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CALF Med Board – declares treating chronic pain with opiates is “NEGLIGENT CARE “
Posted on May 31, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
Blues plans sue CVS, saying it overcharged them for generic drugs
Posted on May 31, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
Blues plans sue CVS, saying it overcharged them for generic drugs
https://medcitynews.com/2020/05/blues-plans-sue-cvs-saying-it-overcharged-them-for-generic-drugs/
Blues plans in six states filed a lawsuit against CVS, alleging the company inflated the cash prices of its generic drugs. They said CVS sold the drugs to consumers at a lower price using its cash discount program, while charging insurers a higher price.
Six Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers sued CVS Health on Wednesday, claiming the pharmacy overcharged them for generic drugs. The plaintiffs — which include Blues plans in Alabama, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota and Kansas City — said CVS charged them a higher price for generic prescriptions than customers paid in cash.
Pharmacies are supposed to charge insurers the “usual and customary” price for generic medications, determined in a previous lawsuit against Kmart to be the standard cash price paid by customers. The Blues plans would pay the price negotiated by their pharmacy benefit managers for drugs, unless the usual and customary price is lower than that negotiated rate.
The plaintiffs alleged that CVS misrepresented the usual and customary rate for these drugs by offering a much lower price to customers that participated in its cash discount programs. The company began offering its Health Savings Pass program in 2008, which was later transitioned to its Value Prescription Savings Card program.
By paying a $15 membership fee, customers that paid in cash would have access to more than 400 generics at the price of $12 for a three-month supply. According to the complaint, CVS frequently offered the same cash price to customers who were not enrolled in one of these programs.
The prices that the Blues plans were charged for these same medications was “significantly higher” than the cash prices paid by customers, the plaintiffs said. For example, multiple Blues plans reported overpaying for Nadolol, a generic to treat high blood pressure. BCBS of North Carolina reported paying $257 for the drug, while cash-paying customers in the savings program paid $12, according to court documents.
“Third-party payors then reimbursed CVS based on those higher, inflated prices—instead of the actual, lower, prices CVS offered to the general public, including through its Cash Discount Programs,” the complaint stated.
The Blues plans said this not only caused them to overpay for prescription claims, but it also prevented them from getting better drug prices for their members.
In an emailed statement, CVS Health denied the allegations, saying they were “completely without merit.”
“The CVS Pharmacy Health Savings Pass was a membership program intended for customers who either did not have insurance or chose not to use insurance. The Value Prescription Savings Card Program is a prescription drug card offered and administered by a third-party,” the company stated. “Generic drug prices available through these programs were not the usual and customary price charged by CVS Pharmacy, nor the price available to the general public. Neither of these programs were in any way concealed, nor fraudulent.”
The plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief, damages, and an award of twice the amount they were overcharged.
Other pharmacy chains have recently faced similar lawsuits. In 2018, Rite Aid was hit with a class action lawsuit for allegedly charging insurers more than it charged customers under its cash membership plans. Walgreens faced a class action lawsuit for similar allegations that year.
Yesterday I picked up a Rx for one of Barb’s meds – 90 day supply – and the copay was $0.00. This year our part D is with Humana… Looking back to last year when we had Silver Scripts/Caremark – owned by CVS Health – the copay on this particular med ranged from $3 to $9 – depending if we had it filled in Indiana or in Florida – when we were at our condo.
Maybe this can explain how CVS reported a 8% increase in gross revenue and a 48% increase in net profits for 1st quarter 2020 vs 2019. I don’t have a MBA but I owned/ran several of my own business for 20+yrs and have been buying stocks for twenty years and it highly unusual for a mature company – CVS has been in business for 60 yrs – to be able to increase their bottom line – as a percent -about FIVE TIMES what their gross revenue increased.
I also find it interesting that the three largest chain pharmacies have all been accused and sued for similar “bad behaviors” now and in the past.
