Rural Iowans who have to make a long trek to a drug store might consider buying their prescription medications online, but they’re being warned against it. Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, says most of those websites are flaunting the law, in addition to selling bogus drugs.

“It’s a $75-billion industry and you really can’t buy medications online without a prescription, legally, but unfortunately, you’re able to do so and you’re able to do so with websites that are operating illegally, are dangerous and are probably selling counterfeit drugs,” Catizone says. An association study of online drug stores revealed just how crooked most of those businesses have become.

“We looked at over eight-thousand websites selling prescription drugs,” Catizone says. “Ninety-six-percent of those websites were fake, rogue or illegal sites that were breaking both federal and state law.” He says it’s even more disturbing to hear that any type of drug, from diet pills to pain killers, can be purchased online and without a prescription. 

Catizone says, “You can order virtually any prescription drug in the world that you want, but the other side of the issue is, if you’re not using a legal, on-site pharmacy or talking to your doctor, the chances of what you are getting being a real med are probably nil and the dangers of using or taking or buying those meds are high and very significant.” He says counterfeit medication manufacturers have become very skilled at producing convincing products that look like the real thing, but they’re usually made in unsanitary conditions and contain dangerous substances, like rat poison or lead. Erectile drugs are the most-counterfeited. The study also found one in six Americans bought medications online last year.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

A spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General says you can save yourself a lot of holiday hassles if you take a little time to keep know some shopping rules. Geoff Greenwood says the first thing to know is that stores set the conditions on things like returns. Greenwood says a lot of people get confused because they think that state law requires stores to accept returns, but he says there isn’t such a law for a refund, exchange or credit unless a store advertises such a policy. Many stores are offering layaway plans this year in an effort to boost sales. The stores also set layaway rules.

“Make sure your eyes are wide open what the rules are, and also pay attention to how much they’re charging you, in some cases they will charge you a storage fee for the layaway,” Greenwood says. He says make sure you know what the storage cost is up front on an item. Greenwood says the return polices vary widely, so don’t think what works at one store will also work at another.

He says some stores require a receipt for a return, others don’t. Some can look up your purchase, while others can’t. There are set rules stores have to follow when it comes to gift cards.
Greenwood says money on a gift card cannot expire for at least five years from the time you buy it or from the time you load it with money. He says it is possible to charge you an inactivity fee if you don’t use the card. Greenwood says you should ask the stores about their policies if you are unsure of their rules.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

Veterans in intensive care units at Iowa’s two V-A hospitals will soon be under the care of doctors in Minneapolis via the Internet. The Department of Veterans Affairs is going to the “hub and spoke” concept for providing health care in I-C-Us. Dr. Craig Piquette, at the Omaha V-A Medical Center, says advanced technology will make the Minneapolis V-A the hub for several other hospitals in the Midwest. “Due to the availability of intensive care-trained physicians in Minneapolis, they just have more of them than what we do here,” Dr. Piquette says. “Then the spokes are the seven ICUs across the region which includes facilities in Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota and Nebraska.” The technology involved in creating an electronic or “tele-ICU” is already in place in Omaha and Fargo and will be coming soon to Iowa and elsewhere.

He says “That hub in Minneapolis will eventually monitor intensive care units in Iowa City, Des Moines, Omaha, Fargo, Sioux Falls and the Black Hills facilities in western South Dakota.” Equipment can be placed in a patient’s room at any of the spokes and medical experts at the hub in Minneapolis will monitor that patient’s conditions, in addition to the local staff.  Piquette says, “Our nurse-to-patient ratio is one nurse to every two patients in the ICU but the electronic ICU provides a safety net, another set of eyes that is constantly watching the patient.” There is a restricted area at the Minneapolis V-A equipped with a bank of monitoring screens showing vital signs. There is also a live two-way audio-video feed that instantly connects the patient, bedside provider and the team of critical care nurses and specialists in Minneapolis. Piquette says the cameras and monitors show real-time events and the video resolution is remarkable.

He says, “The cameras can focus in on the patient and are able to allow the physician to assess things such as the size of their pupils and a rash on their skin.” When installation of the tele-ICU service is complete, 75 ICU beds at seven hospitals in five states will be monitored by critical care specialists in the Twin Cities.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)