THIS is the "meds made simple" reply to the (apparrently) scurillous "e-rumor" that they hasd turned someone in. On the board it came from, the rumor-starter got exposed pretty quickly as having heard it (at BEST) second hand...BuckFutz 1/28 @ 2:45PM PST

Good lord, people... get ahold of yourselves!

I just spoke to this patient at length regarding this issue. This patient will be posting on his own behalf regarding the matter. In the meantime, it does not help this patient or anyone else to continue to assume that you understand what happened, what actions we took or what will come of the matter.

As much as I wish I could tell every misinformed person on here what truly happened and what will come of this, the patient's privacy is my first ethical (not to mention LEGAL) concern.

Calls for "boycott MMS!" and false statements about how "MMS MUST be sharing info with everyone and their brother" are absurd. I am a HUGE advocate of informational forums like PW, but, honestly, this is scary... that SO MANY intelligent people could grab hold of something that no one really knows the facts about and just run wild with it, just spouting out whatever comes to mind to say - that doesn't do anything for us, for those pain sufferers who use our services, or for ANY customers of ANY consultation services, for that matter.

Neuroman said it best in his post, and to paraphrase, I fully agree that in order to stay in business and to continue to provide service to you all - the legitimate sufferers of chronic pain - we MUST follow federal and state guidelines and stay well within the limits of the law. If you do something illegal, we must do our best to protect your privacy, but first and foremost, we must protect the rights of all our other patients to continue to use our service, as well as the licenses of our medical staff.

Let me clarify for all of you - we make it very clear, in accordance with federal law, that alteration of medical records is a crime. If you can not provide legitimate medical records to support your chief complaint, go get a physical exam. DO NOT ALTER YOUR RECORDS in order to seek treatment via telemedicine. The DEA is eager to shut companies down who illegally prescribe. You alter your records, you risk your freedom, the right of your physician to practice medicine, and the closing of ALL telemedicine services.

1. MMS did NOT turn any patient over to law enforcement. Please follow this link for further information about the legal issues associated with "Legally Compelled Disclosure" of Protected Health Information... http://www.medsmadesimple.com/privacy.cfm (bottom of page).

2. MMS has not forwarded ONE SINGLE PIECE of Protected Health Information of any patient to law enforcement.

3. MMS does NOT share your information with ANY other source aside from those "Covered Entities" involved directly in your treatment, as outlined by HIPAA.

4. "Go Daddy, Inc." is a software company who is also a domain name registrar. When MMS was founded, we registered the domain name "medsmadesimple.com" through this company, just as thousands of other companies do. No information regarding any patient was/is/will be shared with Go Daddy, Inc. or ANY source not directly involved in providing you treatment.

5. Read what you sign. You have rights. Not only are you obligated to follow consent to treatment agreements in order to use our service, we must also inform you of your legal rights and we must obey the law in order to provide service to you. We will continue to protect the rights of legitimate patients who abide by these agreements by denying service to anyone who takes matters in their own hands and who breaks the law in order to attempt to receive treatment.

6. If you submit falsified or altered medical records (altered in ANY WAY - changed the date of service, "edited" the doctor's notes, cut & pasted a doctor's name...etc.) for the purpose of receiving treatment with narcotic medication you are committing a crime. It may not seem like such a big deal to you, but no matter how you justify it, it is illegal to alter your medical records. The Patient Affirmations which you are required to sign in order to become a Member of MedsMadeSimple clearly state this. We MUST, by law, follow protocols to prevent such individuals from receiving treatment fraudulently.

We at MMS have taken great strides to legitimize this service for all chronic pain patients. We are working hard to work within federal and state laws and guidelines for prescribing/dispensing. We have secured THE LOWEST available prices for medications through our pharmacy affiliate Brighton Pharmacy and we have even negotiated that those prices are guaranteed through November 2006. We are constantly looking for ways to make this process easier, faster, better, more legitimate, and we are responding on a daily basis to the changing laws of each state.

I look forward to the clarification that this patient has agreed to provide in an upcoming post. If any of you have questions that I can address directly, please do not hesitate to address them to me at

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Best regards,

http://www.medsmadesimple.com : simple; the way telemedicine was meant to be...