Aurora Walmart ordered to close after three COVID-19 deaths linked to store

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

Aurora Walmart ordered to close after three COVID-19 deaths linked to store

The Tri-County Health Department closed the Walmart off East Exposition in Aurora on Thursday, due to an outbreak of the virus

https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/aurora-walmart-closed/73-0df81b80-84ed-4720-bb7a-52fa866470f0

AURORA, Colo. — A husband and wife are two of the deaths linked to an outbreak of COVID-19 at an Aurora Walmart.

Family members confirmed Sandy and Gus Kunz died just two days apart, after contracting the virus.

Family members said Sandy Kunz, 72, was an employee at the Walmart off East Exposition in Aurora, which was closed Thursday by the Tri-County Health Department (TCHD). TCHD said it received complaints from employees and customers about the lack of social distancing and employees wearing masks.

Gus Kuntz, 69, did not work at the store.

Paula Spellman, Sandy’s sister, said the couple spent more than 25 years together.

“Sandy and Gus loved nature and were a happy couple; they both left the earth together,” reads an online obituary.

TCHD said a third person connected to the Walmart also died, a 69-year old man who worked for an independent security company. On Friday, the health department said an additional 11 people connected to the store have tested positive for COVID-19.

RELATED: Colorado coronavirus latest, April 24

RELATED: Here are counties extending stay-at-home orders (or considering it)

TCHD said a third-party contractor deep cleaned the store overnight after it closed Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Walmart provided an emailed statement on Friday:

“The Tri-County Health Department has advised us to temporarily close our store at 14000 E Exposition Ave in Aurora. Colorado has been hit especially hard by COVID-19, and several associates at this store have tested positive. Sadly, one of our associates has passed away. The temporary closure will allow third-party cleaning experts to further clean and sanitize the store. We recognize how hard this is for our associates in Aurora and everyone impacted by this difficult situation. We want to do everything we can to support them at this time. We will continue to work closely with Tri-County Health Department and take additional steps as needed to re-open the store.”

The spokeswoman said this Walmart had several safety measures in place, prior to the closure, including:

  • Plexiglass barriers at checkout lanes
  • Floor decals at entrances and check out lanes to help customers judge social distancing
  • Limiting the number of customers in the store at the same time
  • Temperature checks, basic health screenings and mask/face covering requirements for employees
  • Encouraging customers to wear masks while shopping

In order to reopen, Tri-County Health Department says Walmart will have to meet several requirements:

  • A deep cleaning and disinfection of the entire store
  • “Robust and reliable” structure for employee screening for illness, tracking employee illness and reporting to TCHD
  • Reporting new positives to TCHD
  • Employee education and training for COVID infection prevention measures
  • “Confidence” from TCHD in “the supervision of the systems in place to ensure a safe environment”

Jessie Metcalf says she has worked at the store for five years, as a cashier. She said things started to change as the virus spread through Colorado.

“[Walmart] told us we had to start wearing gloves and our masks, then they started taking our temperature every day,” the 66-year-old said. “But I was still under the impression, I didn’t think that the virus was there.”

Metcalf said employees knew some of their co-workers had become sick or were taking time off, but she said Walmart did not disclose the details. She would later learn about the positive cases and deaths.

Metcalf said she is concerned about being exposed herself, and the exposure to customers.

RELATED: What do you do if you feel unsafe going back to work?

“We should have been told about [positive cases] the first time it happened,” she said. “So we could decide on our own if we want to stay there and risk our lives or stay home.”

“I don’t think Walmart was doing everything they could to take care of the customers’ benefit and our benefit,” she added.

Even though she said she feels healthy today, with no symptoms, she is worried about tomorrow.

“I’m probably going to go and try and get a test done, just to make sure I don’t have it. I don’t want to infect my family.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

CVS CAREMARK USES DIRTY MONEY TO BUY ITS WAY OUT OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AGAIN!!!!

