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In June 2013 Walgreens was fined $80 million for oxycodone violations; see link below. This is totally unrelated to people needing narcotics for chronic pain or cancer. From what my pain management doctor told me; it was an inside job with dirty pharmacists. She said that the new "Good faith policy" has nothing to do with DEA rules & regulations & all it's doing is keeping much needed medications from people that really need it. If you look; it said the length of time over 6 months was reason to deny a script; so it's more tailored to people on medications short term.
What pisses me off the most is they are giving pharmacists this much power to ruin people's lives. I'm extremely ticked that they're allowing pharmacists that have no medical training; to decide what's appropriate or not. Imagine someone with a kidney disease that takes medications differently because of how it passes through their body. The pharmacist wouldn't care why it's prescribed that way. I was black balled over one medication. The medication is normally prescribed twice per day; but I have issues that affect the way medications affect me as well as allergies to just about every medication including a lot of antibiotics. I'm on the 3 pill a day dose because I can't tolerate the next higher dose (it's too much; makes me stoned) breaking it up into 3 of the lower dose equals the same amount of 2 pills of the higher dose; what's the difference? According to him it's not taken according to manufacturer & is why he's treating me like a criminal.
The Walgreens I use is not my local pharmacy; I drive out of my way to use them because I love the staff; they are worth the drive. The day this happened; I had called my pharmacy to see if the one med was out of stock like the month before; I was told yes; so I dropped it at the local one for fill the next day. I don't use this one because there are long wait times plus they're regularly out of medications I assume because they're a 24 hour pharmacy & really busy. I got a text at 9am that my scripts were ready. I had coffee; did a few things; was getting my jacket on to leave when the pharmacy manager called to tell me he refused to fill my one script; I asked about my other one that's been back ordered everywhere else; he said no. I told him that I've been a loyal customer since 2009; he didn't care. I then called corporate who told me I can fill them at any Walgreens; it was just with this one pharmacist.
When I went to pick my scripts up; I explained to the original pharmacist why I'm on these meds; as well as my allergies, also mentioned my failed fusion with rods; I figured when he heard what I had to say plus showed him the photo of my rods that he'd reconsider; he turned his head & walked away. I've never seen such a rude manager. I originally thought he was a new employee; was shocked to hear hes been there 15 years!. I then went to my Walgreens; I didn't tell them he black balled me; they saw it & told me they can't fill my script; there was nothing they could do. The empathy from the staff there is a complete opposite compared to the local store. The store manager took the pharmacy manager into the back to see if anything could be done; he knows me; knows how much money I spend there; he said once it's done; that's it; even the original pharmacist can't remove the red X. I will be pulling all of my prescriptions from the store; I've filled 2 scripts there since then; one was the day they black balled me; I had a 3 month script that was already filled. I kick myself for picking it up; the other was another 3 month script that I dropped at my pharmacy; it was originally filled at the local store. I should not have filled it but I need my records for when I write corporate.
In addition to people being black balled for narcotics for pain; the Walgreens where I am in NJ have been black balling people for adderall as well as other medications. "Rules" on if they will fill other medications depends on the store/pharmacist. Someone we know who was black balled for adderall; is also refused for every medication; including antibiotics. Walgreens will fill all of my other scripts; but they will not fill any of my medications that are on their secret list.
In the 1st article I linked to; anyone being black balled from Walgreens has been turned into the DEA.
I was black balled right before Christmas; then got busy; I need to get back to writing letters & whatever else I can do to complain to Walgreens corporate. Even though I'm really angry for being made to feel like a criminal; I want to go back to my original Walgreens pharmacist. It has been rare that they are out of my medications except for the one time. With the medication shortage; I drove around for 5 hours the day he black balled me; pharmacies won't tell you over the phone if they have narcotics in stock. I happened to find one an hour away; but they were out of my one medication last week; I had to drive around again to find the med. Of course my Walgreens has had both of my meds in stock; but I'm not allowed to use them! If I were granted one wish; it would be to never have gone to the local Walgreens that day! It's ruined my life. It's the pits to run out of medication; no pharmacy around here seems interested in gaining a regular customer that spends a lot of money out of pocket.
Quote:
If a Walgreens pharmacist refuses to fill your prescription for pain medication, that denial must now be entered into your online customer profile that can be seen by pharmacy staff at more than 8300 Walgreens nationwide. According to the GFD Policy, Walgreens pharmacists will also notify the US Drug Enforcement Administration that your prescription has been refused, and the pharmacy must maintain detailed documentation to justify the reason.
Walgreens was fined $80 million for oxycodone violations
The DEA said Walgreens failed to maintain proper controls to ensure it did not dispense drugs to addicts and drug dealers. The DEA requires drug distributors to notify the agency of unusually large or frequent retail pharmacy orders for controlled drugs.
Ferrer called Walgreens' failure to report suspicious orders a "systemic practice that resulted in tens of thousands of violations."
