My pain med refills were supposed to be picked up yesterday. Got a call from my PM doctor this morning saying I need to fill them at another pharmacy. Dropped them off on Monday, pharmacy manager said I can pick them up the 1st. So, called the Walmart where I’ve been getting ALL my prescriptions filled for for the past 6 yrs; same prescriptions every month. Although they did force me to stop taking my meds for severe insomnia; I was told to choose which medication and condition was more important. Sleeping 2 hrs a day, sometimes up for more than 36 hrs w/o sleep is incredibly bad for your health and overall well being (not that they give a shit)…but was forced to choose. I had hour long discussions 6 yrs ago with the pharmacy manager about why I needed them; was post-op from a 9 hr spine surgery, my 4th, had to show medical records to prove my conditions etc. I’ve been given pages and pages of docs over those 6 yrs, telling me about the dangers of opioids, the limits, etc., listened to degrading lectures and the manager telling me my son will find me dead on the floor etc.(I’m on VERY low doses compared to others), and suddenly, the other pharmacist decided after 6 yrs, he’s not going to fill my Opioid prescriptions anymore. He told me I have to have the pharmacy manager fill them bc he refuses to. The pharmacy manager is the one I dropped them off with and he said I could pick up on the 1st. So, suddenly after 6 years, only he can fill them bc the other refuses, for no reason at all. Never filled early, only use the one Walmart, same Dr, same prescriptions for 6 yrs, suddenly he refuses to fill them. Problem is the manager only works every other weekend. So, if I need to fill them and he’s off or pn vacation, I’ll have to wait days or weeks until he returns. If he gets transferred or quits, I’m screwed. This freaking pharmacist, after 6 yrs of no issues, has been suddenly delaying almost every one of my prescriptions for weeks, even for the hydroxyzine that I take for itching, for no reason at all, so I now often go without. Even Lunesta, he said I should only take as needed, and I said no, my doctor said 1 per day for a reason. He didn’t care, I was forced to go out of town for 2 weeks w/o my sleeping pills, which is extremely bad for my health as I said, I can go days without sleep. So, having showed the mgr ALL my medical records 6 yrs ago, explaining all my conditions, having many discussions, having a friendly relationship for 6 yrs, and carefully following the “rules” to avoid any issue that would raise red flags or denials, I thought I would be safe from denials and refusals to fill medically necessary Opioid medications. I was wrong, doesn’t matter what you do, you can follow all the rules, shown them medical records proving why they’re needed, never fill early, never take more than needed, stick with one doctor, one pharmacy, on and on, it DOESN’T MATTER ONE BIT!! A pharmacist can take away your treatment any time they feel like it, after 1 yr or 20 yrs, even if you follow everything “rule” to the letter, it doesn’t matter. ONE pharmacist controls your entire life, every aspect of it, and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it. They decide if you get out of bed, play with your kids, suffer excruciating pain…ONE human being who isn’t even medically trained, should NEVER have that kind of power..EVER!!! I’m absolutely fuming and pissed off. It’s out of control when legit patients are forced to suffer because of 1 person w/o the knowledge or training to know if it’s medically necessary or not! If a Democrat wins in 2020 and we’re forced onto govt, single payer healthcare with no choice, I can guarantee all pain relief will be banned and taken away from every single American. Screw those legit, responsible, law abiding ppl suffering, all they care about is the drug addicts who abuse legal drugs so they can take them away from all of us. Don’t see them cracking down on illegal drugs do you? They’re perfectly fine and doing zero with the tons of illegal drugs coming over the border. I for one am f’ing sick of this shit!!
This is from a Wal Mart Pharmacist in central FL.. At the end of 2015 the Florida Board of Pharmacy implemented new regulations that every Pharmacist was to have 2 hr of continued education every 2 yrs and that Pharmacist were not suppose to start looking for a reason to NOT FILL A PRESCRIPTION… I was at the board meeting in mid-June of 2015 and I heard the then “head” executive director ? – paid staff member… state that they were going to “teach Pharmacists COMMON SENSE”.. To the best of knowledge the FL Board of Pharmacy has never taken any action against a Pharmacist for refusing to fill a controlled substance with the reason “just because I can”… Maybe they are not violating that regulation because they don’t even start looking for a reason to refuse to fill a controlled substance… the standard reason is the same for all pts ?
