Piss tests that could take away people’s freedom and life should have to be done by regulated and qualified labs with technicians who understand the science and potential errors.
The good news is that empagliflozin (Jardiance) was included in the first 10 negotiated drug prices for Medicare.
Empagliflozin (Jardiance): for type 2 diabetes and heart failure; original list price $573, negotiated price $197 (66% decrease)
The bad news is that people on this drug can wind up failing court mandated alcohol urine tests, which could lead to people with heart failure being put in prison because of shoddy healthcare practices that ignore scientific issues.
The culprit was the testing procedure. Bing was taking a common diabetes medication which produces high levels of sugar in the urine. Because the sample was kept at room temperature for hours before it was tested, that sugar fermented into alcohol, resulting in his positive tests. This case was so significant that it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February. We wish we could say Bing’s case has a happy ending, but we can’t. Months after the initial false tests, we were made aware of another flurry of false positives, requiring a second letter reminding the court of the careful tests we performed at the VA that we believe proved Bing’s innocence.
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Furthermore, it’s crucial to note that Bing’s predicament may be more common than one would suspect. The diabetes medication he was taking, empagliflozin (Jardiance), is a widely prescribed drug that ranks sixth in total spending by Medicare Part D. It’s part of a class of drugs that treats not only diabetes, but also heart and kidney disease. If the urine samples from patients on these drugs aren’t handled quickly, the same kind of false positives may occur.
I have written my representatives about this injustice, feel free to use my letter for your own.
Veterans and other innocent diabetes and heart failure patients on empagliflozin (Jardiance) are getting false positives on court ordered alcohol urine testing because of improper handling of urine when testing. The government should make sure that any medical laboratory tests that could result in innocent people having their freedom taken away needs to be done by regulated labs that keep up on scientific issues that can impact accuracy like this, and involve double-checking before whisking away disabled people to jail on a false positive. https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/111453