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

CVS CAREMARK USES DIRTY MONEY TO BUY ITS WAY OUT OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AGAIN!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10157995843780499&id=172075625498

Add this to the $1.1 BILLION DOLLAR LONG LIST of Fines since the year 2000!! (This list is pictured below). When are we going to stand up as a country and stop DIRTY MONEY like CVS CAREMARK and other PBM’s from simply buying off judges and politicians, paying a fine, and continuing with ILLEGAL, IMMORAL activity that costs EVERY taxpayer, employer and independent pharmacy tens if not hundreds of BILLIONS annually????
Within a Medicare part D plan, it is illegal for the processor (Caremark) to charge the Federal government more than they pay the pharmacies. In the most recent “Payoff” an actuary for AETNA (a company CVS CAREMARK has purchased ) realized CAREMARK (who processes the prescription claims for Aetna) was defrauding the Federal government by charging Aetna a much higher rate than they paid the pharmacies. Then Aetna would of course charge the federal government that inflated rate. (Theoretically, by CVS-CAREMARK’s corrupt thought process, they were not defrauding and overcharging the Federal government, they were overcharging Aetna).
The actuary for Aetna has been fired for leaking this information (which it is illegal to fire a whistleblower ). The law also states that if you are guilty of FRAUD, WASTE AND ABUSE within a state or federal program, you will be banned from those programs forever, but it appears CVS CAREMARK will pay a fine and go on business as usual!

I have had the opinion for some time that corporate America is working under the premise that nothing is illegal UNTIL YOU GET CAUGHT… then you pay the fine and find a new way to get back to business as usual.  Is this an example ?

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Doctors: Execution Drugs Could Help COVID-19 Patients

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

Doctors: Execution Drugs Could Help COVID-19 Patients

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-04-21/doctors-execution-drugs-could-help-covid-19-patients

A group of medical professionals is asking death penalty states for medications used both for lethal injections and to help coronavirus patients who are on ventilators.

The Associated Press

This July 25, 2014 file photo shows bottles of the sedative midazolam at a hospital pharmacy in Oklahoma City. Many of the medications being used to sedate and paralyze COVID-19 patients placed on ventilators and to also treat their pain are the same drugs that put inmates to death by lethal injection. Last month, nationwide demand for these drugs surged 73% during the pandemic.

Secrecy surrounding executions could hinder efforts by a group of medical professionals who are asking the nation’s death penalty states for medications used in lethal injections so that they can go to coronavirus patients who are on ventilators, according to a death penalty expert and a doctor who’s behind the request.

In a letter sent this month to corrections departments, a group of seven pharmacists, public health experts, and intensive care unit doctors asked states with the death penalty to release any stockpiles they might have of execution drugs to health care facilities.

“Your stockpile could save the lives of hundreds of people; though this may be a small fraction of the total anticipated deaths, it is a central ethical directive that medicine values every life,” according to the letter.

But it’s unclear what drugs the states may have, as they have tended to release information about execution protocols and drug supplies only through open records requests or lawsuits. Only one state, Wyoming, responded directly to the letter, and it indicated it doesn’t have the drugs in question.

“I’m not trying to comment on the rightness or wrongness of capital punishment,” said Dr. Joel Zivot, one of the medical professionals who signed the letter. “I’m asking now as a bedside clinician caring for patients, please help me.”

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for some, it can cause severe illness, requiring them to be placed to ventilators to help them breathe.

Many medications used to sedate and immobilize people put on ventilators and to treat their pain are the same drugs that states use to put inmates to death. Demand for such drugs surged 73% in March.

Twenty-five states have the death penalty, while three have moratoriums on capital punishment.

While some states contacted by The Associated Press, including Alabama and Florida, didn’t respond to inquiries about the letter, others, including Arkansas, Texas and Utah, limited their comment to mainly saying they don’t have the medications in question. Tennessee wouldn’t confirm whether it has the drugs and indicated it has no plans to give any medications to a hospital. Oklahoma said it hadn’t received any requests for such medications from state hospitals.

States may be hesitant to turn over their drugs because they have had problems securing them as many pharmaceutical companies oppose their use in executions, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Since 2011, 13 states have enacted new statutes that conceal information about the execution process, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

Drugs being requested include the sedative midazolam, the paralytic vecuronium bromide and the opioid fentanyl. They’re needed because putting a patient on a ventilator “with no drugs … would be torture,” said Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory University in Atlanta who has studied medicine’s role in capital punishment.

The tense debate over the supply of execution drugs was highlighted in a 2018 lawsuit that several pharmaceutical companies filed against Nevada over accusations that it illegally obtained its inventory.

In a court brief, 15 states, including Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, called the lawsuit part of the “guerrilla warfare being waged by antideath-penalty activists and criminal defense attorneys to stop lawful executions.”

The lawsuit was dismissed this month after Nevada agreed to return its supplies to the companies, leaving the state without any drugs to carry out executions.

