DEA investigation/interviews.

[littlefred]

Within a year, I have been asked to perform 2 interviews with the DEA.
Both times with 2 agents and with questions mostly about suboxone and the x-waiver.

For background, I'm an addiction psychiatrist. Question for the forum, who else has been "investigated" or questioned about how they prescribe suboxone etc?

I'm starting to become concerned with the regularity of these investigations.

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[calvnandhobbs68]

Seriously? I’ve heard of this happening but never had it happen when I was at a suboxone clinic for a year moonlighting. And I was at a place where A LOT of my patients I inherited were on 20-24mg a day.

You’d think they’d be trying to encourage the use of suboxone not shake people down about it considering how few people outside of psychiatry and pain medicine refuse to even consider prescribing it/know anything about prescribing it and all the overdoses last year. This might have made more sense in the heyday era of cash only suboxone mills but that’s largely gone now that anyone can prescribe suboxone to 30 patients and it’s otherwise pretty easy to get an X waiver now…most people doing suboxone take insurance of some sort now.

 

[Bartelby]

I have never had an interview like that, but I usually only have a small number of Suboxone patients.

 

[littlefred]

Seriously? I’ve heard of this happening but never had it happen when I was at a suboxone clinic for a year moonlighting. And I was at a place where A LOT of my patients I inherited were on 20-24mg a day.

You’d think they’d be trying to encourage the use of suboxone not shake people down about it considering how few people outside of psychiatry and pain medicine refuse to even consider prescribing it/know anything about prescribing it and all the overdoses last year. This might have made more sense in the heyday era of cash only suboxone mills but that’s largely gone now that anyone can prescribe suboxone to 30 patients and it’s otherwise pretty easy to get an X waiver now…most people doing suboxone take insurance of some sort now.

During the interview I expressed how unhappy I was about the multiple investigations, I asked them why aren't you investigating the docs that are prescribing schedule II's and xanax 2mg tid to everyone?

The answer to that question is that they review X-waived physicians because it's in the constitution. ???

Funny that they put so much barriers to prescribe a schedule 3b med and scare docs from prescribing it, making suboxone look scarier than it actually is.
I wish there was more suboxone on the street as opposed to other opioids. It's a life saving medication.

/rant

 

[TexasPhysician]

During the interview I expressed how unhappy I was about the multiple investigations, I asked them why aren't you investigating the docs that are prescribing schedule II's and xanax 2mg tid to everyone?

The answer to that question is that they review X-waived physicians because it's in the constitution.
/rant

Now they may come back just to annoy you. The agents doing this don’t make decisions. Asking them about Xanax is like asking your rural town mayor why Biden doesn’t enforce the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 regarding marijuana. They are there to check boxes and return to a certain percentage of the same docs to ensure they don’t become soft after a DEA visit.

 

[Sushirolls]

0

 

[PikminOC]

Within a year, I have been asked to perform 2 interviews with the DEA.
Both times with 2 agents and with questions mostly about suboxone and the x-waiver.

For background, I'm an addiction psychiatrist. Question for the forum, who else has been "investigated" or questioned about how they prescribe suboxone etc?

I'm starting to become concerned with the regularity of these investigations.

Are you a cash Suboxone clinic? Have some of your patients been in trouble for other drugs while on Suboxone?

 

[littlefred]

Are you a cash Suboxone clinic? Have some of your patients been in trouble for other drugs while on Suboxone?

Negative, I work for two different companies both as an independent contractor. If I was cash suboxone I would assume they would visit me weekly...
My total suboxone patients doesn't even surpass 100.

With regards to the last question, not to the best of my knowledge.

 

[nexus73]

I have 4 patients and have not been interviewed

 

[PikminOC]

Maybe someone tipped them off? Do you dispense the suboxone or does a pharmacy?

 

[hallowmann]

Our MAT clinic director has been interviewed twice I believe. They're Addiction Medicine, Psychiatry, and IM boarded, have been working the field pretty much since finishing training. They've never had an issue, but its certainly a pain and they are particularly detail oriented. I think its a measure of how many Suboxone scripts you have out there and how it compares to others in the area. If you're in a small area with limited Suboxone prescribers, then I suspect you'll be interviewed more often than most.

 

[SourceOfDenial]

During the interview I expressed how unhappy I was about the multiple investigations, I asked them why aren't you investigating the docs that are prescribing schedule II's and xanax 2mg tid to everyone?

The answer to that question is that they review X-waived physicians because it's in the constitution. ???

Inspections are part of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 822 (f) 880 and 21 CFR 1316.03.

When you say interviewed/investigated you mean inspected or audited? Inspections are simply part of prescribing buprenorphine. Every waivered clinician will have this provided enough time in service. PCSS has resources on what to expect and how to prepare. The inspectors are doing their job(albeit one I disagree with).

Just went through the schedule I inspection process, which makes the bupe thing feel like a walk in the park.

 

[mistafab]

Psychiatrist: *literally saving lives*
DEA: “You’re under investigation”

 

[comp1]

The Constitution? 🙂 I would expect at least a somewhat informed answer from DEA agents... They should know why they are doing what they are doing. These are not entry level jobs.

 

[littlefred]

Inspections are part of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 822 (f) 880 and 21 CFR 1316.03.

When you say interviewed/investigated you mean inspected or audited? Inspections are simply part of prescribing buprenorphine. Every waivered clinician will have this provided enough time in service. PCSS has resources on what to expect and how to prepare. The inspectors are doing their job(albeit one I disagree with).

Just went through the schedule I inspection process, which makes the bupe thing feel like a walk in the park.

It was a scheduled inspection.

Curious, what schedule I are you prescribing that requires inspection?