AMA urges CDC to revise opioid prescribing guideline

https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-urges-cdc-revise-opioid-prescribing-guideline

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CVS Class Action Lawsuit Says Pharmacy Forces Customers to Buy Opioid Overdose Drug

https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/opioids/cvs-class-action-lawsuit-says-pharmacy-forces-customers-to-buy-opioid-overdose-drug/#comment-1264527

A recent CVS class action lawsuit claims the pharmacy forces consumers to purchase opioid overdose reversal meds when filling opiate prescriptions.

Plaintiff Lisa L. Lee claims CVS unlawfully requires consumers to purchase expensive opioid reversal medications in order to fill their prescriptions for opioid drugs. According to Lee, the reversal drug adds significant costs to a consumer’s purchase.

“In order to fill a prescription for a medication containing opioids, such as hydrocodone-acetaminophen, CVS forces consumers to simultaneously purchase a prescribed medication, Naloxone or similar drug, designed to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose,” Lee contends in her CVS class action lawsuit.

Naloxone, one of the most prominent opioid reversal medications, is an effective drug which works to reverse an opioid overdose almost immediately after being injected or inhaled via nasal spray. Lee notes that first responders and trained bystanders can effectively prevent tragedy by using the drug to reverse an overdose.

However, Lee notes that the drug “can cost more than fifty times the actual opioid pain relief prescription.” By forcing patients to purchase these drugs in order to fill their opioid prescription, CVS allegedly causes significant financial burden to their customers.

Lee allegedly experienced the issue in March 2020. After she broke her nose, she was prescribed Vicodin by an emergency room doctor.

She was also provided a prescription for Narcan, a brand name for Naloxone, although she was not required to fill the medication.

When she went to her local CVS to fill her prescription, Lee reportedly told the pharmacy she didn’t want to fill her Narcan prescription.

Even though her Vicodin prescription only cost $0.71 for 10 pills, the CVS employee allegedly forced her to purchase a Narcan nasal spray for $121.80.

“She had no meaningful choice but to purchase the Narcan for $121.80 in order to purchase her pain medications, and therefore incurred actual financial losses due the unlawful conduct of Defendants.”

According to the CVS class action lawsuit, Lee’s experiences were not unique. Instead, the pharmacy allegedly maintains policies which force all patients to purchase an opioid overdose reversal medication when filling opioid prescriptions.

Lee argues that CVS accomplishes their misleading scheme by wielding their significant “market power” to set costly prices for opioid overdose reversal medications. As a result, consumers are allegedly forced to pay a high price not only at CVS but also at other pharmacies due to the schemes alleged “anti-competitive effect on the market.”

“CVS purposefully misuses its market power to force consumers to purchase opioid overdose reversal medication in order to fill lawfully prescribed and medically necessary prescriptions for pain medication,” the CVS class action lawsuit claims.

The CVS class action lawsuit argues that the pharmacy’s actions violate California state law. Specifically, CVS allegedly violates a law that states pharmacies “shall not obstruct a patient in obtaining a prescription drug or device that has been legally prescribed or ordered for that patient.” By putting significant financial strain on patients, CVS allegedly obstructs their customers’ ability to obtain the medications they were prescribed.

Lee also references another California state law that requires opioid prescribers to offer prescriptions for opioid-overdose reversal drugs. Although the law requires prescribers to give patients the option to purchase these drugs, it is not required in order to fill an opioid prescription.

Despite knowing the true terms of the state law, CVS allegedly misrepresents to their customers that they are required by law to purchase an overdose reversal drug when filing opioid prescriptions. These representations are allegedly false and misleading. Lee argues that, as a result, she and other consumers have suffered from financial injury.

Lee seeks to represent a Class of consumers in California who purchase opioid medicine from CVS and were required to purchase an opioid overdose reversal medication in order to fill the opioid prescription. On behalf of this proposed Class, Lee seeks punitive damages, compensatory damages, restitution, disgorgement, interest, court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Were you prescribed opioid medications? Were you forced by CVS to purchase opioid reversal medications? Share your experiences in the comment section below.

Lee and the proposed Class are represented by Michael D. Singer and Kristina De La Rosa of Cohelan Khoury & Singer.

The CVS Opioid Class Action Lawsuit is Lisa L. Lee v. CVS Pharmacy Inc., et al., Case No. 37-2020-000228843-CU-BT-CTL, in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Diego.

While I am not an attorney, there is part of the Sherman Antitrust Act – Tying Commerce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(commerce)  – which states that it illegal to force anyone to purchase something that they don’t want in order to be able to purchase something that they do want.  If a pt wants to have Narcan on hand, many state health depts will provide it to people AT NO CHARGE.

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A CVS technician asked me to post this for her.
I work for the 3 letter in California and a technician at our store recently tested positive for Covid-19. The entire staff was not notified and I only found out after overhearing the PIC discussing it hush hush with another tech. When I asked why she wasn’t telling everyone she said she was waiting on direction from our district leader. It’s been 17 days since that conversation and I’ve heard nothing yet. Two pharmacist working got tested on their own dime and time, came up negative. What’s the protocol on this? What have other stores done? Seems ours is just pretending it didn’t happen. No official alert to workers or customers, no extra cleaning. Just business as usual.

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https://youtu.be/8kpJESKPqCo?t=172

I tried to get this video to start at 2:52, but the coding is there that is should do that … but it insists on starting at the beginning of the video…  just push it ahead to that point on the video.

