What You Probably Don’t Know About CVS And Cigarette Sales

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

lipstickpig

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.vocativ.com/culture/health-culture/cvs-tobacco-state-of-the-union/

Larry J. Merlo, the CEO and president of CVS, will have a coveted seat in the VIP box with Michelle Obama at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. Merlo was picked to join the first lady because CVS announced in September that all its stores would stop selling cigarettes.

Praise for the decision on social media reached as far as the White House:

Larry J. Merlo, the CEO and president of CVS, will have a coveted seat in the VIP box with Michelle Obama at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. Merlo was picked to join the first lady because CVS announced in September that all its stores would stop selling cigarettes.

Praise for the decision on social media reached as far as the White House:

But before CVS took the tobacco high road, the company was cited a number of times for selling cigarettes to underage smokers. Between 2011 and September 2014, it racked up 178 warning letters and 14 fines for selling cigarettes to minors, according to an FDA database. The database shows that out of hundreds of retail outlets, CVS was among the top 10 most-cited chains in the U.S. last year for alleged cigarette sales to children.

CVS certainly deserves some credit for swearing off cigarettes—the company has said that dropping tobacco will cost it about $2 billion in annual sales. But the FDA estimates that about 3,200 children smoke their first cigarette every day, and CVS was part of that for a long, long time.

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The low hanging fruit might be the easiest to pick ?

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

spiderweb I keep wondering why no one has been able to find an attorney to help resolve these issues of pain pts and those with subjective diseases cannot get their legally prescribed, on time, medically necessary Rxs.

I see TV commercial after commercial about personal injury lawyers who wants to sue just about anyone… car accident… “bad drug”…

IMO.. the DEA has put out some public statements that attempts to keep the ACLU at bay.. because the ACLU’s mission statement is to sue the government when they violate the constitution or our laws.  Basically, the DEA has made statements that claim that they are doing nothing to interfere with legit pts getting their meds. However, it would appear that they are telling their registrants ( wholesalers, prescribers, pharmacies/Pharmacist ) that they are going to “take them out” if they get a single dose in the wrong hand. So the best way to make sure that you do this.. is to stop putting any doses in any hand.

Some states – Indiana, Washington, Ohio, Florida has institute some laws or interpretations of laws that have put some arbitrary daily mg limits on those with chronic pain and need opiates. Since most of these issues have been initiated by bureaucrats – including many attorneys – who think that they are able to practice medicine without a license or apply some “cookie-cutter” approach to treating chronic pain.

There are many components to our judicial system.. from the cop on the street.. the judge on the bench, the attorneys in private practice.. up thru the Attorney general at the state level to the Attorney General at the Federal level.  The DEA – part of the DOJ – employs some 12 K at the federal level. After nearly 45 yrs fighting this war.. and now spending 51 billion annually.. at least at face value… the war is either unwinnable and/or those involved are quite happy with the status quo.

Being an attorney is mostly a local business… it appears to have its own local ecosystem.. as well as a larger ecosystem at the state and federal level. Imagine the potential repercussions to an attorney or attorney group that attempted to disrupt that war on drugs ecosystem… by suing the wholesalers, pharmacies and prescribers for harming pts because they are basically following the “unwritten rules” of the DEA concerning the war on drugs.

Pts have called the DEA, the AG’s office, FDA, corporate headquarters… all pts have been told that they cannot force a Pharmacist to fill your Rx.. even  if it is legit/on time/medically necessary.. your prescription being filled is at the discretion of the Pharmacist.  What they are not saying is that they can intimidate, bully the Pharmacist into not filling your Rx.. under the part of the DEA statue of “corresponding responsibility”.

It would seem to me that the PHARMACIST is the low hanging fruit in all of this… typically.. they don’t have that deep a pockets and their corporate employer has disavowed any involvement with the Pharmacist turning down a Rx.

These Pharmacists keep reminding you that they are “doctors” and that they are the medication experts. As “medication experts” they should have full knowledge of the consequences to a pt that has been taking opiates for a long period of time.. when they are abruptly “cut off” and forced to go cold turkey and thrown into elevated pain and withdrawal. Pain may have never killed anyone… but.. cold turkey withdrawal can..

It doesn’t cost a lot to file a lawsuit against a individual Pharmacist… for a number of decisions that falls under irresponsible negligence by them that adversely affected the pt’s quality of life. They are the self-proclaimed “medication experts”.

Cooperation of a prescriber and could possibly get a class action against a single pharmacist… at a single store… This won’t mess with the war on drugs “ecosystem”…but.. it sure will get the attention of some individual Pharmacists..  You get one-two successful settlements – against the Pharmacist’s professional liability insurance and the personal injury attorneys will start circling like vultures…   If you have contacted an attorney before.. they might not have considered this approach… might want to contact them again…

It is necessary to video your interaction of being denied.. suggest that you take someone along that can stand aside to video the interaction. They won’t be able to deny what was said.. they say a picture is worth a 1000 words… what does that say about a video ?

