Doctor Shopping Law and Legal Definition
Doctor shopping is the practice of a patient requesting simultaneous care from multiple physicians without making efforts to coordinate care or informing the physicians of the multiple caregivers. For example, it can happen when a person visits one doctor and obtains a prescription. Then, the person visits another doctor and obtains another prescription for the same drug. Many people commit this crime due to an addiction to or reliance on, certain prescription drugs. It is an offense for a person to obtain or attempt to obtain a controlled substance by using this type of fraud. There are state specific laws regulating the same.
The following is an example of a State Statute ((Connecticut) on doctor shopping
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 21a-266. (Formerly Sec. 19-472). Prohibited acts.
(a) No person shall obtain or attempt to obtain a controlled substance or procure or attempt to procure the administration of a controlled substance (1) by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation or subterfuge, or (2) by the forgery or alteration of a prescription or of any written order, or (3) by the concealment of a material fact, or (4) by the use of a false name or the giving of a false address.
(h) No person who, in the course of treatment, is supplied with controlled substances or a prescription therefor by one practitioner shall, knowingly, without disclosing such fact, accept during such treatment controlled substances or a prescription therefor from another practitioner with intent to obtain a quantity of controlled substances for abuse of such substances.
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