PHARMACIST STEVE

WE need a class action suit! Pharms arbitrarily denying valid median dose scripts and causing responsible pain patients suffering, anxiety! My usual pharm lied to me said: “Corp wont allow them to dispense my meds” BLATANT LIE CUZ I CALLED COPR AND THEY SAY THYE DIDNT AND DONT DO THAT! She filled the soma, refused my pills and patches! I went up the road another CVS, tried to fill, but he demanded a Dr diagnosis @ 5PM! Why couldn’t the 1st store I called at 9 that day been honest and say we dont have? She went over my refill said we can have patch by Fri. fine have extra! Id had a head start to rat race, why not order extra? CVS always stock oxycodone, and patches! Why cant they think we’re low, better buy more! Then say even though my 3 meds filled same day 4 weeks ago, they wanted me to drive back and forth 3 days for each one! 45 mi round trip! WHY I called in advance. Tech takes ID (only at check out other stores) pharm keeps says you’re not my customer! Must fill out an application? Ive filled before as they are closer. Or if I go to near my dr. is that OK? Theres no law you can only use one store. Why make me wait 30 min? Look @ comp see whats in stock? LIKE SHE DID @ 10 THAT SAME DAY SHE SAY ALL OK BUT PATCH? Then pharm says: No one takes this common med. WTF? She’ill only order if she has a script? Ever hear of having in stock? Or what if you “lose it” before it arrives like before? Their brains are in reverse. Has prior customer unfilled script stuck to her 12″ thick arm, typing one finger at a time! (why i hand carried patches and pills script, as they “lost” my last faxed script, took 3 days find it likely stuck in fattys armpit. Called corp about my usual store, who said CORP called, “talked about me for an hour” and “SAID TO DENY MY MEDS” ON DAY DUE! I CALLED CVS CORP WHO SAYS “THEY DONT DO THAT”! OBVIOUS BLATANT LIE. AT 5! I had no where to go as prior, place lied about having in stock, now will order, but its 3 days. So if Im banned why are other CVS stores filling me? None the less, its day 28 and I will be out! Theres almost 1800 CVS complaints of near death experiences, seizures from fill refusals, wrong med dispensed, pill shortages. I literally went to 4 stores 6x IN 2 DAYS. Then prick wanted me YET AGAIN TO DRIVE 45 MILES after dr sent over diagnosis he asked for. Stupid CVS CORP defends, who cant count said its “too early!” I said “THEY NEVER SAID THAT! FLLED SAME DAY AS THE OTHER ONES “. STILL he tries to justify why i should wait to day 30 for my patch. “Cant dispense 2 meds/1 day”! WTF? I said i cant drive 45 miles another day! as it is my meds are spread out to keep me ball and chained to the store. I had them all filled together then they play tricks so theyre due a day or 2 apart (don’t have, lost it, etc) . I am being targeted for no reason. Im clean, well dressed, upper middle class, don’t look like stereotype of a junkie they treat me like! The fact is Im smarter, CAN COUNT and they hate US and their jobs, cuz theyre just angry, bored, mean pill counters, nothing more. Rude to everyone. Read CVS consumer affairs complaints. 2000 people can’t be wrong. Its horrendous! I smile at stone face who glared at me when I thanked him for filling my meds then denies my remaining order! THEY ARE NO DRS! CANNOT OVERRIDE HIS ORDERS! DEA NEEDS TO PURSUE ILLEGAL DRUG TRAFFICKERS, NOT US OLD CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS WHO’VE NEVER ONCE MISBEHAVED! I ended up in ER Jan., as I was refused. (a refill transferred was due then,) So that store who had my soma, called CVS who already had my patches and oxy already already processed. Came to pick up the soma with it (I could’ve had the night prior, but didn’t want to wait an hour!) So return next day, they give to me, then take it back!!! I nearly jumped the counter! it was day 29 and the fat cows who had to call there and the other place, literally worked overtime calling everyone to ensure I’d run out, end up in the ER and miss my brother in laws funeral. These are SICK PEOPLE!! I said “Please just fax