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Doctors make big money testing urine for drugs, then ignore abnormal results

Some doctors make a lot of money ordering urine tests for patients, but when the results come back abnormal, they fail to take action.

In April 2014, state and federal drug agents raided Jeffrey Campbell’s medical clinic in Jeffersonville, Ind. Police cars blocked the parking lot as bewildered patients scattered and the agents carted off boxes of records from the doctor’s office.

Some of the seized records would show that Campbell endangered patients by prescribing opiates without any medical need, according to federal prosecutors. Campbell, who collected millions of dollars from Medicare for urine tests run at his office lab, also failed to act when test results revealed patients were abusing prescription and illegal drugs, according to a government medical expert’s report.

Four patients died from drug-related causes under his watch, the report said. Others flunked two dozen or more urine tests, but the clinic kept prescribing them pills. One patient with a history of overdoses failed 46 urine tests and was never confronted

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