Cortez Masto sponsors bill to crack down on ‘pill dumping’

WASHINGTON — Responding to the opioid epidemic ripping across the country, two senators introduced bipartisan legislation Wednesday to give law enforcement another tool to combat “pill dumping.”

The bill by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and John Kennedy, R-La., would suspend Medicare payments to pharmacies being investigated for possible fraud to obtain opioid medications.

The legislation, intended to curb the amount of pharmaceutical opioids “flooding our communities,” would enable law enforcement to address cases in which seniors have had their Medicare information stolen and used to illegally obtain opioids, Cortez Masto said in a statement.

“The surplus of unneeded opioids in our communities is caused in part by criminals who abuse the system and fraudulently use Medicare accounts from seniors to acquire and distribute high amounts of opioids,” she said.

In June, a doctor and three Southern Nevadans, two nurse practitioners and a surgical technician, were arrested and charged with unlawful distribution of prescription opioids and Medicare/Medicaid fraud. The prescriptions were filled by an unnamed pharmacy.

Cortez Masto said the bill, if enacted, would curb abuse of the Medicare system and “protect Medicare dollars for seniors who rely on them.”

She estimated the savings could be $9 million over 10 years.

Congress has grilled officials of large pharmaceutical companies in hearings about the large amounts of prescription pain medicine sent to small pharmacies — a practice known as pill dumping.

That practice has led states, counties and cities, including Clark County and North Las Vegas, to sue pharmaceutical companies to recover costs incurred from fighting the epidemic and treating victims of addiction to inappropriately prescribed pain medication.

Nevada ranked among the top 10 states for prescriptions of methadone and codeine, both opioids, according to a 2015 study by the National Governors Association. Consequently, the state has a high rate of drug overdose deaths per capita.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.