Interview: Accused opioid overprescriber fighting back | Quick local stories | Humboldt Last Week


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In the latest episode of Humboldt Last Week (134):

Dr. Connie Basch, submitted

(10:41) An Arcata doctor accused of over-prescribing opioids has been battling the state medical board to keep her license, garnering a significant amount of community support while raising concerns about California’s mandates for tapering opioids.

The Medical Board of California’s complaint against Dr. Connie Basch surrounds five Humboldt County patients that were taking high doses of opioids and anti-anxiety meds.

“Although she’d tapered them to lower doses, the complaint alleges the amounts are still excessive and the combination of drugs places the patients at risk of overdose and death,” reads a recent report by Pain News Network.

Dr. Basch claims none of those five patients died, overdosed, or were otherwise harmed by her tapering schedule.

“The California standard hasn’t caught up with what they’ve realized at the national level, that forcing tapers (on legacy patients) is not a constructive intervention,” she said in an interview with Humboldt Last Week. “…It should be individualized. I believe you have to persuade people to (taper) and then they do well.”

“(Those five patients) were stable,” she said at another point in the interview. “They were on ridiculously high doses but they had been for years from other prescribers …I feel worried that the medical profession (in California) is making an error (regarding tapering policies) that I think many of us are seeing as harmful, but are afraid to speak up. We are so intimidated by authority.”

“A decrease of 10 percent of the original dose per week is a reasonable starting point,” reads a CDC pocket guide for tapering opioids. “Some patients who have taken opioids for a long time might find even slower tapers (e.g., 10 percent per month) easier.”

“No standard opioid tapering schedule exists that is suitable for all patients,” the FDA acknowledged in April.

Fighting the opioid epidemic is important but is the fight going too far when it comes to Dr. Basch?

Her interview begins 10 minutes and 41 seconds into this week’s episode (10:41). She explains why she believes California’s tapering guidelines are doing more harm that good, her approach when treating pain patients, and how she believes our state can make better progress battling the opioid epidemic. 

The aforementioned investigation has been in progress for almost two years now while Dr. Basch has simultaneously been permitted to keep treating her over 1,400 patients. It’s unclear when she’ll find out if she can keep her medical license. Stay tuned with Humboldt Last Week for future developments.

You can read more about Dr. Basch and the Full Circle Center for Integrative Medicine via their website here.

Also in the latest episode: A teen’s family dragged him to the police station after finding out he recruited for a white supremacist hate group, by next summer Humboldt County’s District Attorney will consider over 1,000 pre-legalization cannabis convictions for dismissal, Reggae on the River gets a substitute event, learning more about Humboldt State’s new president, Sara Bareilles’ Grammy chances might have increased, military choppers, the internet wants Guy Fieri to be a Disney star, a Holocaust survivor wants his photos back, a local teen’s award-winning movie is now on Amazon Prime, Tall Trees Grove love, and much more.

Plus! Event picks, the attraction of the week, and HLW altRadio with new and nostalgia songs.

Humboldt Last Week is available at:

humboldtlastweek.com

kymkemp.com

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and soon at northcoastjournal.com

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MAGA
Guest
MAGA
4 years ago

Community support hmmm. Kinda makes sense in the Heroin capital.

JoMac
Guest
JoMac
4 years ago
Reply to  MAGA

Must be nice to have such an insight. Dr. Basch took in a lot of patients from other doctors that came with heavy meds due to major health issues, and had to slowly tirade them down off their medicines. When you’re very sick due to major health issues, it’s not so nice having someone act as if they know what’s best for you. The medical board had sent out letters before asking doctors to use more pain meds, and are now attacking doctors that are willing to deal with patients that are on high meds due to the pharmaceutical companies pushing them onto the medical establishment the first place. Even though these doctors are doing everything they can to take these patients off their meds safely, the medical board is trying to cover it’s backside by attacking these doctors in an attempt to show they are being responsible, and taking control of the drug problem. The problem is that these drugs should not have been pushed onto the medical community at all, and once they figured out there was a problem, you have to take these patients off these meds slowly! Pharmaceutical, and insurance companies are given the power to decide what meds you should be taking, not your doctors. How many times have you tried to get a prescription filled and have your insurance turn it down? The reason your doctor doesn’t have the power over what meds you take is because the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies now have that power. Med schools are totally funded by these same companies, so even your new doctors are being trained to accept that these companies know whats best for you as a patient, and not the doctor. Not sure why or how you thinking this is the “Herion Capital” has anything to do with Dr. Bash and what is really happening here, but hope this gives you a little insight to a huge problem patients are having to deal with. Doctors are attacked while the pharmaceutical and insurance companies get to walk away with all the money. Seems wrong, but so does the focus here. Peace and have a wonderful day..

