DEA prescription crackdown impacts pharmacists and patients
You know it is amazing how our society views discrimination to different “classes” of people ..
The other night the local ABC channel was playing back some of the “happenings” in Louisville KY during 1964 and the various marches against discrimination on blacks..
One person that they interviewed that was there at the time and he made the statement that it was not unusual for black patrons to be told at the local movie house .. “we don’t sell tickets to Nxxxx “.. That would never be tolerated today…
We have seen discussions about pharmacies refusing to sell Plan B and/or BC’s.. and some people refer to this as discrimination.. some state legislatures and BOP’s have taken a stand on both sides of this issue.
Today we are hearing the debate on the discrimination of gays.. in the news… about a baker and photographer that refused to provide their services at a couple of gay weddings. Apparently under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the ADA .. it is considered illegal discrimination. Arizona is in the process of passing a law that allows a private business to refuse to provide a service to anyone.. that the owner of the business does not want to provide their service to.
However, how often on any given day …does a Pharmacist refuses to fill a legal controlled med Rx.. for some nebulous reason – doesn’t have a ICD9 on the Rx – and there is no outrage by the media… there is no outrage by the bureaucrats..
Looking at the larger picture.. the only thing that comes to mind … WTF !
Filed under: General Problems
Bravo, Steve! My question-is it considered discrimination if a pharmacist refuses to fill an Rx for Cl II medications for whatever trumped up reason?
I am not an attorney… but the Rite Aid fine would strongly suggest that unless a Pharmacist has a over whelming reason(s) for deny filling a otherwise believed to be legit Rx.. they may find themselves having to justify their actions or lack of actions to someone from the dept of Justice… who enforces the ADA law.
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IMO.. a Pharmacist/Pharmacy could protect themselves if they had written protocol of what they considered “red flags” and a pt demonstrating 2 or more “red flags” would constitute a reason to deny service.. of course… a Pharmacist could elect to fill a Rx.. regardless of the number of red flags demonstrated.. but.. that would be on a case by case basis. Of course, documenting on the Rx why the Rx was filled .. disregarding the Rx dept’s protocol.
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I also believe that it would acceptable for a Rx dept to “black list” a prescriber and elect to decline to fill all controls from that prescriber.
It has been my experience.. that legit pts coming to a pharmacy for the first time are willing to jump thru several hoops and hurdles in order to establish a relationship with a pharmacy that will “take care of them” going forward.
Chronic pain pts.. spend a lot of money on meds
Here is one RPH that has very rigid protocol for pain pts in his two stores… http://www.paintrac.com/ IMO.. it is worth emulating.. if you are serious about having chronic pain pts in your practice.