Mark Shapiro says the first he heard of it was Friday before the story broke.

Except for that karma part, I actually agree with kevin. Byrd's story doesn't pass the smell test. Of course, I'm not one to get all fired up about PED's though. I just assume most of these guys were on something going back to the late 80's. Like McGwire, I'm more concerned with the future than the past. Luckily for Byrd the Mitchell report will make him a forgotten man soon enough. Also, can we nickname Paul Byrd The Anti-Jobu? Pretty please? It works on so many levels!

What's cuckoo is that my daughter has to have an examination every spring with the same damned doctor to renew her Zantac prescription. She had hay fever three years ago, she had hay fever two years ago, she had hay fever last year, and guess what...she's gonna have hay fever again next spring. The doctor visits are nonsense at this point. So I'm stocking up in the hope that I'll have enough to not have to visit next spring. Maybe the refills are my doc's way of telling me I don't have to come in. I'd like to think so; she's a good egg.


I'm diabetic. Insulin can only be prescribed for one year. I'd like to think this is because someone thinks they're no the verge of a cure, but it's really to save money/screw patients. The ENTIRE medical/insurance industry is corrupt. Some less than others, but I don't give any of them a pass. The ones that aren't explicitly corrupt don't do enough to clean up the ones that are. Fu(kers, all of them.* Lawyers may be worse, but, if so, just by a nose.

* Clearly there are good doctors and nurses. I have two really good docs. They're both very open about their views of corruption in their profession and the silly rules and do as much as they can to skirt the silliest of the rules. But they say they're powerless. That is lots of powerless people in that profession.

And that is what I was talking about. BUT part of the reason they repeatedly charge clean patients who do pay their bills is because a very large percentage of doctor's bills are never paid and they end up eating the cost.

There is something fishy here. None of the SABR minded did much math...

He ordered HGH for 11 quarters. (Aug 2002 - Jan 2005 -- close enough). Assuming HGH is administered daily*, 11 quarters * 90 to 92 vials/quarter is 1000 vials. That math holds up.

2 scripts (presumably) from the dentist? Hmm... Either he stocked up for the post-HGH ban or he had a friend. That's what it looks like to me.

From Wikipedia, FWIW:
GH is also a favoured drug of many professional athletes and Olympic athletes, due to the fact that, as of 2005, there is no conclusive test to determine the presence of exogenous GH. Dosages for sport-related performance enhancement can be as low as 2IU/day, all the way up to 10IU/day taken by some professional bodybuilders.

I'd like to think this is because someone thinks they're no the verge of a cure, but it's really to save money/screw patients.

Or it could be to monitor the diabetes to make sure things are not getting worse.

The ENTIRE medical/insurance industry is corrupt.

I wont argue with you on insurance of any kind but I would like to know why you think the ENTIRE medical industry is corrupt. Is it that Dr’s make too much? Nurses are unqualified? Paramedics do too many ill advised things?

2 scripts (presumably) from the dentist? Hmm... Either he stocked up for the post-HGH ban or he had a friend. That's what it looks like to me.

The SF article said he had 13 scipts filled by the "dentist" and two other "doctors".

According to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation and the wellness center's business records, two of the 13 growth hormone prescriptions that Byrd obtained from the center were not written by a physician, but were signed by a Florida dentist who later had his license suspended for fraud and incompetence.

Law enforcement authorities in Florida are scrutinizing prescriptions written by the dentist and the two doctors who also signed Byrd's prescriptions

SF Gate

I wont argue with you on insurance of any kind but I would like to know why you think the ENTIRE medical industry is corrupt. Is it that Dr’s make too much? Nurses are unqualified? Paramedics do too many ill advised things?

I'm sure on a case by case example most doctors are good and well intentioned. But like most corruption not every single part needs to be corrupted for the system to be corrupt.

you could say it is a matter of good graft vs bad graft but considering that my business relies somewhat moderately to heavily on the corruption of doctors that corruption is prevalent in the medical world.

you could say it is a matter of good graft vs bad graft but considering that my business relies somewhat moderately to heavily on the corruption of doctors that corruption is prevalent in the medical world.

I have no doubt that there are people who are corrupt. I am just wondering why people think the system is corrupt. I think the medical insurance industry needs a ton of cleaning up but thinking of the patient care part I do not see it as a system that needs fixing. Maybe there are Dr's that need fixing but not a broken patient care system. So I am just curious to what I am not considering.

Maybe there are Dr's that need fixing but not a broken patient care system.