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Representative Buddy Carter’s office in Georgia is taking patient stories of issues with CVS Caremark, Optum RX, and Express Scripts
Posted on May 30, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
Shared from a friends page
Representative Buddy Carter’s office in Georgia is taking patient stories of issues with CVS Caremark, Optum RX, and Express Scripts. If you just want to ensure that your children and your loved ones will be able to access the pharmacy that best meets their needs then please stand up. Your voice can be heard. Our voice can be heard with your help!
Please help us win this fight and share your story!
Community pharmacies are under siege
Independent community pharmacists are among the most capable and readily accessible providers of essential healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even though over 90% of Americans live within five miles of a community pharmacy, we are being overlooked in the news media and by policy makers and being squeezed out of business by a greedy group of corporate middlemen.
Our pharmacies are open and here to serve the community. We provide more than just medications. In normal times and especially in a time of crisis, we are one of the first sources of critical and accurate information and support. My staff and I are continuing to take this crisis full on, we are certainly not running away from it.
But, our ability to deliver personal, professional care is under attack, because our ability to make even a small profit on prescriptions is being siphoned off by a group of middlemen known as pharmacy benefit manager corporations or PBMs.
Buddy Carter, U.S. Representative for Georgia, is a trained pharmacist. He is a strong voice for community and independent pharmacies in Washington, D.C., and says, “Without support from the community, and in particular from legislators who must step in and fix the PBM problem, community pharmacies will struggle to keep the doors open. We can’t allow this to happen. We must make sure we do not lose the irreplaceable care, guidance and reassurance they give patients.”
According to a report published this year by a top pharmacy industry analyst, “DlR pharmacy fees (direct and indirect remuneration paid to PBMs) overall have skyrocketed by 1,600% in the last five years, totaling 58.58 since 2013.”
In response to the report by XIL Consulting, B. Douglas Hoey, a pharmacist and National Community Pharmacy Association CEO, said, “It should be shocking to state and federal lawmakers and regulators that pharmacy benefit manager corporations are using a government loophole to squeeze billions of dollars in fees from pharmacies, that those fees are driving up the cost of prescription drugs for patients, and that the sickest people in the country are subsidizing insurance premiums.”
Citing 2017 as an example, the report shows PBMs squeezed over $4 billion out of pharmacies which, according to a recent NCPA survey, is why 58% of local pharmacists are not sure they can survive the next two years.
Now more than ever, it is vital for everyone to not forget about their community pharmacy. Given a fair chance, we will keep fighting on the front lines of the COVID crisis and for the future of the communities we serve. We need the support of our patients, our communities, the press and government now more than ever.
Stephen L. Giroux is president and CEO of the community pharmacies in Middleport, Depew, Medina, Oakfield, Hilton, Niagara Falls, North Tonawanda and Lockport.
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WAGS R.Ph’s.: being trained to spot signs of anxiety, depression, addiction
Posted on May 30, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
Pharmacists being trained to spot signs of mental health issues during pandemic
There’s a new first responder on the lookout for anyone who may be experiencing mental health issues.
“Most people probably see their pharmacists more than their primary care physicians or certified therapists, so pharmacists are in a really good position to be able to notice these early warning signs or risk factors,” said Chad Cadwell, a Walgreens pharmacist.
Walgreens pharmacists just finished the first phase of mental health first aid training. The program was developed by the National Council for Behavioral Health.
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They’re taught to look for risk factors and red flags in patients, everything from anxiety and depression to addiction.
Pharmacists can connect those people with the right resources, support groups, or may just lend an empathetic ear.
“Really listening to their needs, spending those extra couple of minutes, instead of trying to get the work out, but also spending that time talking and listening to your patients, right now with everything that is going on with the pandemic, everything is so busy,” said Cadwell.
This training initiative was actually put into place pre-pandemic.
Mental Health America has already seen significant increases in the number of daily screenings for depression and anxiety since the beginning of the year.
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FDA Recalls Extended-Release Metformin Due to NDMA Impurities
Posted on May 29, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
FDA Recalls Extended-Release Metformin Due to NDMA Impurities
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/931361
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended voluntary recall of certain extended-release (ER) versions of metformin because testing has revealed excessive levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in these products.