Pharmaceutical companies have long warned that states’ use of these medications for executions could result in shortages, Dunham said.

“Some of the responses over the past several years had been, ‘That’s chicken little saying the sky is falling,’” Dunham said. “But with COVID-19, the sky has fallen.”

Here is video of what happens when someone who has lost a child to a medical malpractice and hears part of a story and reacts to the headlines

https://www.facebook.com/dicksongilbert2019/videos/2768258276556061/

Prison execution is normally done with three different meds… first they are given a large dose of a barbiturate or benzo class of meds, which will make them “go to sleep”, then they are giving a large dose of a med that will paralysis their diaphragm and they stop breathing and last they are given a high dose of POTASSIUM CHLORIDE that will cause their heart to STOP. All of these meds are given via IV and in fairly rapid succession… and “the end” comes fairly quickly.

The docs are wanting the sedation meds because of the pandemic we are running short of meds used to keep vent pts sedated, because of all the DEA reduction in pharma production of these controlled meds. If a pt that is on a vent and not is not sedated they will most likely routinely have a GAG REFLEX… trying to get rid of the vent tube that is down their throat and without it… the vent won’t do what it is suppose to do.

Another unintended consequence to the bureaucrats’ moral compass pointing in the wrong direction ?

Filed under: General Problems | 3 Comments »

CMS updates COVID-19 guidance to Medicare Advantage and Part D plans

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

CMS updates COVID-19 guidance to Medicare Advantage and Part D plans

https://ncpa.org/newsroom/qam/2020/04/23/cms-updates-covid-19-guidance-medicare-advantage-and-part-d-plans

On April 21, CMS released a guidance document to Medicare Advantage organizations, Part D sponsors, and Medicare-Medicaid plans updating previously released information from March 10. People should take 2021 Humana Medicare advantage plans for health precaution. The guidance includes several relevant provisions for community and long-term care pharmacies, including:

  • Coverage of testing and testing-related services for COVID-19
  • Relaxed enforcement of signature log and prior authorization requirements
  • Suspension of plan-coordinated pharmacy audits
  • Requirement for Part D sponsors to permit 90-day fills, refills, or transition fills
  • Relaxation of short-cycle fill requirements for LTC patients.

NCPA successfully advocated that CMS temporarily waive Part D medication delivery documentation and signature log requirements during the public health emergency and adopt a temporary policy suspending plan-coordinated pharmacy audits. NCPA also successfully advocated for community and LTC pharmacies regarding relaxing prior authorization, point-of-sale edits, and short-cycle dispensing requirements. For more information, see NCPA’s member summary.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Correspondence: Are ESIs Still Worth It?

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

Correspondence: Are ESIs Still Worth It?

https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/correspondence-are-esis-still-worth-it-benzocaine-orofacial-pain

Dear PPM,

Regarding “Epidural Steroid Injections: Are the Risks Worth the Benefits?” (July 2019), most pain management providers, let alone referring providers and patients, may not be aware of the background surrounding the FDA stance and the initial request to ban the use of epidural steroid injections (ESIs). In July 2018, the New York Times’ Sheila Kaplan reported that, in 2013, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals requested that the FDA ban the use of Depo-Medrol in the epidural space. Neither organization made this public at the time. The article cited a review of FDA records between 2004 and March 2018 showing 2,442 serious injuries (including 154 deaths) reported with the injection of steroids into the epidural space. As injury attorneys serving Sugar Land state, more injuries go unreported. It may be reasonable to assume more injuries occurred but were not reported or attributed to ESIs.

While the FDA has not banned the use of steroids in the epidural space, many other countries have done so. Pain management societies, practitioners, and patients should be better informed about safety communications regarding ESIs, as well as warnings contained in steroid package inserts. Depo-Medrol has labeling stating: “Serious neurologic events, some resulting in death, have been reported with epidural injection of corticosteroids. Specific events reported include, but are not limited to, spinal cord infarction, paraplegia, quadriplegia, cortical blindness, and stroke…. The safety and effectiveness of epidural administration of corticosteroids have not been established, and corticosteroids are not approved for this use.”