HOJ in Training
Guest
HOJ in Training
4 years ago

There is no “h” in Sara Bareilles’ name. Probably none in her system, either.

NoShitSherlock
Guest
NoShitSherlock
4 years ago
Reply to  Myles Cochrane

Is that your porn star name?
Way more professional than “Scoob”.
LMAO!

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago

I listened to the whole interview with Dr. Batch with great interest. It’s a synopsis of the current medical situation, not only drug addiction but general care, where I’ve gone through a whole visit without looking the doctor in the eye because they were typing away the whole time. This came in large part from the regulations from the Federal government mandating electronic records. Also simultaneously limiting reimbursement for doctor visits to general or family practitioners. The government regulates to force people into what they determine are best practices but rarely if even requires a follow up study to measure whether their requirements actually worked or made things worse. It is frightening how regulation dictates what care is received. And how many doctors have quit rather than comply. The doctor is right- in Humboldt Co you very well might find yourself unable to have a doctor at all even with the resources to pay.

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

it isnt merely goverment regs. Health care corperations also limit gow much and what the doctors can do. however their directives are profit driven as by their federal mandate they have to do everything they can to ensure profits. I personally beleive that this is the largest fault with healthcare in the usa. we have laws forcing mergers of health care companies forcing doctors to sign up or be pushed out and the whole time these insurance providers are required to make profits above providing the best treatments or even life saving treatments if there isnt already a long history of those treatments being highly successful. Saddly as with the case of most single payer systems new ground doesnt get broken very often as there is no incentives no payments from the coffers to try new things until they have been proven highly successful in other systems where there isnt single payer system in place. it gets worse in many single payer systems people that are close to retirement or already retired do not quailfy for life extending treatments at all and will be denied , however comfort treatments to ease pain are allowed. See single payer systems see thosr that are above the required age to be paying into the system as a lilibilty not a responceability.

Shad
Guest
Shad
4 years ago

All my junkie friends so this freak

b.
Guest
b.
4 years ago
Reply to  Shad

Say that again. Typos!

Fed up
Guest
Fed up
4 years ago

This woman turned my mother-in-law into a morphine addict and she didn’t even actually need the drug. Also she sent my 2 year old son home to his death, luckily we decided to go to the emergency room for another opinion and found that if we had waited another day (let alone the 6 days Connie scheduled us to wait) my son would have died from gastroenteritis due to dehydration! … of course it’s not like she’s the only one guilty of not doing their job to actually HELP people around here!

Pamela T.
Guest
Pamela T.
4 years ago
Reply to  Fed up

To Fed up: It’s very difficult to obtain morphine from a doctor unless it is needed as in my own mother’s case. No doctor that I know prescribes morphine if a patient doesn’t indicate that they need it especially Dr. Basch. These are serious allegations. You sound very resentful about all doctors in this area. I wonder why you stay; you are so unhappy. My mother died of cancer and without morphine would have been in a lot of pain. She was not an addict but needed it for several months. I also have friends who go and have gone to Dr. Basch and according to them she has constantly monitored them and their pain medicine. She has an integrated medical practice and used acupuncture and gave me herbals. I am sorry you feel that such a caring doctor could have turned your mother in law into an addict. I wonder where you were while your mother in law became an addict? My mother didn’t make a move without me advocating for her. As for your son dying due to dehydration, you should have taken him to the ER immediately instead of waiting in this rural community where doctors are overworked and overwhelmed with patients as you indicated you knew. You did the correct thing. As an advocate for my daughter I knew if she had been drinking enough liquids.

Mr. Tambourine Man
Guest
Mr. Tambourine Man
4 years ago

AITA for thinking less of people who can’t (or can’t be bothered to) spell correctly or to use punctuation?

Keeping It Real
Guest
Keeping It Real
4 years ago

I don’t want to digress too far from the subject at hand, but I feel compelled to say, Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, the irony of your post is absolutely delicious. You are either being deliberately risible or else you need to take a look at that finger you’re pointing, and then notice the other fingers that are pointing back at yourself. “AITA” (I actually had to look it up) for thinking less of people who use trendy txt-speak in writing comments in a news blog? I’ve always wondered, what exactly do you do with all that time you save, not writing four little words? “Can’t be bothered”. Indeed.

mary
Guest
mary
4 years ago

thank you for keeping this story in the news. Dr. Basch has been my first choice doc for many years. Hope she will be able continue her practice here in Humboldt for many more decades.