Metformin is the most commonly prescribed drug used to treat type 2 diabetes worldwide.
NDMA is a contaminant with the potential to be carcinogenic if there is exposure to above-acceptable levels over the long-term.
Five pharmaceutical firms in particular are being contacted by the FDA with notices (posted on the FDA website) recommending they voluntarily recall their products. At the time of writing, only one was listed, Apotex Corp and its metformin hydrochloride ER tablets, USP 500 mg.
The recall does not apply to immediate-release metformin products, the most commonly prescribed ones for diabetes, the agency stresses.
It also recommends that clinicians continue to prescribe metformin when clinically appropriate.
In late 2019, the FDA announced it had become aware of NDMA in some metformin products in other countries. The agency immediately began testing to determine whether the metformin in the US supply was at risk, as part of the ongoing investigation into nitrosamine impurities across medication types, which included recalls of hypertension and heartburn medications within the past 2 years.
By February 2020, the agency had identified very low levels of NDMA in some samples, but at that time, no FDA-tested sample of metformin exceeded the acceptable intake limit for NDMA, as reported by Medscape Medical News.
“Now that we have identified some metformin products that do not meet our standards, we’re taking action. As we have been doing since this impurity was first identified, we will communicate as new scientific information becomes available and will take further action, if appropriate,” said Patrizia Cavazzoni, MD, acting director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a press release.
Requests for Recall Only Apply to Affected Products
The recall was instigated after the FDA became aware of reports of higher levels of NDMA in certain ER formulations of metformin through a citizen petition filed by a private laboratory. The agency confirmed unacceptable NDMA levels in some, but not all, of those lots.
“In other instances, our laboratory detected NDMA in lots that the private laboratory did not,” it notes.
The FDA says it is working closely with manufacturers of the recalled tablets to identify the source of the NDMA impurity and ensure appropriate testing is carried out.
Elevated levels of NDMA have been found in some finished-dose tablets of the ER formulations but NDMA has not been detected in samples of the metformin active pharmaceutical ingredient.
The FDA also stresses there are many other additional manufacturers that supply metformin ER products to much of the US market, and they are not being asked to recall their products.
Work is also ongoing to determine whether the drug recalls will result in shortages, and if so, the agency says it will collaborate with manufacturers to prevent or reduce any impact of shortages.
“We understand that patients may have concerns about possible impurities in their medicines and want to assure the public that we have been looking closely at this problem over many months in order to provide patients and healthcare professionals with clear and accurate answers,” Cavazzoni said.
For more information about NDMA, visit the FDA nitrosamines webpage.
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One hundred thousand Americans dead in less than four months
Posted on May 28, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
In the same time frame… the two legal drugs ALCOHOL & TOBACCO/Nicotine will have contributed to the death of abt 183,000 people or about 550,000 EVERY YEAR.. but no crisis… not shutting down of businesses nor sheltering in place for a large majority of our population for months.
One hundred thousand Americans dead in less than four months
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/100000-deaths-american-coronavirus/
It’s as if every person in Edison, N.J., or Kenosha, Wis., died. It’s half the population of Salt Lake City or Grand Rapids, Mich. It’s about 20 times the number of people killed in homicides in that length of time, about twice the number who die of strokes.
The death toll from the coronavirus passed that hard-to-fathom marker on Wednesday, which slipped by like so many other days in this dark spring, one more spin of the Earth, one more headline in a numbing cascade of grim news.
Nearly three months into the brunt of the epidemic, 14 percent of Americans say they know someone who has succumbed to the virus.
These 100,000 are not nameless numbers, nor are they mostly famous people. They are, overwhelmingly, elderly — in some states, nearly two-thirds of the dead were 80 or older. They are disproportionately poor and black and Latino. Among the younger victims, many did work that allowed others to stay at home, out of the virus’s reach.
