Judge refuses to dismiss defamation lawsuit against CVS
http://www.virginiadefamationlawyer.com/Goulmamine.pdf
A judge has ruled that a doctor’s defamation lawsuit against CVS Pharmacy can proceed, denying the chain’s argument that alleged comments from pharmacy employees were protected by a recognized privilege.
In June, Redouane Goulmamine, MD, filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against CVS. Goulmamine alleges that some employees of CVS pharmacies in Virginia told his patients that he overprescribed painkillers and was being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The chain also refused to fill his prescriptions.
CVS attempted to quash the lawsuit, but U.S. District Judge Robert Payne of the Eastern District of Virginia recently denied most of the arguments in CVS’ motion to dismiss.
Goulmamine operates The Spine Center in Petersburg, Va. He specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation musculoskeletal-spinal medicine, and provides pain management services for his patients. In October 2014, CVS sent Goulmamine a letter questioning his prescribing patterns.
A March 2015 follow-up letter to Goulmamine stated: “Despite our attempts to resolve the concerns with your controlled substance prescribing patterns these concerns persist. Thus, we are writing to inform you that effective March 24, 2015, CVS/pharmacy stores will no longer be able to fill prescriptions that you write for controlled substances.”
According to Goulmamine’s lawsuit, several CVS pharmacy employees made defamatory remarks about him before and after the chain stopped filling his prescriptions for controlled substances.
One patient was allegedly told by a pharmacist “He [Dr. Goulmamine] is being investigated for writing too many pill prescriptions.”
Another CVS pharmacy employee allegedly told one of the doctor’s patients “we will not fill his prescriptions anymore” and “you shouldn’t be taking these pills.” And on March 30, 2015, a CVS employee allegedly told one of Goulmamine’s patients “I would advise you to find another doctor; your doctor isn’t going to be in business much longer.”
Goulmamine said all of the statements allegedly made by CVS employees are false. “If CVS had ever done any rudimentary investigation into Dr. Goulmamine and The Spine Center or had ever called him directly, it would have known that all of its statements about him were not true,” the lawsuit states. “No other local pharmacy has had any similar concerns about filling Dr. Goulmamine’s pain prescriptions and certainly has not made any similarly defamatory statements about him.”
CVS has denied that it made defamatory statements regarding Goulmamine to his patients.
Filed under: General Problems
I was also given another person’s meds by CvS got it home and realized it, took it back and they wanted to blame me! They got all nasty with me like it was my fault. CvS just bought my pharmacy out a month ago and I immediately had my meds switched to another family owned who are very pleasant. I did learn to always open the package and inspect before leaving the counter.
I can’t wait to hear the outcome of this case. I just hope that attorneys for CVS don’t try to discredit the patient/witnesses by labeling them as drug seekers/addicts instead of legitimate patients in open court. These are the types of lawsuits that will help those of us who truly suffer.
All the chain pharmacy’s suck, they are too large to control individually so they create policy for all of them. Stick with the smaller pharmacy’s if you can, preferably a family owned and operated one.
I hope he wins and they have to pay. It is slander, pure and simple.
Walgreen’s are bad also. These chains and pharmacist need to stop acting like they are the doctors!!!!!
You’re so ignorant. Pharmacists ARE doctors and are NOT acting. They save lives of people everyday by catching mistakes of rather pharmacologically uneducated doctors.
llb69… I would to like to apologize for my ARROGANT colleague… I don’t normally delete comments .. but calling someone else IGNORANT … I almost hit the delete option .. but FULFILLING is free to express his/her opinion.. Others have their right to express theirs as well…
I like this quote from Will Rogers…“You know, everybody’s ignorant, just on different subjects.”
While not all physicians/prescribers are as up on their pharmacological knowledge as they should be all the time, but your typical GP/FP/PCP is expected to have a mastery of what today is considered 6-8 different specialties. A fact that I believe is humanly impossible. In many incidents, Pharmacists are there to work in collaboration with the prescriber when they come up short on what may be the most appropriate therapy for a pt. Personally, unless what the presciber wants for the pt is going to do permanent harm to the pt, if the prescriber doesn’t want my advice, I document that I tried and counsel the pt on what to expect and allow the prescriber to have the final authority. IMO, way to many Pharmacists are overly impressed with their degree and for some reason, believes that they have a must have a more important role to play in the overall healthcare system.. than reality would suggest. For decades, Pharmacist were the most respected profession in this country.. the last survey I saw we are down to FOURTH… perhaps the attitude/persona of Pharmacists like FULFILLING… could be pointed to as a reason for the decline in respect. Perhaps this team does have a “I” in it…
Walgreens is the worst! The whole DEA denying prescriptions for those in pain is a farce by our government to force people in pain to seek drugs on the street. Why? Because Obama is on the take as my neighbor’s who distribute drugs. I called the DEA. They came out 2 days after the family moved the drugs. I had it on surveillance. DEA came out as window dressing. They did NOTHING! Now the neighbor’s deliver like a pizza service. Well, I may be forced to ask for delivery! Fuck the DEA and our government.