Medicaid pays for it.
Oregon Attorney General John Kroger is sleeping on his laurels, doing nothing to aggressively prosecute and recover these improper and unnecessary costs.
Not one single person will be prosecuted,
None of the agencies involved will be contractually debarred,
No attorney will jeopardize loosing his or her license over a FCA,
Child welfare organizations will spend millions in public relations campaigns,
Universities will continue to teach these practices, and
These children will suffer for the rest of their lives.
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