What's the Motivation behind this?

[Deleted]

We now live in a town with a higher portion of poorer people than our former suburb.  There's a hand-written sign on one of the light poles saying "Cash paid for diabetes test strips" with a phone number.

Why does someone want to buy test strips?  PLEASE don't tell me that my tax dollars are going to provide diabetes test strips for cash to Medicaid recipients, who don't use them but resell them to someone who unloads them on e-Bay.   

[alabamagal]

Yes that is what is happening. Get something free sell it for cash

[alabamagal]

One of my DS must have a high pain tolerance or is so ADD that he just doesn't notice. When he was 19 he had his wisdom teeth out ( he only had 3?) and 2 other minor procedures . He was given pain medicines each time. He didn't hardly take any so we ended up with about 30 left over. Street value is $20-30 per pill. I would never do that though.

[dannylion]

One of the nurses in the ER where I volunteer once told me that a certain percentage of the diabetic patients who regularly end up in the ER get the necessary diabetic supplies but are not compliant with their diabetes protocols and sell the supplies. 

 

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

Athena, That is exactly what is happening. Diabetes test strips are pretty pricey (run about $1 a strip, depending on the brand).  The lancets (things that cut the skin) are cheaper (about $10 for a box of 100) but the strips is where the manufacturers really get you.

Medicaid and Medicare pay for the testing supplies so there is little to no copay for the patient. Reselling them would get people money off something the taxpayer provided.  With Medicare, they fall under Part B (not D), so the copay is often little or nothing and they don't go under the donut hole/deductibles that other prescriptions go through.

[Deleted]

Thanks! I'm going to find a place where I can report Medicaid fraud and give them the phone number. It may not go anywhere but I want to do something to nail these people who are wasting MY money (and don't care enough about their health to monitor their diabetes).

[NoNamePerson]

Right up there with people "selling" their food stamps for cash. Big business as it's finest. Not as easy as it used to be but still ways around it.

[Tennesseer]

Sept 25, 2015 21:06:13 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

One of my DS must have a high pain tolerance or is so ADD that he just doesn't notice. When he was 19 he had his wisdom teeth out ( he only had 3?) and 2 other minor procedures . He was given pain medicines each time. He didn't hardly take any so we ended up with about 30 left over. Street value is $20-30 per pill. I would never do that though.

I only had two wisdom teeth (uppers).

[Tiny]

Who is buying the supplies from the 'middle man'?

Does regular old employer health insurance offer a discount on these kinds of supplies?

Are uninsured diabetic people (who care about their health) buying the "black market" supplies?

Are the supplies being sent(or taken) to other ?countries? where the supplies are expensive AND in short supply?

How does this work?  

 

[Lizard Queen]

This makes me wonder how much $ the government would save if they heavily regulated the food industry such that much less garbage is allowed in it.  I'm thinking along the lines of less diabetes resulting from healthier ingredients.  (I don't have studies backing this up-- just a gut feeling.)

[Deleted]

Sept 25, 2015 21:06:13 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

One of my DS must have a high pain tolerance or is so ADD that he just doesn't notice. When he was 19 he had his wisdom teeth out ( he only had 3?) and 2 other minor procedures . He was given pain medicines each time. He didn't hardly take any so we ended up with about 30 left over. Street value is $20-30 per pill. I would never do that though.

I had a couple of dental implants placed a few years ago.  The dentist gave me a prescription for Hydrocodone- 25 pills and it was refillable once.  As with the previous time he placed implants, I had so little pain that a Tylenol was all I needed after the general anaesthetic wore off.  I thought longingly of the street value of all the Hydrocodone as I threw the prescription away.  It could have helped defray the expenses of the implants!

I'm feeling lazy today (just finished a 34-mile charity bike ride) but if I see that notice again I'm taking a picture of it and sending it to the state's Medicare fraud e-mail address, which I found this AM.  I'll also post the pic on FaceBook, with the number blurred (don't want to alert the criminals they've been reported) to raise awareness of the problem.

[lund]

I would guess that the uninsured buy some, and that people with diabetic relatives abroad buy and send home.

The middle man probably will claim to want to buy "left overs", such as when somebody dies or in the rare cases when a type two can change from injections to pills (that is, loses weight until normal to thin, exercises a lot, eats perfectly, has stable sugar, and is lucky). The insurance/medical system does usually not want anything given out back.

If your buyers are like the ones here, they will buy opened packages too.