over my refill, please”. NOTHING MORE. They’re mad cuz they’d filled one I didnt want or need, so she had to put it back. I said “Id get it all together, ELSEWHERE”! They claimed LAST year they filled one day early, (closed for holiday), so now theyre adding a week! I said month before plz don’t fill day early if it throws off due date and they said they’d add 2 days and did to day 29. I went then and they inexplicably added 5 more! I SAW THEM FILL ANOTHER GUY A DAY EARLY, NO PROBLEM! My dr. offce says no one goes thru this but me and I know folks on 2-3 my dose! I felt single out til I read the 1800 horrific complaints Never fill early, lose meds, 0 drug history, just PTSD exacerbated by CVS and other pharms abuse! My opioid equiv. is 180 mg a day. median for my condition and I’m still barely functioning. I called the DEA, gave no real details other than I ask if they hound pharms about dispensing. NOT UNLESS A PILL MILL REPORTED! (No way is my dr!). She said maybe IM “store hopping” is why they hassle me. What to do if they reject me, don’t have meds, cant find them, “its there” ,then “its lost” or “we must order” or wont order or whatever lies they have for lunch. Because theyre liars and crooks, they think we are too! I have 6 blown discs, osteoarthritis, sciatica, fibromyalgia and anxiety cuz every month i don’t know if Im getting my meds! 60 yrs old, 0 drug issues EVER. Perfect driving record, never a wreck my fault, but due to other reckless drunken drivers, Im forever injured. My other health is good, internal organs better than those of a 20 yr old from clean living dr says. Had cat scan, NO pain med damage to organs. They are not drs. My doc knows Im good, yet they treat us like criminals! ACTOR TRUMP SHOULD ARREST THE PEDOPHILES, TRUE DRUG AND CHILD TRAFFICKERS, NOT HARASS OUR GOOD DRS! TOO BUSY SCREWING TRANNIES AND PAYING THEM OFF. THEY WANT BOOMERS (ALL OF US) DEAD, SO THEY DONT PAY OUR 45 YRS SS SLAVE BENEFITS. 5G, CHEM TRAILS, GMOS ISNT A FAST ENOUGH KILL OFF. GOAL IS MAKE US HURT SO BAD, WE’LL SUICIDE. LIKE MANY HAVE! NO WONDER THEY GO IN WITH GUNS! THEY CANT GET THEIR MEDS LEGALLY. YOUD THINK STORES WOULD WANT THAT $$$!!! and big pharma want theirs! $600 MO FROM ME. Anyone who wants to OD will, one way or the other. Cars kill, but do we take everyones car? 40 X more PROVEN alcohol and cig deaths. Remove that! Why dont parents supervise their kids who OD? NO excuse. They wont admit MANY DEATHS ARE SUICIDES! Retired DR. blew his head doff, denied his meds!After years of saving lives, he couldtn get relief. This is atrocious! Sorry for the rant, but Im sick, tired being stigmatized, stereotyped, treated like a criminal and LIED TOO because I HURT and inoperable. I rubbed backs as a CMT until I couldn’t anymore and so many clients are worse after surgeries. He wants to cut me open and put an electrical device in! 2 – 2×2 incisions, Isn’t but a 70% success, (so they say) I don’t feel good having electrical device buzzing in my body! Likely a tracking transmitter or for electronic torture already used on TI’s. I just want to do my yard, carry in groceries, exercise my limit and SLEEP. Savon near me refuses to order, whereas the Savon I got my patches was very nice man who had the last box by GOD’s grace and will future order! I was in tears by days end praying thanks to God getting my meds. I say only remedy is hit them in the pocket where it hurts like they hurt us! Get a good class action lawyer that’ll sue them contingent! I have enough evidence from my ER visit, etc $1600 bill for writing 2-5 day bridge scripts and with all the other incidents theres mountain against them already. Penalize every dug store who says “we don’t have, won’t order, trying to order”. Theyre lying or somethings horribly wrong! We just need a good lawyer. I heard walgreens is awful, too, but CVS surpasses all with chronic blatant LIES and disregard for human life. Only way make example that we old folks and ALL FOLKS, wont all to be tortured to death! God bless us all in pain and LETS FIGHT BACK! SUE THE BASTARDS!