If you get one or two Pharmacists that will sign statements that their inability to fill Rxs is because of the wholesalers rationing/limiting of their ability to purchase sufficient quantities to fill the legit Rxs they are presented.. The attorneys should be able to use this information to lay the ground work for a class action against at least the three major wholesalers.. that control 85% of the market.

Once the wholesalers admit that they are acting (rationing) out of fear of being fined by the DEA.. then the door will be opened for the ACLU to proceed with action against the DEA.. for violating our laws..  GAME OVER !

 

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we don’t care about others pain.. just ours

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

WFLA News Channel 8

http://www.wfla.com/story/27788004/tampa-doctor-and-wife-indicted

“It is unusual to be able to directly link a prescription that has gone to someone that has contributed to their death,” said Michele Phillips from the NOPE Task Force.  http://www.nopetaskforce.org/

Imagine that… this TV station asks the opinion of a representative of a group seems to appear to be against the use of any       opiates for legit medical need so that NO ONE will be able to get their hands on some opiate doses and do themselves harm.. most likely because them and/or their immediate family are in denial that they have a mental health issue and turn a blind eye to mental health therapy that the person needs.. and when the person starts accelerating their abuse of various substances until they reach a point of no return..

So then they have to find someone/thing to blame other than their own defective gene pool and their failure to help their loved one from going down the path they did… so they join group(s)  with others that are dealing with same self-guilt.

Also note that the quote said that they are even concerned about a prescription medications that MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED to a person’s death. So I guess that you can disregard the alcohol, Heroin and untold other illegal substances that toxicology results states was in their system. All the while.. our system never/seldom tried to determine if the death by drug overdose was in fact accidental or a suicide. More denial of mental health issues.

Of course, it would cost resources to investigate the illegal act of committing suicide… where as claiming that a death was a accidental overdose does not require an investigation and serves the DEA’s agenda of the war on drugs much more.

While the identities of the victims in Feldman’s case are only identified by their initials, Phillips knows the feeling of losing someone from a prescription drug overdose. Phillips lost her son several years ago.

“There are times when I wake up in the morning and I have to remind myself to breathe,” said Phillips.

Imagine that.. a orthopedic doctor.. making enough money on his practice to buy a million dollar home and office bldg…

Have you ever seen Gov. Rich Scott’s home .. beach front homes in the Naples area – aren’t cheap..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott

at age 34, he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation with two business partners; this merged with Hospital Corporation of America in 1989 to form Columbia/HCA and eventually became the largest private for-profit health care company in the U.S.[citation needed]

He resigned as Chief Executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997 amid a controversy over the company’s business and Medicare billing practices; the company ultimately admitted to fourteen felonies and agreed to pay the federal government over $600 million, which was the largest fraud settlement in US history. Scott was not implicated and no charges were raised against him personally.[3][4][5][6][7] Scott later became a venture capitalist.

Of course, if you follow the history of our Federal Government.. when it comes to public corporation violating various laws and/or defrauding the Medicare/Medicaid .. they never go after anyone at the corporate level.. they just fine the corp and allow them to go back to business as usual.. So Rick Scott made no profits from his association with Columbia/HCA to help him eventually buy his multi-million dollar beach front home ?

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Do they say what they mean or is it just rhetoric ?

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

http://www.cvshealth.com/our-businesses/maintenance-choice%C2%AE

Studies show that a quarter of people receiving prescriptions never fill their first prescription, and patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and coronary artery disease adhere to their ongoing medication regimen about half of the time. In fact, non-adherence to essential medications is a frequent cause of preventable hospitalizations and patient illness, with costs to the U.S. health care system estimated at about $300 billion annually.

So the next time that a CVS Health Pharmacist tells you that they are “not comfortable” filling your prescriptions.. that they are going against the company’s policy of improving compliance and that they are personally contributing to the waste of the 300 billion dollars to our healthcare system.

The question has to be asked.. if this is a published policy of CVS HEALTH and one of their Pharmacist refused to fill your legit/on time/medically necessary medication… are they violating the company’s policies and procedures.. which in most companies… violating the company’s policies and procedure can cause an employee to be disciplined or fired…

OR

Is CVS HEALTH guilty of false advertising ? after all you health is everything…

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Walgreens layoffs begin

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Walgreens layoffs begin

http://azdailysun.com/business/local/walgreens-layoffs-begin/article_0a467c95-de25-5576-bf5e-94d7cb04cc03.html

The first round of official layoffs for Walgreens employees came this month. All of the 27 employees involved in this round volunteered to leave early, said Coconino County Career Center Director Carol Curtis. Another 200 employees are slated to be laid off in February.

In all, 345 employees will lose their jobs when the Flagstaff distribution center closes in late spring. 

“The task will be matching the skills sets with the Walgreens folks, or helping them increase their skills to become employable in our labor market, or other areas,” Curtis said.