[Tiny]

Sept 26, 2015 13:14:26 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

This makes me wonder how much $ the government would save if they heavily regulated the food industry such that much less garbage is allowed in it.  I'm thinking along the lines of less diabetes resulting from healthier ingredients.  (I don't have studies backing this up-- just a gut feeling.)

The hard cold awful truth is that you can still get overweight/obese from eating 'healthy' food. You can always eat too much - especially when 'healthy' food is abundant.

 

Just because something is deemed 'good for you' doesn't mean you can eat as much of it as you want.  

For American's to loose weight and continue dining out (or purchasing take out food instead of cooking at home) the restaurant/take out businesses would need to enforce "portion control" - so no more 1000 calorie "meals"  - even if those are 1000 'good for you' calories.   

That means smaller portions AND convincing consumers that "less is more" even though they are paying what looks like a lot of money for very little (so eating out 2 times or 3 times a day - give American's an appropriate amount of nutrition  and calories)  OR raising the prices so that any sort of big meal eaten outside the home becomes prohibitively pricey so American's start to choose to only have those 1000 calorie meals once or twice a week - or month - rather than daily.

The other thing that would have to happen is that grocery stores would need to have less variety and higher prices - basically force people to choose the Crispy O's versus the Sugar Honey Granola O's   and force consumers to make the box of cereal (or whatever) last for the number of servings the whatever is suppose to serve.  So the box of cereal is really 9 breakfasts and not 3 breakfasts - even when that 1/2 a cup of 'serving' looks pathetic in one's 1 quart cereal bowl.   

The same thing with meats - 1/2 a chicken is NOT one serving... even though most people seem to think it is.  A 10 ounce chicken breast is NOT one serving even though it seems like it is.

That's what needs to happen  Americans need to eat less (even it's healthy) - and if it does it happen it will collapse a lot of industries and increase unemployment and make people whiney about how they are paying so much for food even though they are 'right sized' and not really starving.    

 

[thyme4change]

Sept 25, 2015 21:06:13 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

One of my DS must have a high pain tolerance or is so ADD that he just doesn't notice. When he was 19 he had his wisdom teeth out ( he only had 3?) and 2 other minor procedures . He was given pain medicines each time. He didn't hardly take any so we ended up with about 30 left over. Street value is $20-30 per pill. I would never do that though.

There have been multiple drug-busts in the park that is right next to the VA Hospital.  Apparently, you go into the VA, get pain meds, go out the back door, sell them in the park, and then take the money and do whatever it is you are going to do.  

[cronewitch]

I am on Medicare and got the test strips free. The pharmacy had me tell the doctor to instruct me to test more than once a day so I got 100 test strips free, they expire 10-2016. I actually test 2-3 times a week since my blood sugar is stable. Before Medicare I refused to buy strips because they were about a dollar each. I looked at selling a bottle of 50 and they wanted to pay very little for something very valuable. I could see selling them if I changed brands of meters or after I was dead but not fraud. My 3 month supply has lasted almost a year so far, 3 months in the pharmacy emailed my refill was ready so I could have sold about 3 bottles by now if I wanted to defraud Medicare.

[Deleted]

Sept 26, 2015 14:44:40 GMT -5 Tiny said:

The hard cold awful truth is that you can still get overweight/obese from eating 'healthy' food. You can always eat too much - especially when 'healthy' food is abundant. Just because something is deemed 'good for you' doesn't mean you can eat as much of it as you want.  

You're preachin' to the choir, Sister. I burned 1,357 calories on my 3.5-hour bike ride today. That's not typical, of course; I usually just do a little over an hour of cardio. It would have been SO easy to eat way more than those calories just at the event itself; there were 4 stops with free BBQ samples and free beer at the end. Add carb-loading the night before and you just ate every calorie you burned and more. (I skipped the BBQ at the first stop, and also skipped the offerings at the end and went straight for the beer. )

Even restaurants don't have to be deadly. DH and I nearly always take portions home, and skip dessert. I stay away from fried stuff and 12-oz. steaks. Sometimes I eat my whole meal if I'm especially hungry or ate very light earlier in the day. In the end, we're all responsible for what we put in our mouths. I'm not in favor of outlawing Big Gulps or regulating what snacks kids can bring to school. (I would, however, be in favor of more regulations around what food stamps can buy.)

[Deleted]

Sept 26, 2015 17:16:53 GMT -5 @southernsusana said:

Today was some sort of "Take your drugs to the Police Dept." Day so that they could properly dispose of them.