I would say some of it got illuminated in this thread. Doctors writing scrips for patients they barely see if at all. Handing out meds like they are candy simply because that is what the patient wants or it is simply good for business.

Doctors writing scrips for patients they barely see if at all. Handing out meds like they are candy simply because that is what the patient wants or it is simply good for business.

I guess I would have assumed doctors writing scrips for patients they barely see were a minority, but maybe I am wrong there. The handing out meds like they are candy is a hard one. I definitely think things are over prescribed today but then I also think that some of that has to do with the fact that it is much easier to spend 5 minutes giving a prescription that the patient will take then to try and change a lifestyle that might of got them to that state that they wont follow.

I think a good number of things could be fixed with changes in habits, lifestyle or time but if the patient isn't going to do any of them then the Dr has to choose which is the best approach and there is an argument for prescribing meds.

Either he stocked up for the post-HGH

I'll ask a third time: is this even possible? Did MLB give advance warning that HGH would be banned as of 1/13/05?

Did MLB give advance warning that HGH would be banned as of 1/13/05?

If he knew when the quarterly owners meeting was and that they were voting on this, then he would have known 1/13/2005 could be the date.

From MLB.com

During a quarterly owners' meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., the owners vote unanimously to accept recently concluded negotiations between MLB and the union strengthening the drug program.

From a 12/05/2004 MLB.com article

A day after Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig urged the players' union to work with management to toughen the game's drug-testing policies, Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said he planned to discuss steroids when the union's executive board convened later this week, according to Sunday's New York Times.

It was widely known that the MLBPA and the owners were discussing drug policies before 1/13/2005.

Thank you, Ron. It doesn't appear entirely clear that he would have known, but it does seem possible.

I'd like to think this is because someone thinks they're no the verge of a cure, but it's really to save money/screw patients.

Or it could be to monitor the diabetes to make sure things are not getting worse.

BS. I won't come in if I have a prescription? And if I'm the type that would not see a doctor, seeing a doctor isn't likely to help. They lecture me and I change my ways?



The ENTIRE medical/insurance industry is corrupt.

I wont argue with you on insurance of any kind but I would like to know why you think the ENTIRE medical industry is corrupt.

What was said above. It isn't necessary for every last person to be corrupt for the system to be corrupt. If I had to point to one thing, that is true for every doctor I've been to, if you're a pharma sales rep, you have carte blanche. You walk in and immediately see the doctor. That doctor then starts pushing the companies drugs. It's defended by the statement that this gives a lot of samples docs can give out to poor or underinsured patients, which is true, but tying big pharma to indivdual doctors the way we have and advertising drugs the way we do is not the solution to the underinsurance problem. Docs go along with it because they've rationalized that they have to. But none of it can go on without the docs approval. So, it's hard to tell a patient no drugs? It's hard to turn down free samples so you aren't beholden? Well, then it's hard. Being a doctor is hard.

Is it that Dr’s make too much? Nurses are unqualified? Paramedics do too many ill advised things?

FWIW, I think doctors should make a fortune. The nurses, in my experience, have been outstanding, overworked and underpaid. No experience with paramedics in the US but don't know of anything there. No, the trouble is that insurance/drug companies have too much control over what gets done, who gets seen and what drugs get taken and docs have gone along with it lock step. I suppose they've done so for financial gain but have no real idea why they have.

If I had to point to one thing, that is true for every doctor I've been to, if you're a pharma sales rep, you have carte blanche. You walk in and immediately see the doctor. That doctor then starts pushing the companies drugs.

I'll call hyperbole on this one. My wife has worked in several different doctors' offices and those reps wait for the doc to be available, if they get to see the doctor at all. She has sent them away if she knows it's a busy day. That matches what I've seen in my primary care doc's office. I've seen them waiting for quite a while in my doctor's office. I've seen them come in while I'm in the waiting room and when I'm done my physical, sometimes they are still there.
Now, should reps be bringing lunch spreads for the office? Should docs get to go to junkets on the Pharma tab? (This has been cleaned up some in recent years) No, I agree that stuff is blatantly wrong.

Well, Edmundo, I can clearly just report what I've seen. I'd hope docs would not give priority to sales reps, but they - or they're reception staff - at the places I've gone do. Either way, as you say, it is wrong. I actually did drop one doctor because at every visit he wanted to put me on a new drug or switch me. It became apparent that it was a financially motivated switch.

Sorry about last night, Paul. Karma is a #####.

Isn't it?

Sincerely,
David "What Happens In The D.R., Stays In The D.R." Ortiz