Hello Sir,
Thank you for taking the time to see what my email is about. I appreciate it. Robin Graham sent me your way and suggested I let you know what I have been dealing with and see what your thoughts were if you had any suggestions. I’ve run or been staff for chronic illness support groups, and on forums for years now. Prior to the crackdown on opioids, we had Cymbalta and SSRI meds causing some big issues in that world, however, around the time Norco was rescheduled, I noticed an uptick in members unable to get there meds. Over the years this has become a bit of a passion for me, seeing some lose their lives due to this issue. Recently, the FLOOD of pain management, chronic pain patients losing accesses to their meds and even their doctors completely is staggering as I am sure you are well aware. I scramble to get people, new doctors, I urge them to be proactive, most of my time now is dealing with this issue alone. Luckily, I am in the Kratom community and have something to help the 83-year-old grandma CT off 2 oral oxy meds and Fentanyl patches… (typing that makes me angry)
Unfortunately, today alone I have 13 people begging for help only, to my horror it is a new issue. They all have very similar stories that go like this. The patient goes to fill pain script for 120 Norco like she has been for the last eight years. No prior abuse history, no suspicion of it, not even a dose increase or change in the past 6 years. Only out of the norm, is last month she was forced to pay for half of her pain meds as insurance only covered half. Not a big deal. This month the pharmacist informs her that she is in uncomfortable filling the full script. Pharm gives patient HALF the script. She leaves with a bottle of 60 Norco, with instructions to call the following day. When she does, the pharmacist informs her that she did speak to the patients physician however, she wasn’t sure she “believed he positive about this course of treatment, therefore I am not comfortable filling this in full without the write up” basically the doctor had been asked to fill out a prior auth type form only it was a packet. The patient’s doctor was horrified he would be expected to do this on a MONTHLY basis, it took him a long time to fill it out. He said that if he did that for all his patients there was no way he could even see half his patients. Also, he felt it was simply too much information to ask for. He was comfortable providing the DX and history the patient had but not much beyond that. He declined to fill the packet out, or at least he declined to submit it. The patient goes back to the pharmacy and the pharmacist says “This is my clinic and I will run it as I see fit. With the information I have, I simply cannot fill the remaining half” Patient calls me sobbing and begging me to help her.
The first person came to me and I got curious so I posted in a support group asking who was having trouble and if so, what kind? That is how I got the other 12 in the following half hour with the exact same issue. The doctor is helping the first person, writing another script. However, the one I am working with right now her doctor isn’t writing her another script so what does she do?
I am writing up a little “How to be ProActive” piece to share with our pain groups and illness groups, you know. I thought that I was at least making a dent in this war on pain patients, I send free samples of Kratom out to chronic pain patients who really can’t afford to blindly order it to try, then I make sure they are educated and informed and have access to reputable vendors. Over 200 people, I have been blessed to see pain free, or at the least, in much less pain than they have been in years, for some they can’t remember the last time they weren’t in pain. Some, feared withdrawal after having meds stopped, or being dropped from their doctor. Some were in WD and very thankful when I found someone to drop Kratom off and stop their misery. I have 147 waiting for me to send samples right now, I figure… it will be at least 300 once I get those samples out, 300 people with better lives, that have a chance.
With the flood of patients coming in right now though, I am truly worried what we are about to see. So, I hope maybe you have some tips for me. Can anything people be proactive about? What should these people do when they are told no? Specifically, what do they do when they are told no, and have been given half their script and can’t change doctors?? Those two weeks will be too much for some. Majority asking for my help are elderly. On average I get around 50 messages a day that fall into either the category of being dropped from PM or cut off CT from meds. Now we add pharmacy saying they can have half or none? I am speechless.
I appreciate your time, thank you so much for reading this far. I apologize for depressing email, hopefully, some good will come out of this one day. Or at least hopefully I can spare people in the future from going through this. Appreciate your advice, and I am a big fan. Thanks for all you do!
Filed under: General Problems
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