Shout out !
Guest
Shout out !
4 years ago

I too as a rule am so disillusioned by the medical and even alternative health care providers. Does anyone actually care? My experience has shown me only very few actually do. But recently I was blessed to be seen by James Pratt PA-C. His hands-on attention to my problem , his broad knowledge base and kind but assertive manner were so fresh! He’s a good doctor.

Kaati GAffney
Guest
Kaati GAffney
4 years ago

I am Connie Basch’s patient and when I have come to her with chronic pain problems and she recommended that I go to an acupuncturist to manage my pain. Or she gives me herbs and tinctures. She is not a drug pusher by any means and they are barking up the wrong tree.

Maryellen
Guest
Maryellen
4 years ago
Reply to  Kaati GAffney

I also know her to be a very alternative Dr that had offered many many choices of dealing with pain and so many other issues. She had helped my husband navigate his journey in finding better ways to deal with his amputation which included her research and communications to his Dr in Australia to pursue a newer type surgery. She still continues to help him have better quality of life.

shak
Guest
shak
4 years ago
Reply to  Maryellen

Just a feeling, but I have a hunch it’s the ‘holistic alternative’ meds that they’re really going after her for. You know, competition, especially with the new Calif healthcare bill that panders to big pharma.

Hopefully those who use natural herbs for their self medications, will have saved the YT tutorials to disk before they’re deleted/censored.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago
Reply to  shak

Be careful out there.

I know a wannabe “functional health” guy.

We debate in person.

He recently referred me to read about “Dr.” Sherri Tenpenny. An anti-vaxxer who promotes the idea that germs are no concern to humans and instead the germs are attracted to issues in the body that can be found out with…..”functional medicine”, of course! No washing hands necessary in her office!

Be careful out there with alternative medicine doctors.

Definitely.

Can't Fix Stupid
Guest
Can't Fix Stupid
4 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

I am a huge fan of alternative/holistic medicine. That said – germs are of no concern to humans? Huh. Never heard of bubonic plague, I guess? Smallpox, typhus, TB, cholera? Polio, leprosy, malaria (not a germ, a parasite, but there is a vaccine) -? AIDS? I grant a weakened immune system will more readily succumb to illness, but – germs (and viruses, bacteria, etc.) of no concern? Really? Does this “doctor” know anything at all about history? Needs a copy of “Germs, Guns and Steel”. Or closer to home, read about the here-and-now outbreak of diptheria. Before this recent outbreak, there were exactly two cases in the entire country between 2004 and 2017. Let that sink in. The anti-vax movement will bring about unimaginable heartbreak. Take it to the bank. Ever see somebody in an iron lung? Imagine it’s your kid.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago

Yea, I’m not knocking herbs or alternative options in general.

But just as in politics, health has some wild ideas going around.

And if my buddy reads this: I’m not saying anything I haven’t said in person….our debates go on.

Xtal
Guest
Xtal
4 years ago

I do not know this person, but as someone who could still be on opioids for health reasons from 2007, tapering is a must!
I weaned myself off in 2014. It’s something you HAVE to taper off from.
Our system is messed up.

Grass
Guest
Grass
4 years ago

Oh and that kid the police caught did not ” start a white supremacist hate group”. He merely printed off some flyers from an existing online group and posted them around..big difference especially since he wouldn’t be welcome in a real white supremacist group because he is ” multiracial”
himself according to the police press release.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago
Reply to  Grass

Posted one next to a picture of a murdered black youth, David Lawson.

Its beyond gross and racist.

Chloe Kopsho
Guest
4 years ago

It’s ridiculous that these government agencies are impinging on the doctors ability to do the things they’re trained to do. Go after the patients who are overemphasizing their pain just to get high. Those are the pricks that are fucking shit up.

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
4 years ago
Reply to  Chloe Kopsho

why go after anyone ? who gets to decide how much pain is enough or to much for each person to live with ? and lets be real here we are talkibg about medicial issuses. freedom from pain and the ability to enjoy living life is a must ! if not than why must we force people to contuine on in pain ? why cant we as a body agree that it is selfish to demand that people who live in pain stay in pain ?
if we say oh wait they are using this drug or that drug to get high, still just as we all enjoy the right to express ourselves own firearms , pray to whom or what ever we wish we all also have the right to seek happiness. and as far as i can tell what happy is for one person is very differant than for the other. if they are seeking happiness with the use of chemicials that are prescribed by a doctor bought from a store and taken by themselves there is no crime. they arent fueling the coffers of gangs or supporting terrorists. no they are going about it in the cleanest way possible. as long as they are only causing harm to their own body there is no need for anyone to do anything other than advise them.
if we want to add the cost of treating the effects of chemicial pleasure seekers and call that harm. then we also must address those that seek pleasure from sugars , from extream sports or sports in general ,what about all those gym injuries that we all pay extra health care costs for,and of course the costs of those who sit around and do nothing. However when figuring all this up i suggest we subtract a certain amount as to off set the health bennifits from merely being happy reguardless as to how or why. I have heard or maybe read somewhere that laughing daily has such a great effect on the human body that it is measurable in reguards to reduced illness and the kicker is that it doesnt matter if the laugh is real or faked and forced.