Six of Walgreens' Florida pharmacies ordered more than a million pills a year, the DEA said. In 2011, the average pharmacy in the U.S. ordered 73,000 oxycodone tablets a year. Pharmacists dispensed prescriptions from doctors even when Walgreens computer system flagged the doctors as problematic, Ferrer said.
One pharmacy in Fort Myers went from ordering 95,800 pills in 2009 to 2.2 million pills in 2011, the DEA said. Another pharmacy in Hudson, an area of about 34,000 people near Clearwater, purchased 2.2 million pills in 2011, the DEA said.
"Walgreens pharmacists blatantly ignored red flags," Miami field district Special Agent in Charge Mark Trouville said. "National pharmaceutical chains are not exempt from following the law."
Attached is part of the PM from their FB page calling my meds "inappropriate"
I have never used Walgreen's to fill a prescription (we don't have them where I live)...however, it does not sound like Walgreen's is just caught in the middle by all the regulations and laws. It sounds like Walgreen's is flat out refusing to fill legal valid prescriptions based on their own opinions of the customers medical condition as they perceive it.
I don't believe that at all. Their pharmacists are not doctors and I've never experienced their opinion on medical issues. The only thing I've ever been asked is if I've taken this medicine before and do I know hoe to use it.
If a pharmacists asks you about personal medical conditions that didn't apply to the meds prescribed that would be an individual pharmacist action, not Walgreens policy. That person should be reported if they are violating policies.
Walgreens pharmacists as any other pharmacists do have the right and obligation to check with your doctor if they detect an uncommon or unusual amount of prescriptions being submitted by a consumer in a very short period of time. Also most insurance companies may want to know also as they only pay for a certain amount of prescribed meds in a years timetable.
If you dig deep further you'll find that the drugs are regulated by law and insurance company's and the pharmacies are instructed by the insurance companies as to when and how much can be re-filled at any given time. Too many abuses by customers in the past have caused these situations to be more regulated.
We've been with Walgreens for over 30 years and have had no problems. Several times they've explained any hold up was the waiting for your insurance company's approval.
Pharmacies are just caught in the middle by all the regulations and laws regarding prescription drugs.
Insurance companies are the bane of all the evil in the field of medicine.
I'm not surprised by any of this considering how messed up our priorties are.
I suffer from a very severe case of peripheral neuropathy that no one can pinpoint the cause or even adequately treat the pain. I spend SO much of my time in bed with a death grip on the sheets, yowling like a wolf, in extreme pain.
Can I get pain meds? No, because the nanny state says I might abuse them. Who cares? It's like what a nurse told me: If you're going to be on pain meds the rest of your life, who cares if you get addicted to them?
But because we have become a legal society filled with litigation and lawyers and people wanting a pound of flesh for every tiny infraction, this is what we get - a society that spends more time punishing than helping. If we spent our time and resources on just about any other endeavor as we do on punishing and avoiding punishment, our species would probably be 50 to 100 years ahead of where we currently are.
We would rather spend our energies keeping pain meds away from one individual who abuses them than to place them into the hands of a thousand people who genuinely need them.
We're so paranoid about drug use that even medications are practically outlawed. I sometimes take a drug called Trama-Dol or Ultram. It is okay - it is a far better for pain relief than neurontin/gabapentin alone. But, even though it is a NON-NARCOTIC pain med, I've heard they want to make it a scheduled drug and regulate it the same way they would oxycodone and vicadin, etc.
Well, if they do that, I swear, I'll just euthanize myself. There is no way I'm going to live the next 50 years with that kind of pain and no way to effectively relieve it.
Oh yeah, euthanasia is illegal too! Haha! I think our society is a bunch of sado-masochists who get off on seeing other people in pain. It has to be that. Or something. I dunnae.
Insurance companies are the bane of all the evil in the field of medicine.
And you ain't seen nothin' yet.
That is a fact I've been to hell and back, constantly denied an MRI, I was on my 4th appeal and you need to go to a type of court with an appellate judge. I wonder how many do not bother with the appeals and just give up. I've been paying this insurance company.
One day I was fine, the next day I wasn't.
I could not believe it, I wrote to every Govt agency, our Congressmen and a bunch of others, I posted on their Govt pages, I wrote to some I can't even remember. After a month I rec'd the paper that the MRI was approved. The CDC left a message on my phone saying they sympathize with me and they are working on it, working on it? The FDA is working on it too! From what I've read on the web they haven't done a damn thing. I felt alone in my fight. Then the insurance company called, a person who must of been with customer relations, the Govt forwarded my letter to her, most likely she didn't want people to talk bad about the company. I was in severe pain, who in the hell are they to play God with my life.
I had to damn near beg for a pain pill, for God's sake I couldn't walk, I had to ride those cars in the stores. Several ER visits, ER gave me a few Tramadol but I didn't even take it, I wanted to know what was wrong. The doctors frowned on giving me anything for pain, it was as if I was searching for drugs! I went over a year in severe pain it was beyond belief, I could not believe this was happening to me by our health care industry, I never had any problems with my health before, USA the best healthcare in the world...you gotta be kidding who in H do you need to know to get something done, I guess I already know that answer hey everyone you starting to have some pain? NOBODY CARES you get to sit on the back burner for months, years like the rest of us, some could not work anymore and had to sell their homes, all because of the criteria these health insurers use, now the DEA involved in our pain meds so that doctors are afraid to prescribe them.