It was reported last year that Wal Mart was implementing a new “abuse score” on pts using Narxcare provided by the company https://apprisshealth.com/solutions/narxcare/. Maybe this artificial algorithm has given this pt a HIGH SCORE and company policy mandates that they have to refuse to fill some of her controlled substances to get her “score down”..who knows…
It only appears from this message that the pt is suffering and the pharmacist is “gloating” that he “cut off another potential substance abuser”
http://www.ncpanet.org/home/find-your-local-pharmacy
Filed under: General Problems
Walmart does everything in its power to not fill opioids. Any opioids. I could not in good faith be the opioid police so my tenure with them was very short lived. They’re awful.
Walmart was investigated by CDC and DEA and effective 7/2019 will no longer fill any narcotic rx’s over 7 days and that is only 1x..
They compromised on this agreement and this has been going into effect nationwide since 10/18.
I doubt it is the pharmacist per se, so much as the agreement reached between the DEA, CDC and officials at Walmart home office.
Without all the facts, this again spreads fear etc..
https://news.walmart.com/2018/05/07/walmart-introduces-additional-measures-to-help-curb-opioid-abuse-and-misuse
I don’t agree with that Democcrat comment — as Republicans are just as much to blame for all this bullshit that is going on. Who is this pharmacist and what WalMart? We need to get a boycott and cost that Walmart some $$$ then maybe they will have just a hair more humane compassion for people suffering. For Christ Sake we are not the ones who are abusing and going to die. I was on Methadone and Clonazepam for over 16 years and I never once had any problem whatsoever but yet I was cold turkeyed from Clonazepam on March 1, 2017 and I am SO messed up – I honestly believe I have severe brain injury and my doctor didn’t tell me that I would have ANY withdrawal. Over two years later I can literally barely do a damn thing. I am pissed — I have been treated like a criminal and major drug addict and my rights to have my pain controlled have been 100k% violated. I feel so bad for everyone who has to suffer every day. I am one of them — all dammn day and all damn night. My life went from being managed to not only total disarray and pain but some severe cognitive damage. Very upset and hurt over what is happening to real people — to good – honest people. So Sorry anyone has to suffer in this day and age.
Jeff D, I have also been on methadone & clonazapam for about the same number of years as you have. I was slowly tapered down on the clonazapam for which I am grateful. I still take a small dose. I was recently force tapered to half the amount of methadone I’d been on for around 16 years. It was tapered too quickly & was pretty awful. My pain increased by quite a bit & my life has changed as to what I am able to do. The last time I refilled my pain meds the pharmacist, with whom I’ve been going to for many years & have always had a cordial relationship with, pressured me to get a prescription of narcan. It’s crazy because I now take less of both those medications than I did for so many years & I live alone. No pets, almost no company. Not sure how I would give it to myself if I were somehow to od which certainly isn’t going to occur. She didn’t say I was required to get it but I definitely felt pressured & went ahead & gave in. Maybe she is being pressured by the corporate of her chain, don’t know. I was embarrassed & annoyed.
“Woe to those who are saying that good is bad and bad is good, those who are putting darkness for light and light for darkness, those who are putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those wise in their own eyes!”_ Isaiah 5:20,21
” If a Democrat wins in 2020 and we’re forced onto govt, single payer healthcare with no choice, I can guarantee all pain relief will be banned and taken away from every single American.”
Riiiight…because the Republicans have been just fonts of compassion & science- & fact-based policies. They haven’t done anything to make it difficult for patients to get their meds. It’s all the fault of the Democrats.
ALL politicians in every party have done nothing but make the situation for CPPs worse as they race down hysterical rabbit holes to combat a non-existent “opioid epidemic,” yet partisans continue to act as if the OTHER party is the solely responsible. No wonder this country is so screwed up…even victims of the hysteria continue to view everything through one-way mirrors.
You speak the truth, canarensis. Both parties are guilty of following the hysteria surrounding the so-called “Opioid Crisis” that needs to be called the “fentanyl and heroin crisis.” Anyone with any analytical skills at all knows the CDC used bogus data to set the guidelines. Now state governments are making laws out of guidelines. I’m disgusted and angry that I cannot get what I need to stay out of pain and even more disgusted by the lack of compassion shown the citizens of this country.
louisva;
i’m with you, friend. I’m sure that if the pain doesn’t kill me before my time, the health problems from the simmering rage in me will. As someone who’s always been driven by science & evidence, this PR- & lies-based hysteria campaign has driven me to the brink of madness. Someday this will be known as The Age of Sadism….I just wonder if I’ll still be around for that time.