They claim that there are three sides to every story … yours… mine.. & the truth..
From the article:
The court complaint states that “the CVS and Walgreens’ pharmacists have been refusing to fill prescriptions written by the doctors on Earley’s staff, and have been telling patients who presented those prescriptions that Early is under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency, and/or that Earley is unlicensed, and/or that Earley is ‘red flagged,’ and/or that the patients need to stop going to Earley, and/or that Earley and the clinic are illegally selling pain medications without prescriptions, and/or that Earley is ‘engaging in illegal activities,’ and/or that the defendant pharmacies intended to ‘call the police’ on the patients and Earley, thus scaring the patients away from plaintiff’s practice,” the complaint states.
If this PA prevails.. could his pts follow up with suing these chains – AND their RPH’s – for denial of service/care and/or pt/Senior abuse… Where will the ADA come into play on this issue ?
Someone’s cojones are going to get CRUSHED…
Filed under: General Problems
Thanks for your input.. in reading this publication.. I sensed a bias of some sort.. but could not prove it…
The article forgot to mention that its a cash only clinic and doesn’t take insurance. Many patients have medicaid /govt type insurance pay out of pocket and drive 1 hour to the facility for pain meds. Most common type of meds prescribed oxy 30, norco, and xanax. All pain scripts were written by PAs at the facility, I never saw a Rx written by the MD of the facility. I don’t think pharmacist had a problem with PA but with scripits combo and diagnosis.
Somebody or something that Walgreens and CVS are both on the same page on? Now that right there makes me wonder about the prescriber. Also he is not even MD, he is a PA, who is the doctor he prescribes under– shouldn’t he/she be included in the article? Strange.
I read the linked article, I think the biggest problem is the reference to race being an issue. One paragraph stated “…where an African-American CEO and the owner of a neighborhood clinic filed suit this month against corporate giants CVS and Walgreens pharmacies for libel, slander “per se,” unfair competition and unfair business practices to put an end to racially motivated lies that began a year ago and are designed to put him out of business.”
From what I read, he is making a claim that the pharmacists who refused to his fill his scripts is totally based on his race. It will be hard to provide burden of proof that the pharmacist refused due to race… For one, they will have to prove the pharmacist knew the race of the doctor to begin with!
In my own practice, I refuse C-II Rx’s commonly enough, at least one every other day, if not every day. However, I don’t want a legit patient to go without something that actually need. So, my major criteria on accepting something is:
1. Do I know the doctor, do I know they are legit? I floated for a long time before getting a store, so I got some exposure on doctors in an area that I know are good doctors, and ones I knew who are pill mills. (when first licensed, before experience, go down the list)
2. Does the patient fill here (or within the chain) regularly?
3.. Is the doctor and or patient local? If not, why did they travel so far to visit me?
4.. Notes in the chain’s computer system. If I don’t know the doctor, and no record of the patient, are there any notes in the system about being a pill mill, or DEA investigations, or state narcotics agency investigation?
No where in my list is anything about race, or ethnicity, or religion. I honestly thing trying to prove a refused Rx due to these reasons would require a lot of proof.
That is why I prefaced it with there are three sides to every story !
Wow. Who is ‘they’? Who wrote the complaint? The patients, or the physicians’ assistants? Or, the doctors? This is a good discussion topic for the pharmacy law class in fourth year (pharmacy school).
Because, there are (or should be), ways of ‘informing’ them, whoever wrote the complaint, that the prescriptions will not be filled in a pharmacy, in an organized, objective, and well-documented manner.
I read once where the pharmacist took the script from the client or patient and wrote on it (front or back, I don’t know remember) the reason why the script was not filled. So that even if the original script was handed back to the patient or client, there was something in writing.
I wonder who in the pharmacy was doing all the talking? Registered pharmacist or tech?
Several months ago, in central Indiana, a doctor, his wife (a nurse), and the two PAs in the office were all sitting in jail cells indicted in an ongoing investigation of over-prescribing and deaths associated with their elderly patients. If the Indiana State Board and AMA does nothing to prevent further drug-related deaths, and the ‘pharmacies’ take matters into their own ‘hands’ so-to-speak in this current ‘Oxy toxy’ climate, then, who’s the bad guy, who is the pillar of society? Does it matter?
And, on the other hand, not too long ago, pharmacists were getting slammed by Planned Parenthood because of the debate about personal decisions to fill so-called abortifacients as a matter of individual pharmacists’ ethics.