Multiple articles in the literature demonstrate a lack of long-term benefit from such injections beyond a few weeks, compared to less expensive, more conservative, and safer options. Match this with the costs of these procedures, and I don’t understand why these injections continue to be done since it doesn’t help the victims who got injured in a car accident. There have been catastrophic outcomes from ESIs. In my own practice, I had a patient with no prior history of low back injury nor surgery who had 7 ESIs done by another provider. Her most recent MRI showed adhesive arachnoiditis with no other injury as the likely cause. She is in constant pain. Rather than being eligible for compensation after the fall,  she deserves a compensation from her previous provider for the pain she endures. 

I believe the primary motivators for doing these procedures lie in habit and financial gain. In fact, I have heard from some hospital administrators that, “even though we know they don’t work, as long as we have a fee for service mode and can make money, we will allow providers to do them.” One VP from a major insurance company told me that they keep paying for ESIs “because no one wants to be the first to say no and deal with the backlash.” There are many reasonable and less risky pain management procedures that help to manage pain, but an ESI is not one of them.

– Terence K. Gray, DO

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chance to become an Invicta men’s dive watch owner

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

Pain Is Taxing Facebook Live Feed campaign event #2
When? Wednesday, April 30th, 2020
Time: simultaneously across USA 🇺🇸 on Facebook
Time:
Pacific time: 12 pm
Central time: 2 pm
Eastern time: 3 pm

Join In!! We need YOU to stand up for yourself and tell your friends and family about the fake opiate epidemic and how the CDC mandate has negatively impacted you and your life this past year —
And …
Win a chance to become an Invicta men’s dive watch owner! A watch is more than just a timekeeping device; it is also a statement piece and an investment. To keep your watch functioning properly and looking its best, gertting regular watch cleaning service is a must. 

Just in time for Father’s Day, just simply spend five minutes doing a live feed on your own Facebook wall, post it afterwards, share your link below and you will be entered into the drawing!

🔗 https://videoyourpain.com/painistaxingllivefeed

Leslie A. Shields & Sheri Owen

– – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Pain Is Taxing Facebook Live Feed Campaign & Event sponsored by:
C.O.R.E.
Change Opiate Regulations Emergency
🔗 www.facebook.com/groups/changeopiateregulations

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Dr. Thomas Kline, MD, PhD: Medical Myths Revealed Corona virus GLOVES CAN KILL GETTING BACK TO WORK THE ZONE SYSTEM

Posted on April 19, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

https://youtu.be/-mJvuZYOJM4

I personally think GLOVES are killing people especially in nursing home from failure to wash gloves like your hands. It is not being done!! Is is easier to spread viruses with gloves than hands. The false sense of security is dangerous to self and others. Basic understanding of how the virus is spread through direct contact is lacking. CDC is not giving enough details spending all its time trying to convince doctors to stop treating pain, instead of making videos on how to control the spread in the work place so we can save our wrecked economy and at the same time stop more spread of the virus. Just my opinion as always. Believe it or not! maybe i should open a museum of just my opinions

Filed under: General Problems | 8 Comments »

comment concerning perspectives on and experiences with pain and pain management

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2020-08127/p-14

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the opening of a docket to obtain comment concerning perspectives on and experiences with pain and pain management, including but not limited to the benefits and harms of opioid use, from patients with acute or chronic pain, patients’ family members and/or caregivers, and health care providers who care for patients with pain or conditions that can complicate pain management (e.g., opioid use disorder or overdose)—hereafter called “stakeholders.” CDC will use these comments to inform its understanding of stakeholders’ values and preferences related to pain and pain management options.

DATES:

Written comments must be received on or before June 16, 2020.

 

 

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

Just a few thoughts….

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

Tomorrow will mark the end of ONE MONTH of sheltering in place for us.  We have been retired for several years… so we have been for the most part sheltering in place for years.. 🙁 All too many are looking for a answer, for a solution, for adequate therapy.

I starting thinking back… We have had four Presidents over the last 27 yrs… two from each party and we have had Congress that has been controlled by each party at times and split at times.

What has really changed ?

In 2006 Medicare folks gone prescription coverage for the first time since it was started in 1965..  Democrats fought against that bill being passed tooth and nail.  Barb has been on Medicare disability since 1997 and without her Medicare she was virtually otherwise uninsurable.  All she has was Medicare A & B and a Medicare supplement was either unavailable or so outrageous premiums , so all deductible, copays and all her meds were out of pocket.  I can remember picking up a 90 day supply of her meds and having $2000 – $3000  less in my pocket leaving the pharmacy.