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http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180406/lawsuit-cvs-pricing-actions-same-as-accused-of-in-ohio

Pharmacy giant CVS has billed the government far more for seniors’ drugs than it paid to retail pharmacies, an executive with insurer Aetna alleges in a federal whistleblower suit that was unsealed this week.

The executive, Aetna’s chief Medicare actuary, said that CVS admitted to a practice known as “spread pricing.”

“Our contention is that (CVS) Caremark did a good job negotiating good prices with the pharmacies, but did not pass those prices on,”

to the federal government, Susan Schneider Thomas, the lawyer handling the case, said in an interview.

CVS said the claims are false.

Allegations of the same practice are at the heart of an intense dispute over Ohio’s $3 billion Medicaid managed care business.

The administration of Gov. John Kasich and legislative leaders are pushing for more transparency to see if CVS is using its business managing Medicaid prescription funds to pay retail pharmacies far less than it’s getting from the state.

Independent pharmacists have accused CVS of simultaneously over-billing taxpayers and pushing out competition for its retail chain

— an allegation CVS also strongly says is untrue.

CVS hasn’t answered whether it’s engaged in spread pricing in its work as pharmacy benefit manager to four of Ohio’s five Medicaid managed-care plans. After The Dispatch reported claims of spread pricing, state officials announced this week that they would seek data from CVS and other companies to determine whether that’s the case.

The whistleblower suit unsealed this week was filed in 2014 in Philadelphia under the federal False Claims Act, which protects those who claim the government is being defrauded and entitles them to a percentage of funds collected by the government if their claims pan out. Under the law, the government can collect three times the amount a court determines it was fraudulently billed, plus other damages.

In this case, the whistleblower, Sarah Behnke, “estimates that this deliberate fraud has cost (Medicare) and beneficiaries well over $1 billion,” a statement by Thomas’s law firm says.

Aetna, which CVS is in the process of trying to buy, manages Medicare Part D plans for 750,000 beneficiaries nationwide. It contracts with CVS Caremark to be its “pharmacy-benefit manager” — a middleman that negotiates rates, pays pharmacies and bills the government.

In 2013, Behnke determined that the prices Aetna was paying for drugs “were as much as 25 percent to 40 percent higher than its competitors’ prices, or far less competitive than Aetna’s size would seem to dictate,” the lawsuit says.

She and other senior Aetna officials met with their counterparts at CVS Caremark.

“In a virtual admission of liability under the Medicare statute and Part D regulations, (CVS Caremark Senior Vice President) Allison Brown responded that the Caremark defendants had negotiated lower prices on Aetna ’s behalf, but it was not required under the contract to provide those prices to Aetna,” the lawsuit says.

Thomas, the lawyer handling the suit, said it’s OK under federal Medicare rules for CVS Caremark to bill Aetna more for a drug than it pays pharmacies. But it’s required under a 2010 rule to report the prices it paid to pharmacies to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — a rule the lawsuit says CVS ignored.

CVS denied the claims.

“We believe this complaint is without merit and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations,” spokesman Michael J. DeAngelis said in an email. “CVS Health complies with all applicable laws and CMS regulations related to the Medicare Part D program. Also, contrary to these false allegations, CVS Health is committed to helping both patients and payors with solutions to lower their prescription drug costs.”

DeAngelis also said that the U.S. Justice Department filed a “notice of declination” of the suit. However, the case docket says that the justice department won’t intervene “at this time” — an important distinction, Thomas said. Whether the feds intervene or not, the court case will proceed, she added.

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http://www.wate.com/news/local-news/woman-sues-walgreens-says-farragut-workers-ignored-medical-emergency/1103783631

FARRAGUT, Tenn. (WATE) – A woman is suing Walgreens after she says she had a medical emergency while shopping at the Farragut location, but workers did nothing to help and treated her son like he was trying to steal something when he ran to get help.

A representative of Beasley Allen Law Firm said in a release on May 18, 2017, Jamie Collins Doss was shopping with her son Elijah when she began having a severe medical emergency. Doss has Addison’s disease and began recognizing the signs of a crisis.

Doss sent her son to get her husband who was waiting in the car. Instead, the lawyers say the store manager detained Elijah, kept him from leaving the store, and started searching his backpack as though he had stolen something.

The complaint also says that even though Doss showed her Medic Alert bracelet and asked for help, no one in the store helped her. Eventually, her husband came in looking for his family, but by that time, Doss had lost consciousness.

The suit says Doss suffered a much worse medical crisis than she should have, to the point of threatening her life, and she and her family were all traumatized.

A spokesperson for Walgreens has not yet commented on the suit.

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www.mediaite.com/online/journal-of-american-medicine-legalizing-marijuana-could-help-solve-the-opioid-crisis/

Two large papers published in JAMA Internal Medicine Monday may point to an unlikely solution to the opioid crisis – marijuana legalization.