reality
Guest
reality
4 years ago

Government screws up health care more, people scream “more government needed”…

Pretty much sums up why I can’t get decent health care…

Not from lack of ability/trying…

Good job all you whacked people who think the Government can (would) make it better…

Angela Bott
Guest
4 years ago

Dr. Connie Basch actually saved my life by taking my chronic pain seriously. She spends countless hours researching to find out what causes my chronic pain so that she can treat the cause rather than the symptoms. She also works incredibly hard to find alternative ways to treat my chronic pain which has made it possible for me to significantly decrease the amount of pain meds that I had been taking. If Dr. Basch had not began treating me again about 3 years ago, I probably would have committed suicide because I could not find a doctor that cared enough to find the cause. This whole world would benefit greatly if all doctors were more like Dr. Basch working so hard to help chronic pain patients find answers to why they have chronic pain and treat the chronic pain with alternative methods while not completely taking away our access to pain meds when we really seriously need them.

I hate using any type of drugs, but there are days that I cannot get out of bed or stop crying because of pain. This causes mass depression. Mass depression leads to suicide. If I did not have pain meds available when my chronic pain gets so bad, I am afraid that the depression would cause me to commit suicide. Do we really think that pushing people into suicide by other means is the answer?

Weedblower
Guest
Weedblower
4 years ago

“I believe you have to persuade people to (taper) and then they do well.” This statement is emblematic of the problem. With this attitude, the patients get to dictate what doses of drugs they get. When they are addicted, good luck persuading them to taper, and it’s only a matter of time before one of them gets hurt.

Jo
Guest
Jo
4 years ago
Reply to  Weedblower

As a patient of Dr Basch’s who came to her on 500mg a day of morphine, I say asking someone to taper works. I am now on 20mg of morphine per day. She asked me if I wanted to, I thought it over and said yes. Trying to force someone is just going to make them dig in, they panic. The fear of the pain and the withdrawal is huge. Being confrontational with a pain patient or with an addict is the worst thing you can do.

Wake up
Guest
Wake up
4 years ago

When you go to a doctors office, you see two snakes wrapped around a sword and then you look right next to that and see a certificate that says that person is practicing medicine. Never trust anyone who gets a pay check from a drug pusher and never trust a person who carries no light in their eyes. Come on ppl.

seasideroses
Guest
seasideroses
4 years ago
Reply to  Wake up

by this I assume you are referring to the satanic system that licenses doctors, and eventually requires them to sell their soul to the devil (the pharmaceutical industry) in order to be allowed to be doctors?

gimme a break
Guest
gimme a break
4 years ago

Not saying there is not an opioid problem but, pain and medication are different in every person. Just like booze and street drugs, everyone has a different tolerance to meds. The lightweights to the heavy. I suffer from 2 forms of arthritis and chronic inoperable lumbar degeneration. I take a biologic once a week as well as 3 different meds for my illness twice a day. Yes I take a time released morphine tablet. What does anyone have to say about what is between myself and my doctor? NOBODY. The quality of life I get from relief of my pain is like night and day. I can function, walk to the mailbox, weedeat, move snow, and not having to crawl to the bathroom is wonderful. I have been to pain management for injections in my back, little needles poked in me with heat on the end. In short I have tried alot of alternatives. Now I have meds narrowed down to what works for me and relief from severe pain. So if someone does not have the horse sense to know their kid is dehydrated and sick I should go to the E R first. I say STAY out of my life unless you can walk in my shoes !! Its the peeps that wanna just get high that just ruin it for the people who are suffering and need help. Eat you herbs, do all the alternative crap, if it works for you fine but dont tell me how or what I feel and what works for me. I am 60ish and I know my body. My doc is great. listens to the patient for the patient will tell you what is wrong. Everyone is different processing medication. There are needs and they are different in every persons system. To the people who judge, get off your fkn high horse and stfu. nobody is making anyone by shoving anything down their throat. I wouldnt wish a rhumatoid flare up that migrates on anyone. I just wanted to share that everyone has different needs and a doctor should be there to help not be scared to treat a patient because of government or bullshit ” clinic policies” that are funded partly thru the feds.