 The closure is one of the largest in the history of Flagstaff. One economist from the Economic Collaborative of Northern Arizona estimated that the closure of a similar-sized company in Phoenix would be equal to about 28,000 people losing their jobs.

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Video – The Persecution of The Chronically Ill

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Ken Mc Kim is back… pointing out the “lunacy” in our society when it comes to subjective diseases and how we treat those with these diseases.
While he uses the word persecution.. when one person intentionally causes another to be in pain… whether they induce pain on that person directly.. think stun gun, baseball bat or some other physical infliction of pain or deny the person some sort of physical/medical therapy so that they are no longer in pain.. Isn’t the intentional infliction of pain on another person synonymous with TORTURE ? So, if true, isn’t our judicial torturing all too many in our society.. that have the misfortune to suffer from certain subjective diseases ?

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I thought that we were a country of laws ?

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

American’s Calls Covertly Tracked by DEA for over a Decade

http://www.worldreportnow.com/americans-calls-covertly-tracked-by-dea-for-over-a-decade/126/

In a new court filing, it was revealed that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which operates under the US Justice Department, has covertly been tracking American’s phone calls to overseas countries for over a decade in an attempt to identify drug trafficking, as well as other crimes.

Only outgoing phone calls were mentioned in the official document but according to insiders, data the DEA collected also related to calls coming in. Not mentioned was what the content of all the conversations nor were the number of countries involved mentioned or any specific countries with the exception of Iran.

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Is having a big chain store on every corner not such a good idea ?

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

greedprofits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Closure?

http://homenewshere.com/wilmington_town_crier/news/article_fe70852c-9d88-11e4-96c3-7388ed2e715a.html

WILMINGTON – Walgreens’ slogan is “At the Corner of Happy and Healthy” but some customers may find themselves at the corner of angry and inconvenienced instead.

A source who works at another Walgreens location informed the Crier that the Wilmington Walgreens may be closing, fueling concerns that that the 227 Main Street location could see the same fate as the Reading store.

Last June Walgreens shuttered its 5 Harnden St. business, reportedly with little notice. Store employees were told not to share news of the closing with customers. Those using the Walgreens pharmacy had to travel to Rite Aid where their prescriptions were transferred.

The move was part of an effort to close unprofitable stores. A 2014 retail industry report showed 76 Walgreens locations would cease operation. The Northeast lost 20 stores; the highest number of closings in the U.S. Other reasons for the closures were aging stores and Walgreens that were too close in proximity to each other.

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Did Two Off-Duty BSO Deputies Shoot Up a Walgreens After Leaving a Strip Club?

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Did Two Off-Duty BSO Deputies Shoot Up a Walgreens After Leaving a Strip Club?

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2015/01/did_2_off-duty_bso_deputies_shoot-up_a_walgreens_after_leaving_a_strip_club.php

BSO.jpg
Photo by CZmarlin via Wikipedia Commons

Back on January 5 at 3:37 a.m., a shot was fired in front of the Walgreens on Haverhill Road and Okeechobee Road in West Palm Beach. PBSO confirmed then that a shot was fired but didn’t release any details. But this week, Florida Cop Watch reported something a little more interesting: Two off-duty Broward deputies were so excited after leaving a strip club, they just had to let one out of the chamber, which almost hit a PBSO cop and ended up hitting an innocent Walgreens.The fun tale continues. After the post-stripper shootout, PBSO stopped the gun-firing revelers and then realized they too were cops. So instead of arresting them, a higher-ranking BSO official was called in and apparently took his boys home to sleep it off. No charges were filed, of course.

New Times tried to confirm the details with PBSO on Thursday, but spokesperson Teri Barbera would tell us only that a shot was indeed fired that night and that the matter is under investigation.

However, BSO Public Information Director Veda Coleman-Wright confirmed with New Times that two Broward deputies are being investigated by PBSO.
Deputy Norman Stepelton, 26, on the force for just over one year, has been suspended with pay.

And Deputy Christopher Mattingly, 24, – in his second year with BSO – is on restricted assignment.

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Walgreens Boots legal chief to step down

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

ratships

 

 

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/ct-walgreen-sabatino-departure-0117-biz-20150116-story.html

Walgreens Boots Alliance top attorney Thomas Sabatino is the latest executive to leave the company.

Sabatino will join Hertz Global Holdings as senior executive vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel starting Feb. 9. Sabatino had been general counsel for the former Walgreen Co. since 2011 and chief administrative officer since last year. He will remain with the company until the end of January, a month after Walgreen’s acquisition of Alliance Boots closed Dec. 31 and formed holding company Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Walgreen’s CEO Greg Wasson retired after the close of the Alliance Boots acquisition, handing the baton to Stefano Pessina, executive chairman of Alliance Boots, until the company finds a successor. The company’s former chief financial officer, Wade Miquelon, left the company in recent months and sued the company in October, saying he was defamed by comments that suggested he was responsible for a $1 billion forecasting error. Kermit Crawford, Walgreen’s president of pharmacy, health and wellness, also retired at year-end after 31 years with the company.

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