For the most part, they have died alone, leaving parents and siblings and lovers and friends with final memories not of hugs and whispered devotion, but of miniature images on a computer screen, tinny voices on the phone, hands pressed against a window.
The dead are not equally dispersed across the land. They perish mostly in pockets — in huge, frightening outbreaks such as the one in New York City, and in smaller ones, flares of disaster around meatpacking plants, in immigrant neighborhoods and at facilities for the elderly.
The demise of these 100,000 people has had strangely little public impact in a country with a long history of honoring its fallen and committing to common cause in their memory.
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Politician never mentions having pain after ambulance picks him off the asphalt after 75 MPH motorcycle accident ?
Posted on May 28, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
Lt. Col. Allen West reacts to outpouring of support after motorcycle crash: ‘I’m so blessed’
In his first television interview since he was injured last weekend in a serious motorcycle accident in Texas, former Florida congressman Lt. Col. Allen West said he feels “so blessed” to have survived. Reputable аttоrnеуѕ wіll оftеn bе registered wіth ѕtаtе legal associations, ѕuсh аѕ Suреr Attorneys, аnd ѕоmе ѕtаtе рrоfеѕѕіоnаl аѕѕосіаtіоnѕ сеrtіfу trial аttоrnеуѕ. Anу рrоfеѕѕіоnаl сеrtіfісаtіоn іndісаtеѕ respect аmоng thеіr peers, аnd іѕ аlwауѕ a роѕіtіvе. Thе Intеrnеt іѕ аn еxсеllеnt source оf іnfоrmаtіоn regarding ѕоlіd аttоrnеуѕ provide: ѕоmе ѕіtеѕ рrоvіdе a matching ѕеrvісе bеtwееn clients аnd аttоrnеуѕ, whilst оthеr ѕіtеѕ оffеr reviews frоm previous clients allowing уоu tо mаkе a mоrе іnfоrmеd сhоісе оvеr whо tо hire. Alwауѕ rеmеmbеr іt іѕ іmроrtаnt tо сhооѕе thе rіght lawyer fоr уоur саѕе whо hаѕ уоur іntеrеѕtѕ іn mіnd аnd dо a соmрrеhеnѕіvе аnаlуѕіѕ.You can visit JD Injury Law for the best accident attorney. Rеtаіnіng thе rіght аttоrnеу саn make a big dіffеrеnсе іn thе value оf a саѕе, еѕресіаllу іf a specific attorney іѕ wіllіng аnd аblе tо рrеѕеnt саѕе evidence іn a mеthоd thаt mаxіmіzеѕ thе сlіеnt’ѕ financial bеnеfіt. Good ассіdеnt attorneys – those from Law Office of Matthew S. Norris is your resource after an auto injury cases because they leave nо ѕtоnе аlоnе іn аn assessment оf роѕѕіblе nеglіgеnt раrtіеѕ іn аn ассіdеnt. Clаіmѕ аrе аlwауѕ assessed fоr соmреnѕаtоrу аnd рunіtіvе dаmаgе аmоuntѕ, аnd thе соurtѕ wіll rоutіnеlу аѕѕіgn percentages оf fault іn саѕеѕ wіth multiple rеѕроndеntѕ.
“I wіll tеll уоu thаt without a doubt, I’m ѕо blessed frоm thе Lord Gоd аlmіghtу bесаuѕе not tоо mаnу people аrе gоіng tо ѕurvіvе a mоtоrсусlе ассіdеnt оn аn іntеrѕtаtе going 75 miles per hour,” West tоld “Fоx &аmр; Frіеndѕ” оn Thursday. Well lawyers like Lipcon & Lipcon, P.A. can never make your self sown.
Speaking from his home in Texas as he recovers, West, who is now a candidate to lead the Republican Party of Texas, explained exactly what happened on Saturday.
Hе ѕаіd hе was on hіѕ wау back from аn “Oреn uр Tеxаѕ” rаllу in Auѕtіn, rіdіng hіѕ mоtоrсусlе оn Interstate 35 whеn thе accident tооk рlасе.