That's a great idea. Some people flush unwanted meds down the toilet or throw them away but not sealed well enough to keep the chemicals from leaching out into the landfills. Either is very bad for the water supply.

DH has a pretty large supply of high-power pain meds from various medical issues.  He keeps them around "just in case".  Once in awhile he will take one but not often because he doesn't like the side effects.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Athena....the sign sounds like they are wanting to BUY the test strips.  This person you want to turn in is not committing fraud.  The people who are SELLING the strips are, and I doubt the person is going to get an ID from the person that sold their test strips.

[tskeeter]

Sept 26, 2015 13:14:26 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

This makes me wonder how much $ the government would save if they heavily regulated the food industry such that much less garbage is allowed in it.  I'm thinking along the lines of less diabetes resulting from healthier ingredients.  (I don't have studies backing this up-- just a gut feeling.)

LL, I don't think it'd make all that much difference.  Unless you are going to completely regulate every aspect of people's lives.  You may make a small portion of their lives healthier, but not be able to address the other personal choices that people are able to make that have a much bigger impact.

I was reading a newspaper article that, IIRC, indicated that 29% of poor people smoke.  So, it probably doesn't make much difference to their health if food manufacturers are required to produce healthier food, if we continue to allow people to make the choice to smoke.  Or do rock climbing.  Or hang gliding.  Or race cars.  Or ride bicycles on roads that are shared with cars. 

[giramomma]

Our food pantry is starting to ask for healthier options of food: Canned fruit in juice instead of syrup, light pancake syrup, and canned salmon, brown rice instead of white.

Our city also has a crapton of community gardens that grows fresh food for the pantries.

[Lizard Queen]

Sept 28, 2015 11:09:08 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Sept 26, 2015 13:14:26 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

This makes me wonder how much $ the government would save if they heavily regulated the food industry such that much less garbage is allowed in it.  I'm thinking along the lines of less diabetes resulting from healthier ingredients.  (I don't have studies backing this up-- just a gut feeling.)

LL, I don't think it'd make all that much difference.  Unless you are going to completely regulate every aspect of people's lives.  You may make a small portion of their lives healthier, but not be able to address the other personal choices that people are able to make that have a much bigger impact.

I was reading a newspaper article that, IIRC, indicated that 29% of poor people smoke.  So, it probably doesn't make much difference to their health if food manufacturers are required to produce healthier food, if we continue to allow people to make the choice to smoke.  Or do rock climbing.  Or hang gliding.  Or race cars.  Or ride bicycles on roads that are shared with cars. 

Maybe not.  There's just soooo much obesity now, and diabetes seems so common now as well.  This is even among active people that appear to eat healthy (though I think it would be extremely difficult to become obese on a diet of primarily leafy greens, for instance).   Like I said, I admittedly have no proof.  As a child, I was pretty damn sedentary, reading books and watching TV.  I loved my sweets--donuts, sweet rolls, pies.  However, my mother cooked from scratch (with lard for pies).  I was never fat.  Fat kids were pretty rare then, actually, until maybe high school where they were slightly more common.  Nowadays, they are everywhere.  I think there is something more in the food that is exasperating the problem--preservatives, fillers, hormones, GMO's.  I don't know--just something.  I don't want to say people can't buy chips or donuts or anything like that.  I just think we should take a closer look at the shit those things are made with these days.  Shit that's put in to make the producers a few more pennies, or to extend shelf life to months instead of weeks.

[skubikky]

Sept 26, 2015 6:56:39 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Thanks! I'm going to find a place where I can report Medicaid fraud and give them the phone number. It may not go anywhere but I want to do something to nail these people who are wasting MY money (and don't care enough about their health to monitor their diabetes).

......really?  You're obviously not familiar with some of the black market businesses so popular in the hood.
This is very common.

They're more than aware of this and all the other types of fraud.

[Deleted]

Sept 28, 2015 12:58:59 GMT -5 skubikky said:

......really?  You're obviously not familiar with some of the black market businesses so popular in the hood.
This is very common.

They're more than aware of this and all the other types of fraud.

I would hope that this particular scam isn't news to them- but at least I've given them one more perpetrator they can track down. Better than doing nothing.