According to the papers, which analyzed over five years of Medicare Part D and Medicaid prescription data, in states that legalized marijuana, opioid prescriptions and the daily dose of opioids drastically decreased – by a rate of 40 fewer opioid prescriptions per 1,000 people each year in one study, or 4 percent, and 14 percent fewer prescriptions in the other study. These drops were even more drastic in states which legalized both medical and recreational weed.

“In this time when we are so concerned — rightly so — about opiate misuse and abuse and the mortality that’s occurring, we need to be clear-eyed and use evidence to drive our policies,” W. David Bradford, an economist at the University of Georgia and an author of one of the studies, told Stat News. “If you’re interested in giving people options for pain management that don’t bring the particular risks that opiates do, states should contemplate turning on dispensary-based cannabis policies.”

This research supports smaller 2014 research findings that states with medical marijuana laws had almost 25 percent fewer deaths from opioid overdoses. These papers are the first to connect marijuana legalization to prescription painkillers with data sets of such a large scale.

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http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/national/senate-panel-unveils-draft-bill-to-combat-opioid-addiction/article_babb417b-33ac-5f13-8667-f4164fa4ff81.html

WASHINGTON — The Senate health panel on Wednesday released a discussion draft intended to curb opioid addiction. The development comes as other House and Senate committees also prepare legislation.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee plans to discuss this legislation at an upcoming hearing on April 11. The panel has already held six hearings on the opioid crisis so far this Congress featuring representatives from agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as governors from states affected by the crisis.

“We’ve been listening to the experts for the last six months on how the federal government can help states and communities bring an end to the opioid crisis, and the bipartisan proposals in this draft reflect what we’ve learned,” HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander said.

“By working together, listening to researchers, officials, experts, and families facing the crisis, and pulling in the ideas of Senators from both sides of the aisle — we have been able to take an important step with this draft bill toward addressing the wide set of challenges caused by the opioid epidemic,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the panel’s ranking Democrat.

The draft bill would affect the NIH, the FDA, the CDC, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, as well as provide support for families and workers affected by the opioid crisis.

Many of the items under consideration parallel efforts in the House, which is considering its own legislative package this spring.

The draft bill would grant the NIH additional flexibilities to approve new projects that would help to combat the crisis, including searching for a nonaddictive painkiller.

The bill would also give additional authorities to the FDA, such as the ability to require manufacturers to package drugs like opioids in a so-called blister pack to limit overprescribing for patients who may only need a smaller supply. In addition, the bill would require manufacturers to give patients a way to dispose of excess drugs as part of their packaging. It would boost coordination between the FDA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in an effort to improve the agencies’ ability to seize synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

It would include, through SAMHSA, upgrades to recovery-housing best practices, first-responder training and comprehensive opioid recovery centers. It would also include language to help prevent abuse in children and young adults.

The discussion draft has several provisions that are meant to expand the size of the addiction treatment workforce, particularly in areas where treatment options are lacking.

The draft would expand eligibility for federal student loan repayment to include more members of the health workforce who provide addiction treatment services. Currently, workers at stand-alone addiction treatment centers in areas that would otherwise be eligible for the loan repayment program don’t qualify. The bill would change that, and would further expand the program’s scope to provide more addiction treatment and mental health services in schools.

The bill would also allow the DEA to allow certain addiction facilities to prescribe medication-assisted treatment using telemedicine. Most of the effective prescription addiction drugs, like buprenorphine and methadone, are controlled substances themselves. Patients receiving the treatment for the first time currently need to physically meet with their doctor.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee are also taking steps in the near future to address the crisis.

Alexander has said he hopes to mark up the draft legislation this spring, while House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden has also publicly said he hopes the House will pass an anti-opioids package by Memorial Day.

The slate of over 30 bills and discussion drafts being discussed by Energy and Commerce as well as the aspects of the Senate HELP Committee draft package share similarities, including a focus on recovery and prevention, as well as improvements in data and technology.

Increasing interoperability of state prescription drug monitoring programs, which aim to ensure that patients do not abuse prescriptions, would be part of both chambers’ packages. Each chamber is also considering language, commonly known as Jessie’s Law, to help physicians find out more easily if a patient has a history of abuse.

The Senate Finance Committee is eyeing holding its own hearing next week, though proposals from members are still being discussed. According to a lobbyist, tentative plans for the hearing include a focus on drug monitoring programs, increasing information for prescribers and expanding access to health screenings.