In 1999 Congress gave us the “Decade of Pain Law”…. brought the 5th vital sign to the practice of medicine.. that was everyone had to assess and treat a pt’s perception of pain. When this law expired it was not renewed. Just by chance a <R> controlled Congress passed this law and a <D> controlled Congress and a newly elected <D> President was in power at the time

Obama was sworn in Jan 2009 and the Affordable Care Act was signed into law March , 2010.  We supposedly had abt 10% of the population without any insurance – which today we still have that same percentage.  Some people got low premiums and high deductibles … some people got high premiums and high deductibles.  Some people basically got put on Medicaid – under a different name (AKA).

2016 brought us the infamous CDC’s opiate dosing guidelines. What a CLUSTER -F !

For the last President election, I used this graphic a lot. Congress is now SPLIT.. and we have a lot of DEADLOCK at that level and all the other 2 odd millions Federal employees are pretty much do what they damn please. So much infighting in Congress … among our elected leaders.. does anyone really know what is going on..

It would seem that no matter who has been in power over at least the last 27 yrs… really not much as changed. What has changed – behind the scene – is that during the 90’s all the insurance companies that were historically been not for profit companies – meaning that their policy holders – owned the company..

Well most in the 90’s DEMUTALIZED and became FOR PROFIT … publicly traded stocks… and they started being concerned about their stock price and their bottom line.  Also during this time, the PBM industry -Prescription Benefit Managers – got a strangle hold the prescription business… Today they tell pharmas that if they want their particular med on their approved formulary … they will REBATE/DISCOUNT/KICKBACK up to 75% of the wholesale price of the med to the PBM for that privilege.

I have come to the conclusion that is really doesn’t matter much if a <R> or a <D> is in Congress “the seniority system” of Congress will prevail.  For something to become a law.. it has to go thru a committee in each the House and Senate and the chairperson of those committee is a member of the same party that is in control of their respective part of Congress..  Chairperson doesn’t want to hear a bill.. it goes NO WHERE…  If approved by the committee the bill then goes to the floor of the respective part of Congress and if the person who is speaker of the House or majority leader of the Senate doesn’t want to have a vote on the bill … it goes NO WHERE.

Just look at what Harry Reid – then majority leader of the Senate – under Obama did… for SEVEN YEARS he refused to bring the MANDATORY ANNUAL BUDGET up for a vote..  He only brought it up for a vote the last year of Obama’s administration.. maybe because the budget would mostly the new President’s being in office would have to deal with it.

It is claimed that 98% of member of Congress will get re-elected… doesn’t really matter what they have promised and not follow thru on… what they have not done period. It is claimed that people believe that the person in Congress representing them are “good guys”.. if all the rest of those bums that need to get voted out.

I have come to the conclusion unless you CLEAN HOUSE and virtually destroy the seniority system… nothing is going to change.

IMO, the community needs to have created a nonprofit and have at least $500,000 in the bank and one or more lobbyists firms aligned…  to hit the ground a couple of weeks after the new members of Congress are sworn in. If no positive actions or no action in the right direction and the next election is six months away… the community gets a list of who needs to GO  and OUT THEY GO !

If No VOTERS see the lights… and acts accordingly … then the community is going to remain walking around “in the darkness”

 

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

Have we reached the bottom of the barrel yet ?

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Pharmaciststeve

See the source image

A fraudulent prescription was filled this morning using the DEA number of Dr. Sarah Beeson, from Greenwood, Indiana. The prescription was written to a patient named Beth Bulling (DOB: 9-18-1958) for Amitriptyline 25mg. If you receive a prescription - written or phoned in - containing this information, please DO NOT fill. You can reach Dr. Beeson at (317) 215-7966 or notify the INSPECT office at (317) 234-8039.

I got the above via email from the Indiana Board of Pharmacy.. someone is so desperate that they are forging prescriptions for a NON-CONTROLLED MED – Amitriptyline  – typically use for depression but some docs will use it for Fibromyalia pts… suppose to help their pain ?

I got a email, just this week from a pt on the east coast were they had been weened off of  several different non-opiates and given a prescription – written by a SPECIALIST –  for a TCA like Amitriptyline  above… and the major chain pharmacy pharmacist REFUSED to fill it… and after much fuss and a District Manager Pharmacist got into the mix..  the Pharmacist agreed to fill it if the pt signed a statement that they would not hold the pharmacist nor the chain liable for any consequences of taking this medication.

I think that we may be reaching the bottom of the barrel…but maybe not

Filed under: General Problems | 7 Comments »

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