[Deleted]

Sept 28, 2015 11:38:47 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

There's just soooo much obesity now, and diabetes seems so common now as well.  This is even among active people that appear to eat healthy (though I think it would be extremely difficult to become obese on a diet of primarily leafy greens, for instance).   Like I said, I admittedly have no proof.  As a child, I was pretty damn sedentary, reading books and watching TV.  I loved my sweets--donuts, sweet rolls, pies.  However, my mother cooked from scratch (with lard for pies).  I was never fat.  Fat kids were pretty rare then, actually, until maybe high school where they were slightly more common.  Nowadays, they are everywhere.  I think there is something more in the food that is exasperating the problem--preservatives, fillers, hormones, GMO's.  I don't know--just something.  I don't want to say people can't buy chips or donuts or anything like that.  I just think we should take a closer look at the shit those things are made with these days.  Shit that's put in to make the producers a few more pennies, or to extend shelf life to months instead of weeks.

I totally agree with you. I was also raised on home-baked desserts, bologna sandwiches, Kool-Aid and other bad-for-you foods. My siblings and I are all still slim even as adults, and so are our 80-something parents. I think it's the proliferation of fast, cheap food, the popularity of eating out (where portion sizes are generally too large), and the crap they put in processed foods. At the top of my list would be high-fructose corn syrup. Remember what you have to do to make French fries from scratch? Scrub the potatoes, peel them (maybe), slice them, deep=fry them. Now you take Or-Idas out of the freezer and put them in the microwave. Too darn easy.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

The person you are reported is not involved in Medicaid fraud.  The person who sells it is, and how do you know that that person's not selling the supplies from a deceased parent, or used them for gestational diabetes and no longer needs them?

[Deleted]

Sept 28, 2015 13:08:29 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

The person you are reported is not involved in Medicaid fraud.  The person who sells it is, and how do you know that that person's not selling the supplies from a deceased parent, or used them for gestational diabetes and no longer needs them?

I'm going to leave that up to the authorities to investigate.

[tskeeter]

Sept 28, 2015 11:38:47 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

Sept 28, 2015 11:09:08 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

LL, I don't think it'd make all that much difference.  Unless you are going to completely regulate every aspect of people's lives.  You may make a small portion of their lives healthier, but not be able to address the other personal choices that people are able to make that have a much bigger impact.

I was reading a newspaper article that, IIRC, indicated that 29% of poor people smoke.  So, it probably doesn't make much difference to their health if food manufacturers are required to produce healthier food, if we continue to allow people to make the choice to smoke.  Or do rock climbing.  Or hang gliding.  Or race cars.  Or ride bicycles on roads that are shared with cars. 

Maybe not.  There's just soooo much obesity now, and diabetes seems so common now as well.  This is even among active people that appear to eat healthy (though I think it would be extremely difficult to become obese on a diet of primarily leafy greens, for instance).   Like I said, I admittedly have no proof.  As a child, I was pretty damn sedentary, reading books and watching TV.  I loved my sweets--donuts, sweet rolls, pies.  However, my mother cooked from scratch (with lard for pies).  I was never fat.  Fat kids were pretty rare then, actually, until maybe high school where they were slightly more common.  Nowadays, they are everywhere.  I think there is something more in the food that is exasperating the problem--preservatives, fillers, hormones, GMO's.  I don't know--just something.  I don't want to say people can't buy chips or donuts or anything like that.  I just think we should take a closer look at the shit those things are made with these days.  Shit that's put in to make the producers a few more pennies, or to extend shelf life to months instead of weeks.

I think you need to look more at lifestyle, than at foods.  

When I was young, my Mom was at home.  We didn't eat as many highly processed foods because Mom had time to cook, can, preserve, and garden.  Today, when Mom gets home at 6:00. she doesn't have two or three hours to get a meal on the table, so we tend to eat more processed foods.  Take out the presevatives, and the like, and Mom won't have access to many of the products she uses today.  Mom will need to quit her job so she has the time to cook from scratch using raw, more wholesome products.

Another factor in youth obesity is a low activity level among kids.  When I was young, we walked to and from school and wherever else we needed to go.  Or used our bicycles.  And, after school, we played outside.  Now days, kids are driven to and from school.  And after school, they play video games and watch TV instead of playing baseball and tag.

The problem you want to solve is a bit like going on a diet.  Most people aren't very successful with diets because what you eat really has only a modest impact on your weight.  What really makes a difference is your level of physical activity.  That's why it's called diet and exercise.  You suggest controlling diet and have not considered the more important factor, activity level, which is dictated by lifestyle choices.  One only has to compare the US to Europe to see the impact of lifestyle choices.  Most Europeans are not as heavy as we are.  Yet European grocery stores have much of the same food choices that we have.  But, they are much more active because they walk so much more than we do.  There are fewer cars per capita.  It is more common for a family to have one car than two or three.  People don't commute to work in a car.  They walk to the station and take the train.  And then they walk from the train station to work.  Often these walks are a half mile or more.  How many of us, especially those of us that live outside large cities, walk two or three miles a day to get to and from work?  And they walk to the grocery store.  And they walk and they walk.  Maybe that's why I can't remember seeing a gym the places I've been in Europe.  They walk instead.  