“Thеrе wеrе fоur of us оn mоtоrсусlеѕ and I got cut оff іn thе сеntеr lаnе and ѕо I dіd a соntrоllеd ѕlоw dоwn аnd the motorcycle behind me clipped mе аnd mу bіkе wеnt оut frоm undеr me and ѕkіddеd,” Wеѕt said, adding thаt hе “lоѕt a lоt оf ѕkіn.”
ALLEN WEST GIVES FIRST INTERVIEW SINCE SERIOUS MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT: ‘I SHOULDN’T BE ALIVE’
“I never lost consciousness and I just want to thank the first people that were on the scene,” he continued.
West was hospitalized after suffering a concussion and fractured bones and was released on Monday.
Host Brian Kilmeade pointed out that West had served more than 20 years in the military saying, “You’re a tough guy by nature but man, this had to hurt.”
“Yeah, thіѕ was vеrу раіnful,” West ѕаіd іn rеѕроnѕе.
Hе added, “Thіѕ рuѕhеd mу tоughnеѕѕ tо thе edge, I’m nоt going tо lіе.”
Wеѕt еnсоurаgеd аll mоtоrсусlіѕtѕ tо “wear your personal protection еԛuірmеnt.”
He noted thаt it wаѕ 96 dеgrееѕ on Sаturdау and hе mаdе thе decision nоt tо рut his jасkеt аnd gloves оn, but mаdе sure to wеаr hіѕ bооtѕ, jеаnѕ аnd helmet.
On Thursday, Wеѕt also thаnkеd аll those whо showed hіm lоvе and ѕuрроrt аftеr thе accident saying “іt’ѕ just іnсrеdіblе.”
On Sunday President Trump twееtеd, “Allen, get well ѕооn!”
Wеѕt ѕаіd the рrеѕіdеnt’ѕ tweet “brоught tears to mу еуеѕ.”
“And tо соmе оut оf thе hоѕріtаl оn Mоndау, Memorial Dау, and tо have all of thоѕе реорlе there, just сlарріng аnd cheering, it’s juѕt іnсrеdіblе,” he соntіnuеd.
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Genocide from the war on drugs/pts/doctors
Posted on May 27, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
Filed under: General Problems | 5 Comments »
UPDATE: URGENTLY LOOKING FOR FORMER WALMART PHARMACISTS & PHARM TECHS
Posted on May 27, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
UPDATE: URGENTLY LOOKING FOR FORMER WALMART PHARMACISTS & PHARM TECHS
The Lawyers involved in the Opioid Litigation who have been urgently looking to get background and perspective assistance from former Walmart Pharmacists & Pharm Techs. The questions relate to how Walmart institutionally dealt with questionable prescriptions or prescribers. It is imperative that they get the facts correct and need help.
FURTHER Fallout from Walmart Investigation
The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, Joseph D. Brown, abruptly resigned on Tuesday, May 26, 2020.
Mr. Brown lead the Eastern District’s criminal investigation into Walmart. The investigation almost resulted in criminal charges against the company and its director of Health and Wellness Practice Compliance, Brad Nelson, before top brass at the Department of Justice terminated the investigation for political reasons.
Mr. Brown did not say why he resigned, but the DOJ’s decision to close the criminal investigation into Walmart may have played a role. In the press release announcing his resignation, Mr. Brown said:
We must win the fight against opioid abuse in order to save our country. But in order to be effective, we must be willing to prosecute all facets of the expansive network that feeds these destructive drugs into our communities. Players both big and small must meet equal justice under the law. (Emphasis added)
Mr. Brown’s resignation comes less than one year after the head of Eastern District’s civil division, Joshua M. Russ, resigned in October 2019 because the DOJ refused to take civil action against Walmart.
Please contact either attorney Chuck Gabriel (Chalmers & Adams, LLC), 678.735.5907 or email at CDGabriel@CPBLawGroup.com or attorney Kyle Oxford (BurnsCharest LLP), 504.799.2846 or email at koxford@burnscharest.com.
