Florida Pain Clinic Society Responds to St. Petersburg Time's and Miami Herald Editorial / Opinion

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Florida Society of Pain Management Providers (www.Flspmp.org) condemns the egregious use of misleading statistics by the St. Petersburg Times, the Miami Herald and all media in general. The society believes these out of context pain clinic related statistics are solely meant to inflame the citizens of Florida which has led to a "witch-hunt" mentality. This "witch-hunt" has reached a point that greatly affects the care of legitimate pain patients by well trained and honorable physicians who because of the genuine fear of persecution will no longer prescribe pain medication. The media's almost complete lack of rational and reasonable solution based reporting on this issue is creating a whole new medical crisis in Florida. This crisis is especially hard on the 4,000,000 uninsured or under-insured Floridians who have been deemed 2nd class citizens by the media and elected officials alike only because they must pay cash for their medical care.  In many instances these patients have seen the cost of their required medications increase by as much as 500% since October 1st.

In a December 2010 St. Petersburg Times editorial by Diane Steinle the following statement was made:

"According to the federal government, there were 420,000,000 oxycodone pills dispensed in Florida in 2008. The population of the state was 18,750,483. That works out to 22 oxycodone pills for every man, woman and child in the state that year. Do we really have that much pain? Of course not."

Reality Check:

• 420,000,000 oxycodone pills works out (over 1 year) to 2,333,333 one month dosages of oxycodone at the FDA approved dosing for moderate to severe pain.
• This translates into 194,000 prescriptions filled each month (2008) at the FDA recommended dosage for moderate to severe pain.
• The 194,000 monthly scripts would cover just 1.025% of Florida's total population.
• The 2,333,333 annual oxycodone prescriptions are just 1% of the total prescriptions written in Fl. each year.
• Florida has an estimated 4,000,000 + residents that are suffering with some type of pain.

In a January 2011 Miami Herald Opinion column by Carl Hiassen:

"More oxycodone is dispensed here than anywhere else in the country. During one especially bountiful six-month stretch of 2008, Broward doctors prescribed 6.5 million doses, almost four pills for every resident of the county."

Reality Check:  

• 6,500,000 oxycodone pills translates (over 6 months) to 36,111 one month dosages of oxycodone at the FDA approved dosing for moderate to severe pain.
• That means each month for 6 months 6,018 prescriptions were filled at the FDA recommended dosage for moderate to severe pain.
• The 6,018 monthly scripts would cover just 0.1% of Broward counties total population.
• See FL / Arizona demographic below.

Does Florida have a legitimate reason for physicians to be prescribing more pain medication?

Compare Florida (& South FL) with Arizona the next largest retirement state.

• Florida has a population 3x greater than that of Arizona.

• Florida has a population over 65 that is almost 4x greater than Arizona

• Florida has almost 3x the population of adults with disabilities than Arizona

• Broward and Miami-Dade counties have an estimated (2008) combined population of 4,226,000 thus 70% of the State of Arizona's total population is equal to the population count in a two county area in south Florida.

• The population of south Florida as a whole is in excess of 6,225,000 which is just about the total population of Arizona.

• The population of south Florida as a whole over the age of 65 is in excess of 1,416,000 which is just about double that age groups population in Arizona.

• Broward and Miami-Dade counties have an estimated combined population of those over the age of 65 of 641,000 thus the equivalent of one half of all those in Arizona over 65 are living in a two county area in south Florida.

• Two thirds of the practicing board certified pain physicians in Florida are based in three south Florida counties (Miami-Dade, Broward & Palm Beach). So many there that 31 out of the 67 Florida counties don't even have one.

And lastly let's not forget that the Palm Beach Post recently failed to report that over the past year Palm Beach County saw a 20% reduction in the number of pain clinics as well as a significant drop in clinics statewide. In fact what they knowingly reported were incorrect statistics that contradicted the facts.  http://www.flspmp.com/PDFs/PR%2018%20Jan%202011.pdf

Florida has a problem and the primary solutions are simple: AHCA HCC licensing of all clinics which for one bars felons (now law and FLSPMP lobbied for it), The Boards of Medicines Standards of Care in Pain Management Clinics (effective within weeks) and the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) (effective by June) both of which we actively support; anything else are just special interests seeking financial gain.

About the Florida Society of Pain Management Providers / www.flspmp.org :

• The only organization to attend and testify at every Board of Medicine pain clinic and PDMP workshop and hearing, summiting hundreds of pages of rule suggestions and supporting documentation.

• Lobbied for AHCA licensing of all pain clinics which bar all felons from involvement or employment that is now law.  

• Executive Director Warren Pearson is the former Department of Health Chief Prosecutor of Pain Clinics; Mr. Pearson and Mr. John Mudri (retired DEA investigator) are currently in the process of inspecting all member clinics for federal and state statute, rules and regulation compliance along with additional Society Standards.  

(1) Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke / Wikipedia

SOURCE Florida Society of Pain Management Providers