Help could be on the way for Florida’s pain patients
New Port Richey, Florida – 10 News is digging deeper to get relief for those of you living in pain who are turned away from Bay area pharmacies. In some cases it’s happening even though you have a valid prescription from a reputable doctor.
William Petys of New Port Richey is disabled after a work-related injury and a motorcycle accident on his Harley Davidson. The pain is so intense that the married father of one can’t function without the Percocet painkiller his doctor prescribes for the five or six herniated discs. He suffers from constant back and hip pain. He describes the pain as if someone has thrust a knife in his back.
He says, “Think about the worst toothache you ever had and live that for the rest of your life that’s what it amounts to.”
Help could be on the way for Florida’s pain patients
Petys says his medicine helps. “When I’m on the pain medication I can actually function a little bit.”
He believes Florida’s crackdown on pill mills has gone too far. Fewer doctors and pharmacies are filling prescriptions for pain medication so now it’s hard for legitimate patients to get the prescription. He says part of the problem is you can’t call a pharmacy and ask if it has the medication in stock: They won’t tell you. Pharmacists also won’t tell you if one of their own pharmacies nearby has the medicine.
Petys kept details logged in a note showing that in in one month alone he drove to nearly 40 different pharmacies to try to get one prescription filled. After trying all his neighborhood pharmacies he was turned away from other Bay area pharmacies in Palm Harbor that had the medicine but refused to fill it saying he was “out of their area.”
LEARN MORE:Bilirakis statement on prescription problems
When he finally found a pharmacy that would fill the prescription, but was told it would four hours. He says when he went back the next month to have his pain prescription filled he was told it would take 24 hours.
ONE SOLUTION:Pew endorses work to reduce drug abuse
10 News went to U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis who says he is aware of the problem and is working to resolve it. He says, “My staff has engaged local stakeholders such as law enforcement, pharmacies, individual physicians and the DEA to help facilitate dialogue and solve the needs of the specific patient. Anyone experiencing this problem is welcome to contact a caseworker in my office so that we can assist.”
The phone number for Bilirakis is (727) 232-2921.
Petys, in the meantime, wants the state to consider creating a database that lists the names of legitimate pain patients. He says it should allow patients to go to their nearest pharmacist to find out who has the medication they need.
Filed under: General Problems
Maybe a bit off topic, but then again-not. my hubby suffers chronic pain and gets his meds from the va. So in the event he has a new issue that causes a different type of pain, he is overlooked as someone seeking more meds. He hás talked to his va Dr for almost a year about a new pain in his hip, was just brushed off, because he already gets pain meds, which by the way have been steadily reduced, because that’s the kick they are on right now. Well guess what, spent the last four days battling a life threatening bloodclot between his hip and ribcage. Cannot help but to think that someone, over this lengthy period of time should have looked. Into this a little deeper. Not seeking, just in misery! (Wanda)
I will never use a mail order pharmacy again after trying xact rxout of florida. What a nightnare,plus ive seen other ppl in my pharmacy sick in withdrawal because their mail order took forever to get to them. My dr doesnt prescribe me enough of my meds to go 3 or 4 weeks waiting for mail order to go through. So that will never be an option for me anyway. That company though do not ever use them they messed up and now my record shows 2 of myprescriptions filled within 2 weeks of each othe. And i got turned away at one pharmacy for it as they thought i was doing something wrong since they r out of florid and i moved to another state.
Why should there be another list? I happen to a have a close friend who at one tie was an addict, cocaine and alcohol years ago and has been clean for many years, but unfortunately was in a near fatal car accident and now has to be on pain medication to function. Her addction behaviors have NOT returned, she has legitimate pain due to the numerouse repair surgeries to be put back together. I’m sure I’m going to here…well maybe she would have been better off dead…NO, she worked hard back in the day. the accident was not her fault…some idiot ran a red light and T boned her on the drivers side. Doesn’t she deserve to have her pain controlled. She is monitoried?? We all support her and she was worried about her addictive behaviors coming back, but we all monitor her. What about former addicts who get cancer, they deserve to have pain control. I’m just opening up the conversation on things to think about regarding yet another PMP list which I think would be useless. IMHO
Does anyone know how it works of dr puts u on a new med to try n it doesnt work for you then are you then screwed for the entire month? or can they prescribe you another med to last you until next month?
CALL the news in your area so they too can get on board and get the word out. I know there are patients in every county of the state of Florida who are all having the very same issues! I would bet.. that every single pain patient in Florida has encountered at least one denial, each month. any many patient have to go months or never getting theirs. I don’t like the idea of another damn list.. I mean my lord.. how many data base lists do we need in order to get pain meds filled?
No matter what the state decides?? How can they force any business ( Pharmacy) make them sell something to anyone the pharmacy doesn’t want to sell? This is a very complicated issue and how this gets fixed? Is going to take many different avenues.. Personally, I feel that congress is going to have to fix this mess that their agency created. How about giving back the fine money and saying sorry? LOL I know that sounds nuts, but what else can they do??
The DEA has created one huge mess and they are to blame for every bit of it, along with Pam Bondi who brought them in and allowed them to do whatever they pleased..
I can’t believe that every rep, senator, doctor on the medical board that was involved in bring on this crackdown? That they ALL had no idea of the what the consequences were going be?? Can they be that stupid?? Florida is the place that always screws up royally and then other states watch.. and try not repeat these ridiculous mistakes, but then again some do it anyway and they too create a mess…. 80 million dollar fines,, and they think a pharmacy is going to fill a C II script??
The USA pain medicine business is in trouble. because of government interference Honestly.. If any patient here can do mail order? Do it! Send the MO ALL your RX’s and so the regular pharmacies have nothing to fill for you!! Plus?? You never have to leave your house to pharmacy crawl. One trip to the post office and your doctor can email, fax all the rest of your meds.. Fill NOTHING at local pharmacies!! Put them out of business!! Believe me.. the mail order pharmacies know what is happening and they are loving it! Most all of them now days are willing to send the meds without hassles..I know Caremark is filling and they are part of CVS, but guess what? They save money by sending you the meds by mail.. Less employees to have, less over head, just a warehouse.. Machines fill the ordinary meds. The only meds that need to be hand counted are scheduled meds..This going to harm the pharmacy techs and some pharmacist jobs.. The need for them is going to be less.. I hope more folks start doing it..
Any other way?? Is going to take time for them figure this one out and there will be many conferences.. I say.. get rid of the law that a pharmacist has the right to refuse to fill any RX!! Maybe then.. and get the DEA to back completely out of healthcare may help change this climate.. What do you think??
Ok… But WHO gets to decide wether a patient is ON THE “LIST” or not???
What if one doctor prejudged u and takes u off that list? How do y prove your worthiness to get on the list… Or BACK ON the list after u have been booted off the list, say if a urine test says u aren’t taking enough of your medicine (which we know can be flawed by different metabolism of drugs for each individual patient)???
Does that mean ACUTE pain won’t be allowed narcotic prescriptions?
I don’t think a damn list is the answer. Treating everyone like an individual and a human IS THE ANSWER. I think the drug abusers are going to get their fix no matter what… So ehsts wrong with the decade old system of filling legitimate doctors’ prescribed medications and treatments!?!?!
It is happening in JACKSONVILLE (Duval County) & in ST AUGUSTINE (St Johns County). I think some Counties are possibly worse off than others but it is certainly a STATE WIDE PROBLEM.
Um what about the rest of florida?????never seen news or articles on lee county but once its happening threr too and has been for 3 years
It sure does
That is a good start since right now there is a lot of finger pointing and far too little solutions.
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