A recent ProPublica article regarding the issue with Walmart https://www.propublica.org/article/walmart-was-almost-charged-criminally-over-opioids-trump-appointees-killed-the-indictment/amp
I have spoke with an attorney from this firm behind this several times and I asked him about confidentially of those who contact them and this is his reply:
“I cannot absolutely guarantee confidentiality, so I won’t promise it… in very rare, but some, circumstances, Attorney Work Product such as investigative interviews can be ordered disclosed – I won’t promise something I cannot deliver with certainty.
That said, the assurance that we are looking for background and perspective assistance rather than witnesses and testimony ought to provide some assurance. “
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Big Pharmacy Chains Also Fed the Opioid Epidemic, according to ambulance chasing law firms
Posted on May 27, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve
Big Pharmacy Chains Also Fed the Opioid Epidemic, Court Filing Says
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/health/opioids-pharmacy-cvs-litigation.html
New details emerge in a lawsuit asserting that chains including CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens sold millions of pills in small towns but rarely flagged suspicious orders to authorities.
Through years of lawsuits and rising public anger over the opioid epidemic, the big American pharmacy retailers have largely eluded scrutiny. But a new court filing Wednesday morning asserts that pharmacies including CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Giant Eagle as well as those operated by Walmart were as complicit in perpetuating the crisis as the manufacturers and distributors of the addictive drugs.
The retailers sold millions of pills in tiny communities, offered bonuses for high-volume pharmacists and even worked directly with drug manufacturers to promote opioids as safe and effective, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Cleveland by two Ohio counties.
Specifically, the complaint lays out evidence that:
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CVS worked with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, to offer promotional seminars on pain management to its pharmacists so they could reassure patients and doctors about the safety of the drug.
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In partnership with Endo Pharmaceuticals, CVS sent letters to patients encouraging them to maintain prescriptions of Opana, a potent opioid so prone to abuse that in 2017 the Food and Drug Administration ordered its extended-release formulation removed from the market.
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From 2006 through 2014, the Rite Aid in Painesville, Ohio, a town with a population of 19,524, sold over 4.2 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone. The national retailer offered bonuses to stores with the highest productivity.
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Walgreens’ contract with the drug distributor AmerisourceBergen specified that Walgreens be allowed to police its own orders, without oversight from the distributor. Similar conditions were struck by CVS with its distributor, Cardinal Health.
Most of the companies did not respond to a request for comment. CVS emailed a statement that said, “Opioids are made and marketed by drug manufacturers, not pharmacists. Pharmacists dispense opioid prescriptions written by a licensed physician for a legitimate medical need.”
The other companies have made similar arguments in the past.
Federal law requires manufacturers, drug retailers and suppliers to report suspiciously high orders to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. But despite being repeatedly fined by the D.E.A. for failing to do so, the chains continued to sell outsize quantities of opioids, the complaint contends, only rarely sounding alarms, a charge also made against the drug distributors in numerous other lawsuits.
Walmart devised a workaround to that reporting requirement, the complaint says. In mid-2012, it fixed a hard limit on opioid quantities it would distribute to its stores, foreclosing the need for its pharmacists to report excessive orders. Yet Walmart simply allowed its stores to make up the difference by buying the remainder of their large opioid orders from other distributors.
Until now, the focus of thousands of lawsuits across the country related to the opioid health crisis has largely been on drug manufacturers and distributors. A handful of those cases have settled. Representative cases, called bellwethers, selected by Judge Dan A. Polster in Cleveland from thousands of similar federal lawsuits to test both sides’ arguments, are moving through early stages in Chicago and West Virginia.
Cases brought by New York State and two New York counties are awaiting a joint trial date; originally set to begin March 20, their trial was postponed because of the pandemic lockdown.
But relatively few cases against the retail pharmacy chains have advanced. Like most of the lawsuits in the sprawling national litigation, those cases are on hold, pending the outcome of the bellwethers. Judge Polster recently gave bellwether status to retail pharmacy cases brought by San Francisco and the Cherokee Nation. Those lawsuits will now proceed in the plaintiffs’ local federal courts.
