When a pharmacist holds a pt’s meds at hostage


Hello,
 I have been disabled for over 10ys. I have lived in the same place and gone to the same pharmacy and received the same prescription for the duration. Recently I went to pick up my monthly prescription and was told because I had picked it up early a few months prior that the pharmacist would be adding those days to my new prescription and it would not be available for pickup for an additional 6 and 10 days. These are legal perscriptions given to me by my health care provider and approved by my insurance to be paid for yet because a “floater” came into the pharmacy, looked into my history, and decided I now needed to wait 36 and 40 days for my 30 day supply of medications. Is this legal? Do I have ANY recourse? I am religious in the way I take my medication and I have NEVER abused it. This is evident by what happened 4 months ago and because my medication was “not in stock” again (which it hasn’t been in stock for over 2 years and I always have to wait a few days), and I had to wait FOURTEEN DAYS to get my medication. Had I not gone in early on those times I did I would have ended up dead without my medication. Lucky for me I did have extra on hand because I don’t abuse my medication but if it was exactly 30 days every single time, which is what I’m apparently being punished for this time, I honestly would not be here to write this email.
I sure could use some help. I’ve got enough meds to last through this whole thing but I’m fearful for what my future may look like if this persists. I tried to call and all I was told was to call and have my doctor transfer my prescription to a different pharmacy. I have a feeling that would have put me on some kind of list for shopping around my prescription so I’m just going to wait for this date they magically came up with. My question is why only go back a few months and hold my prescription hostage? Why not go back 10 year and really stick it to me? I mean they clearly aren’t following any guidelines. It seems petty and a power play but its MY life and they just don’t seem to care. I need to know where to go from here. Please help me. Thank you for your time
When a pharmacist thinks that holding a pt’s medication as hostage because – according to their calculation – they pt should have a few doses still on hand.  So the pt is suppose to just believe that the Pharmacist did not make some math errors in their calculation ? I wonder if these are the same pharmacist’s “mindset” that when they require the pt to wait until they are ready to take their last dose from the previous fill and they are out of stock of their meds… and they have no concerns that they won’t be able to get the pt’s med back in stock for several days…  I am sure that the pharmacist has no idea of what is in like for a chronic pain pt to be thrown into cold turkey withdrawal and maybe into a torturous level of pain…  maybe miss a couple of days of work… 

8 Responses

  1. I am having significant problems with this. For me, it’s errors. The doctor forgets and puts 182 for 30 days when my prescription requires 28 without a prior authorization. And it always seems to happen on a Friday. Sometimes I think they do it on purpose. I asked politely to go back to 30 days….they refuse. This month, I went to Walmart pharmacy because I’m trying to get away from mallinckrodt because they have dialed potency back so much that I have lost most of my mobility. The pharmacist was kind to me, actually helpful. He suggested that he filll it for the 28 days to prevent a problem Incase insurance denied it. I told him I really can’t do it, it happens too much and I’m unable to bank any for a rainy day. He filled the full prescription and I informed my doc that there might be an issue next month.
    Also, I am not allowed even a day ahead for refill. It’s horrible. I basically have to suffer to bank a few every month or else I crawl to the pharmacy in agony to get my prescription. It’s like they tapered me without tapering. She blames the state for all of it, but I haven’t seen any rules like this regarding a couple days to refill. It’s cruel..

  2. UNDER-dosing is worse than no pain medicine at all.

  3. It is frustrating but as most patients who are lucky enough to be on opioid pain meds, we all know they are for 30 days per script and we also know if we wind up with 2-3-5 days extra, put them away, which it sounds like she is doing, that’s good. One month a script was filled 2 days early because if a holiday weekend, I put the extra away. My pharmacy is closed on Sunday and holidays. Good thing because a couple of months later same thing happened, pharmacy caught the error. Thankfully I had the extra which really wasn’t extra at all. I imagine the PDMP systems in place caught the difference, not necessarily a floater.

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