[emma1420]

Sept 28, 2015 16:28:38 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Sept 28, 2015 11:38:47 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

Maybe not.  There's just soooo much obesity now, and diabetes seems so common now as well.  This is even among active people that appear to eat healthy (though I think it would be extremely difficult to become obese on a diet of primarily leafy greens, for instance).   Like I said, I admittedly have no proof.  As a child, I was pretty damn sedentary, reading books and watching TV.  I loved my sweets--donuts, sweet rolls, pies.  However, my mother cooked from scratch (with lard for pies).  I was never fat.  Fat kids were pretty rare then, actually, until maybe high school where they were slightly more common.  Nowadays, they are everywhere.  I think there is something more in the food that is exasperating the problem--preservatives, fillers, hormones, GMO's.  I don't know--just something.  I don't want to say people can't buy chips or donuts or anything like that.  I just think we should take a closer look at the shit those things are made with these days.  Shit that's put in to make the producers a few more pennies, or to extend shelf life to months instead of weeks.

I think you need to look more at lifestyle, than at foods.  

When I was young, my Mom was at home.  We didn't eat as many highly processed foods because Mom had time to cook, can, preserve, and garden.  Today, when Mom gets home at 6:00. she doesn't have two or three hours to get a meal on the table, so we tend to eat more processed foods.  Take out the presevatives, and the like, and Mom won't have access to many of the products she uses today.  Mom will need to quit her job so she has the time to cook from scratch using raw, more wholesome products.

Another factor in youth obesity is a low activity level among kids.  When I was young, we walked to and from school and wherever else we needed to go.  Or used our bicycles.  And, after school, we played outside.  Now days, kids are driven to and from school.  And after school, they play video games and watch TV instead of playing baseball and tag.

The problem you want to solve is a bit like going on a diet.  Most people aren't very successful with diets because what you eat really has only a modest impact on your weight.  What really makes a difference is your level of physical activity.  That's why it's called diet and exercise.  You suggest controlling diet and have not considered the more important factor, activity level, which is dictated by lifestyle choices.  One only has to compare the US to Europe to see the impact of lifestyle choices.  Most Europeans are not as heavy as we are.  Yet European grocery stores have much of the same food choices that we have.  But, they are much more active because they walk so much more than we do.  There are fewer cars per capita.  It is more common for a family to have one car than two or three.  People don't commute to work in a car.  They walk to the station and take the train.  And then they walk from the train station to work.  Often these walks are a half mile or more.  How many of us, especially those of us that live outside large cities, walk two or three miles a day to get to and from work?  And they walk to the grocery store.  And they walk and they walk.  Maybe that's why I can't remember seeing a gym the places I've been in Europe.  They walk instead.  

The problem is there is not enough activity (well unless you are an Olympic athlete or training like one) to off-set the increase in calories.  I am all for being more active.    I am active, but I burn perhaps 200 calories on a 3-4 mile run.  That is easily consumed with an apple or snack size bag of potato chips.    And Europe is getting heavier and heavier just like the US is.  Cyprus, the UK, Poland, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, etc., all have more than half of their population who is overweight or obese.

In terms of the OP, there is a grocery store near where I live that has a high percentage of people with food stamps who shop there.   I've seen more than one person offer to pay for the groceries for the person in front of them in exchange for cash.

[Deleted]

I had the same thought as Emma; activity can do only so much. My nephew WAS an Olympic swimmer and yeah, he could eat a ton of food. He had to. OTOH, I just rode my bike 34 miles last Saturday. The offerings at the rest stops (hint: it was the Tour de BBQ) and the free beer at the end would make it very easy to make up the 1,400 calories I burned.

[wvugurl26]

It's very hard to track down those kind of people. I work with the criminal investigators and I still don't think it went anywhere. It's so hard to run down and there are limited resources. I've got two different pictures like that in my phone. One found by the investigators training center outside of DC and another by my office.

My assumption is they are looking for people who don't use them/have a glut of them bc Medicare or Medicaid paid for too many. Medicare recently tightened down on how many and where you could get them.

I do agree that it's very blatant and that it stinks. Perhaps a state Medicaid fraud control unit would have more resources available to track it down.