The first case to advance against retailers, brought by Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in Ohio, is scheduled for November 2020. But those counties are only suing the chains in their capacity as distributors of opioids to their own drugstores.
In contrast, the complaint filed on Wednesday was a major salvo in a more far-reaching trial, scheduled for next May. Lake and Trumbull Counties in Ohio are suing the chains on two fronts: as distributors to their own pharmacies, and as dispensers, whom the counties say intentionally fed customers’ appetite for opioids.
The 209-page complaint was filed under seal earlier this month. Barring objections by the defendants, Judge Polster allowed the complaint to be filed publicly, which the lawyers did on Wednesday. As the lawyers note, its claims are based on documents and interviews already completed for the federal opioid litigation. But lawyers anticipate obtaining considerably more information through the discovery process.
Would you like recommendations for more stories like this?
According to federal data presented in the complaint, from 2006 through 2014, the retail pharmacy chains ran 31 pharmacies in Lake County, which has a population of 220,000, and sold nearly 64 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone — or 290 pills for every man, woman and child.
During that same period, the numbers in Trumbull County were even more extreme. A combined 28 pharmacies sold nearly 68 million doses to a population of 209,837, or more than 322 pills for every man, woman and child.
A major thrust of the complaint is that the chains dragged their feet in setting up monitoring protocols at regional distribution centers, enforced those programs anemically at best, kept raising thresholds for quantities of pills that might otherwise trigger a flagged report, rewarded pharmacists for churning volume rapidly and, in some instances, pointedly ordered them never to refuse a doctor’s prescription.
The complaint also says that supervisors ignored store pharmacists who warned about pill mill doctors, including those who were ultimately convicted.
CVS, for example, did not have a companywide policy for reporting suspicious orders until 2010, posting it the day after a D.E.A. audit raised concerns, the complaint says. But CVS didn’t report any orders as suspicious until February, 2012, when the epidemic was already in sharp ascent. Through November 2013, CVS reported only seven such orders from across the entire country. None were from Ohio.
Three Walmart pharmacies in Lake County sold 6.4 million opioid pills from 2006 through 2014. But Walmart, the complaint says, did not file any suspicious order reports from those stores between 2007 and 2014, the period for which the plaintiffs have such data.
The complaint also details the chains’ full-throated participation in trade groups that lobbied Congress to pass the 2016 Marino bill, which curtailed the D.E.A.’s ability to immediately suspend the registration of a manufacturer, distributor or pharmacy. CVS, along with Cardinal Health, a distributor, and Teva, a manufacturer of generic opioids, worked through a lobbying group called the Alliance to Prevent the Abuse of Medicines, which often cloaked individual corporate identity.
CVS repeatedly joined with manufacturers to train its pharmacists about their drugs. In the complaint, the lawyers write, “CVS was so eager to ally itself with Purdue that it solicited Purdue for its participation in co-hosting Continuing Education programs for health care providers and pharmacists regarding training on diversion of prescription opioids.”
In an undated letter outlining such a venture, CVS directors wrote that to address the challenges of a community pharmacy practice, programs should include topics “often associated with Purdue’s products.”
They offered as an example:
“How to communicate effectively with patients and physicians about appropriate pain management therapy, and how to resolve potential conflict with a drug ‘seeker.’”
It is so bad that they are painting everyone having a opiate/controlled substance Rx filled with the same BROAD BRUSH. Isn’t that like saying that anyone purchasing a single beer is a alcoholic ? Of course, alcohol drinks have a solid “sin tax” revenue stream going to state & FEDS… so no one would want to interfere with a person’s right to purchase a alcoholic drink ?
Our Founding Fathers granted everyone the right to the pursuit of happiness. They just didn’t define what “happiness” is… but the politicians that followed them seem to use their own personal “moral compass” to determine what is and is not happiness that we can pursue.
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