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Dear Steve
My husband is disabled due to severe chronic pain. He is completely compliant with the pain mgmt doctor. She wrote a script out and escripted it to the pharmacy on March 23rd to be picked up after the  31st. We called to make sure it would be ready and was told yes and given the cost. When my husband got there he was told they had to talk to dr.and would call us.Tuesday the doctor still hadn’t called so I called her
the receptionist got on the phone and gave the pharmacist some diagnosis codes and that injections and neurontin this was not good enough for pharmacist. she told me she needed to know what other medicines were tried what other diagnoses there were what other therapies were tried.

Our doctor called back and reached a different pharmacist. doctor told her that 1 she didn’t have a release to speak to her ie hippa 2 it was none of her business 3 that the other pharmacist had no right to deny the legitimate script and that she will not send another one

We are stuck in the middle my husband is in horrible pain. They had the script for a week and never saw anything wrong with it

I’m sorry for rambling Im frustrated and don’t know his rights. We feel like he is in trouble for something he didn’t do.

thanking you in advance for your help

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Terry called me and he is doing research to generate a report/story on  – whatever number he can validate – the  number/names of chronic pain pts that have committed suicide because their meds have been reduced or stopped since the CDC released their opiate dosing guidelines two years ago.  If you have information please contact him

Terrence McCoy
Washington Post
Reporter
202-334-5215

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/terrence-mccoy/

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www.disabledveterans.org/2018/04/04/fed-cir-veterans-can-now-get-disability-pain-alone-va-opposition-illogical/

The Federal Circuit just reversed years of bad case law finding veterans can receive a service-connected disability for pain alone without a present diagnosis or pathology.

Basically, the Court concluded the Department of Veterans Affairs added additional criteria to what the term “disability” means as it related to disability compensation. The Court called VA’s argument as to the interpretation of what “disability” means “illogical in the broader context of the statute”.

The decision finds the Court of Appeals For Veterans Claims misinterpreted what a disability was when adjudicating the claim of Melba Saunders for her knee pain. The veteran lacked a current specific diagnosis or other identified disease or injury. Nonetheless, the three-judge panel concluded veterans include Melba may still be entitled to a disability rating for such pain.

RELATED: Screwed By VA? Top 5 Must Reads For Disabled Veterans

“We conclude that pain is an impairment because it diminishes the body’s ability to function, and that pain need not be diagnosed as connected to a current underlying condition to function as an impairment.”

The Secretary was unsuccessful in explaining why “pain alone is incapable of causing an impairment in earning capacity” despite trying hard to strain a gnat in his contrarian argument.

His representation did not go down without a fight. They even tried classic law school slippery-slope argument strategies claiming the Court’s holding would result in veterans getting disability ratings for pain when they do not deserve the ratings.

RELATED: California Veterans Wait Longer For Disability Ratings

Yawn.

In short, a veteran’s disability must be linked to an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or personal injury.

Can you imagine how many veterans were screwed by the agency’s improper interpretation of 38 USC § 1110 and its interpretation of what a “disability” actually is?

VA probably knows the amount of money it was saving by screwing veterans with its illogical interpretation of the statute, right down to the penny.

Saunders v Acting VA Secretary Wilkie Quotes

Here were some of my favorite quotes in italics from the case, Saunders v Wilkie:

We next consider whether pain alone can serve as a functional impairment and therefore qualify as a disability, no matter the underlying cause. We conclude that pain is an impairment because it diminishes the body’s ability to function, and that pain need not be diagnosed as connected to a current underlying condition to function as an impairment. The Secretary fails to explain how pain alone is incapable of causing an impairment in earning capacity, and we see no reason to reach such a conclusion. In fact, the Secretary concedes that “pain can cause functional impairment in certain situations, that disability can exist in those cases, and that a formal diagnosis is not always required.” Appellee Br. 26 (emphasis in original).

…

The Veterans Court’s interpretation of “disability” is also illogical in the broader context of the statute, given that the third requirement for service connection is establishment of a nexus between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred during service. If the disability must be the underlying disease or injury, there is no reason for a nexus requirement—and therefore Sanchez–Benitez I eviscerates the nexus requirement.

… 

This holding is also supported by common sense. As Saunders explains, a physician’s failure to provide a diagnosis for the immediate cause of a veteran’s pain does not indicate that the pain cannot be a functional impairment that affects a veteran’s earning capacity.

… 

To establish the presence of a disability, a veteran will need to show that her pain reaches the level of a functional impairment of earning capacity. The policy underlying veterans compensation—to compensate veterans whose ability to earn a living is impaired as a result of their military service—supports the holding we reach today.

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