 There is a number of things about what is being done with this COVID-19 pandemic that I have been unsure about.  There has been and continue to be a lot of “guess work” in treating people that test positive for COVID-19. Some have collected plasma from pts who have recovered from COVID-19 as a cure. That plasma contains antibodies and apparently in many incidents the pt recovers, but this treatment is giving the pt “passive immunity” it will fade over a few months.. Likewise,  it is now being reported that those who have had COVID-19 and recovered that the antibodies that their system generated are also passive.

The flu vaccinations that many people get every year also creates a passive immunity … between the dominate flu mutation that shows up every year and the passive antibodies mandates annual vaccinations.  Some entities – mostly pharmacies – are willing to give flu shot starting in August each year , which IMO… is way too early.. by the time that flu season peaks the pt’s antibody titer is not optimum.  Personally we don’t get our annual flu shots until the first two weeks in October… so that our antibody titer is as high as possible when the flu season peaks.

Even new drug entities that are designed to treat “orphan diseases”… where the number of people having the disease are fairly small… sometime… maybe only a couple of hundred thousand.  These orphan drugs gets “Fast tracked clinical trials” , but the time lines of approval of these new COVID-19 vaccine is like “the speed of light”.  In my 50 yrs as a Pharmacist, I have seen all too many times that a new medication comes out… after going thru multiple level, multiple year clinical trials and within being on the market for a year or two.. it is pulled because of some unseen serious adverse reactions.. sometime… so serious that they may have caused deaths.

I have been playing with computers since the late 70’s… taught myself programming and wrote some ultra specialty software in the 80’s. I have a good idea what computers can do and what this doctor says in this video is not outside of the scope of possibilities with today’s computers and technology.

I am not going as far as to say that she is 100% correct, but I am not going to believe that what she is saying is IMPOSSIBLE.

I do know that I am going to pay a lot more attention to what is going on in/around COVID-19, its treatment and potential vaccinations

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https://youtu.be/3yk3xezML8Q

“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey

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Interview With Chronic Pain Warrior, Alexander Urman

https://therappreportpodcast.podbean.com/e/e15-interview-with-chronic-pain-warrior-alexander-urman/

In this episode, we interview Alexander Urman, a chronic pain warrior suffering from CSF leaks, and adhesive arachnoiditis. 

Alexander was born in The Ukraine. At the age of 15, six months after beginning karate instructions, under the tutelage of a reckless instructor, he suffered a bad acrobatic fall while learning a new technique. He badly injured his spine in the neck and lumbar regions. At that time, in The Ukraine, these types of spine injuries were not considered treatable. He was 16 when he came to the U.S.  He came already disabled, but pushed through the pain and was able to achieve much. He received two degrees from the very prestigious Stanford University in a five year program, B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and M.S. in Engineering Economics. He had great professional success in his jobs after Stanford, but was finding himself in increasing pain from sedentary computer work.  In order to adapt to the challenges of his health, Alexander wanted to have more professional flexibility and have less of a sedentary work style, to explore the managerial or entrepreneurial track. He attended the best state school in California with an MBA program – the Anderson School at UCLA. From that point on, things continued to deteriorate as he suffered through multiple failed spinal surgeries. He spends most of his days battling severe, intractable pain, as well as insomnia from the extremely high levels of pain.

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https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/prog.php?parent=cvs-health&page=4

If you go to the above hyperlink. it will show in detail the 399 fines CVS has paid since 2000.. 1.1 billion in fines

Last fiscal year, CVS showed a net profit of 250 billion dollars so all of these fines is  just the cost of getting caught at breaking/violating our laws. It would appear that the profits generated from such illegal activities is a lot more than the fines  that CVS had to pay to generate those profits and this is just WHAT THEY GOT CAUGHT AT DOING !

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Coronavirus herd immunity may be ‘unachievable’ after study suggests antibodies disappear after weeks in some people

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-antibodies-study-herd-immunity-unachievable-spain-2020-7

• A major new study in one of Europe’s worst affected countries for the coronavirus finds no evidence of widespread immunity to the virus developing.
• Just 5% of Spaniards were detected to have antibodies to the virus.
• Fourteen percent of people who previously tested positive for antibodies tested negative just weeks later.
• The study suggests people who experience mild symptoms do not have long-lasting protection.
• “Immunity can be incomplete, it can be transitory, it can last for just a short time and then disappear,” Raquel Yotti, the director of Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute, said.
• Another scientist involved said: “In light of these findings, any proposed approach to achieve herd immunity through natural infection is not only highly unethical, but also unachievable.”
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

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https://youtu.be/jD94pQHVwPM

Walgreens At Oakton & River Closed For Death Investigation

Walgreens At Oakton & River Closed For Death Investigation

The Walgreens store at Oakton Street and River Road in Des Plaines will be closed for the remainder of today (Wednesday) due to a death investigation. 

According to Phil Caruso, senior manager of issues management for Walgreens, there was no criminal activity or security risk at the store. He said the other Des Plaines Walgreens location at Miner Street and Graceland Avenue remains open for regular hours.

As of 10:14 a.m., Des Plaines police squad cars blocked the store’s parking lot. At least two customers were denied entry into the building before Des Plaines Fire Dept. crews arrived at 10:27 a.m. A representative from the Office of the Cook County Medical Examiner was also at the scene.

Fire crews left at around 10:41 a.m. after bringing ladder equipment in and out of the building. 

A police department representative at the scene said no information was available as the incident was still under investigation. Police later confirmed the death was a suicide.

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