Burnt Roach (new handle)
Guest
Reply to  gimme a break

As a 63 year old active man I recently found out what pain really is. I had no idea. Last summer I was up on a roof working like I was 23. Last winter pain in my knees slowed me down to a turtle’s speed. This summer some kind of flare up in my whole body got so bad I couldn’t lift my left foot up to the next stair. Rolling over in bed was nearly impossible. Getting out to go pee six times a night a nightmare. What in the hell is this I wondered? Couldn’t be arthritis; my whole body? Pain scale of 8/9? Got a blood draw last week to check for Lyme disease, Lupus, and other possibilities. Four grams daily MSM has been helping my knees. One quarter teaspoon turmeric morning/night helps too. Marijuana helps a little. It used to be all I ever needed, but not now.

No one has the right to tell anyone else what they can or can not do to reduce the pain in their bodies. No one knows your pain. Those that think they do can just go #@$% off. That’s my belief.

Sorry Kym, just had to be said.

seasideroses
Guest
seasideroses
4 years ago

sorry about all those health issues. Good you’re taking turmeric, but you should include pepper with it, as that helps the body absorb it. Also, you should take silica gel; I take Nature’s way “body essential silica gel”, as well as collagen type II; lately I’ve added collagen types I and III, available as a powder that I mix in with my coffee. at 66, I am managing chronically sprained s.i. joints, with the attendant problems that creates (hip, inguinal ligament, etc); well, I also do stretches every day and as much exercise as I can tolerate.

humboldtfrog
Guest
humboldtfrog
4 years ago

Connie is an important and valued part of our community – she provides genuine, effective care for her patients in a county well know for having terrible access to good healthcare. Hope she prevails through this.

burblestein
Guest
burblestein
4 years ago

A doctor is being prosecuted for weaning her patients off narcotics? Is this some kind of evil joke?

seasideroses
Guest
seasideroses
4 years ago

it’s amazing to me that these agencies go after good doctors for nit-picking reasons, when there are doctors that are in fact killing people.
If they pull her license, there will be another 1,400 people out there having to find a new one in a area that has a serious dearth of doctors. I myself have to be contented with a nurse-practitioner.
As others have pointed out, their real agenda probably is the fact she prescribes alternative treatments/herbs, etc, rather than the required (by the ama) poisons, surgery, etc.

sickofit
Guest
sickofit
4 years ago

I understand that there is an opioid issue, but try to live with back pain as long as I have or others that have the same issue as I, but to waking up in the middle of the night 0r any other time that a flair up decides to come, yes I am on opioids, not by choice , but the choice of working my ass off since I was 16 years old, I do not enjoy to be medicated ,but, if not I would probably not have the same quality of life that I enjoy to have like gardening, walking with my wife or other activities, I have learned not to over-medicate myself but there have been times that I wish not to put up with the pain, and I have taught of not even dealing with it, if you take the medication from the people that really need it, there will be other drug issues, like street drugs that people will take including me just to get by, I refuse to sit on the couch and wither away for the hard work that I was tought to do as I’m disabled and retired now, it would be nice to live a longer life and enjoy what I worked hard for and others that exprience the same . Taking away peoples medication is not the way to end the drugs in our Country, but only adding to the street drugs, research patients records and see what and why they are being treated for. I do not or ever would think of blaming my doctor for giving me the relief that I need for my quality of life, people say that there are other drugs that you can take that is not so addicting, like what Pot or candy made with marijuana oil, I have tried it and only to have to wait two hours to see if it works, well when you are in pain two hours is way too long to be in ,by that time you just want to end life.

JeffreyG
Guest
JeffreyG
4 years ago

Some people have terribly unrealistic standards for how fast people can taper off high dose opioids. Rapid and coerced tapers can be dangerous both physically and psychologically. The best plan is one where you get patient buy-in and proceed at a rate that doesn’t destabilize the patient. I have seen the worst case scenario of rapid involuntary tapers. In one case, a family member attempted suicide by driving their electric wheelchair off a cliff. They broke their femur, developed staph infection in the hospital, and slowly died because they already had a compromised immune system. In another case, a hospital roommate was rapidly tapered off a very high dose of oxycodone. He was a Vietnam combat veteran and sustained battlefield injuries including shrapnel that was lodged in his head. The medical team persisted despite cardiac issues. Ultimately, his condition worsened to the point he needed to be evacuated to the Mayo Clinic. He never made it there because he died of a fatal heart attack.