CVS Provided Counseling to 67,000 in Four Months After Halting Sales of Tobacco
http://www.cancerletter.com/articles/20150206_7
A year after it announced its decision to stop tobacco sales, CVS Health released data that shows how its stores are working to deliver the anti-smoking message.
According to CVS, from the launch of the program on Sept. 3, 2014, through December 2014, its pharmacists counseled more than 67,000 patients filling a first prescription for a smoking cessation drug or prescription nicotine replacement therapy.
CVS said pharmacists have also consulted with thousands more smokers seeking advice about over-the-counter NRT products.
Prescriptions for smoking cessation medications have increased by 63 percent on a monthly basis in the timeframe and visits to MinuteClinic for smoking cessation counseling were up 61 percent compared to the prior eight months, the drug store chain said.
Is this PRESS RELEASE an admission of guilt that CVS HEALTH’S Pharmacists have not been doing the legally required counseling on these and other Rxs . This law has only been on the books since the passage of OBRA ’90.
Rite Aid was fined last year nearly 500,000 for their Pharmacists failing to counsel and follow this law .. in just THREE CALIFORNIA COUNTIES Why limited enforcement ?
Filed under: General Problems
I think the numbers are way inflated much like the Obamacare numbers from the govt. They havent changed anything as far as increasing the number of hours of staffing in the pharmacy, so how if they’re still doing the same ‘metrics’ and continuing to cut staff, where did they find time to counsel patients on smoking cessation products…..Hmmm????
The numbers are probably true. Most likely they slapped their pharmacists with yet another metric, and now people are losing jobs for not selling enough NRT products. Nothing is new at CVS.