Now finally after over a year I get the pain med's I need. Over a year of my life gone because of my insurance, our health care rules and the DEA getting involved in our health care.
Those who are all against pain meds have no idea, wait till it happens to you and it will.
Herbal remedies, forget it, Chiropractor forget it, Pot forget it, Physical therapy forget it, you can't touch this.
People better start speaking up, it is getting worse, believe it. This was the worse experience I ever had in my life.
I'm not surprised by any of this considering how messed up our priorties are.
I suffer from a very severe case of peripheral neuropathy that no one can pinpoint the cause or even adequately treat the pain. I spend SO much of my time in bed with a death grip on the sheets, yowling like a wolf, in extreme pain.
Can I get pain meds? No, because the nanny state says I might abuse them. Who cares? It's like what a nurse told me: If you're going to be on pain meds the rest of your life, who cares if you get addicted to them?
But because we have become a legal society filled with litigation and lawyers and people wanting a pound of flesh for every tiny infraction, this is what we get - a society that spends more time punishing than helping. If we spent our time and resources on just about any other endeavor as we do on punishing and avoiding punishment, our species would probably be 50 to 100 years ahead of where we currently are.
We would rather spend our energies keeping pain meds away from one individual who abuses them than to place them into the hands of a thousand people who genuinely need them.
We're so paranoid about drug use that even medications are practically outlawed. I sometimes take a drug called Trama-Dol or Ultram. It is okay - it is a far better for pain relief than neurontin/gabapentin alone. But, even though it is a NON-NARCOTIC pain med, I've heard they want to make it a scheduled drug and regulate it the same way they would oxycodone and vicadin, etc.
Well, if they do that, I swear, I'll just euthanize myself. There is no way I'm going to live the next 50 years with that kind of pain and no way to effectively relieve it.
Oh yeah, euthanasia is illegal too! Haha! I think our society is a bunch of sado-masochists who get off on seeing other people in pain. It has to be that. Or something. I dunnae.
They are going to go after Neurontin and Gabapentin? For Gods sake this is horrible! and you're right I'd rather euthanize myself than to go through the pain every day, how much does a person need to take? We are punished for the few, some people are not happy unless they are interfering in someone else's lives. Its not our fault someone overdosed, maybe they wanted to. Those kids are well aware what they are doing, don't blame the rest of us.
Since I finally rec'd an rx for pain meds, my pharmacy never has enough to fill it, meaning I need to go back to the doctors office and get another rx for it. My pharmacy called the other pharmacies and no they haven't got it either. I think they are limited on what they order or what they are allowed to give the person. Maybe a new hidden rule.
I had been using Walgreen's for a pain med that was prescribed by a local doc.
One day Walgreens suddenly didn't have it. I had to go another local pharmacy. This happened 3x then I called the pharmacy manager and asked what was UP? She "said" Walgreens had been fined several millions of dollars in Florida due to not following guidelines and that since then each store was given only so many of XY and Z pills each month and that if she could she would hold back enough pills for the regular Walgreen customers who were taking the meds on the up and up.
Not entirely sure I believe here but that was her story and she was sticking to it.
I just don't understand the problem/issue with legit docs prescribing needed medications; be they pain meds or otherwise. The pharmaceutical companies make them for a reason.
Florida has a HUGE problem with prescription drug abuse. NOT all docs are legit, there are many who are just pill mills and give prescriptions to people who sell them on the street or abuse them. Florida starting really cracking down in the last couple of years. My best friend is a pharmacist in Florida and has told me about all the issues and all the extra steps they are required to take (she does not work for Walgreen's). If Walgreen's really did get that fine, it is understandable they are going to go overboard in the other direction until it evens out.
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I've been to hell and back, constantly denied an MRI, I was on my 4th appeal and you need to go to a type of court with an appellate judge. I wonder how many do not bother with the appeals and just give up. I've been paying this insurance company.
, I wrote to every Govt agency, our Congressmen and a bunch of others, I posted on their Govt pages, I wrote to some I can't even remember. After a month I rec'd the paper that the MRI was approved. The CDC left a message on my phone saying they sympathize with me and they are working on it, working on it? The FDA is working on it too! From what I've read on the web they haven't done a damn thing. I felt alone in my fight. Then the insurance company called, a person who must of been with customer relations, the Govt forwarded my letter to her, most likely she didn't want people to talk bad about the company. I was in severe pain, who in the hell are they to play God with my life. 
hey everyone you starting to have some pain? NOBODY CARES you get to sit on the back burner for months, years like the rest of us, some could not work anymore and had to sell their homes, all because of the criteria these health insurers use, now the DEA involved in our pain meds so that doctors are afraid to prescribe them.
