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CVS is finally trying to do something about the opioid epidemic:
Drug-store chain CVS Health announced Thursday that it will limit opioid prescriptions in an effort to combat the epidemic that accounted for 64,000 overdose deaths last year alone.
Amid pressure on pharmacists, doctors, insurers and drug companies to take action, CVS also said it would boost funding for addiction programs, counseling and safe disposal of opioids.
[...] The company's prescription drug management division, CVS Caremark, which provides medications to nearly 90 million people, said it would use its sweeping influence to limit initial opioid prescriptions to seven-day supplies for new patients facing acute ailments.
It will instruct pharmacists to contact doctors when they encounter prescriptions that appear to offer more medication than would be deemed necessary for a patient's recovery. The doctor would be asked to revise it. Pharmacists already reach out to physicians for other reasons, such as when they prescribe medications that aren't covered by a patient's insurance plan.
The plan also involves capping daily dosages and initially requiring patients to get versions of the medications that dispense pain relief for a short period instead of a longer duration.
[...] "The whole effort here is to try to reduce the number of people who are going to end up with some sort of opioid addiction problem," CVS Chief Medical Officer Troyen Brennan said in an interview.
It appears this initiative is limited to initial filling of prescriptions — there is no mention of changes in the handling of refills.
(Score: 4, Disagree) by Knowledge Troll on Monday September 25 2017, @02:17PM (4 children)
I get prescription medication that is squarely in the sights of the morality police and it sucks. I've been lucky that so far my pharmacy treats it like anything else but I've been warned by my doctor that I'm only lucky. Some pharmacists or technicians will make it a pain to dispense because they assume patients are just drug seekers.
Don't have the pharmacy question doctors; if they think something is up let them report it to the authorities. This is garbage.
It is easy: dispense as written! If certain chemicals make you uncomfortable find another job.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @02:22PM
Well, at least the government isn't getting between you and your doctor!!!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday September 25 2017, @04:54PM
Don't have the pharmacy question doctors;
Why shouldn't they question doctors? According to what I've read, doctors routinely prescribe drugs that will kill patients through interactions, because the doctors are negligent in checking for these. Are you saying that pharmacists shouldn't check to make sure drugs won't kill patients, and just blindly prescribe them? Do you realize that's directly against all the training pharmacists take, plus it opens the pharmacy up to massive lawsuits for negligence?
if they think something is up let them report it to the authorities. This is garbage.
The authorities aren't doing anything (useful) about it, and the doctors are negligent. The pharmacies are smartly covering their asses here because the rest of the system has completely and utterly failed. (Only some doctors are negligent, but since patients can "doctor-shop", it only takes a minority.)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 25 2017, @08:46PM
One solution: move yourself to a more progressive culture (Colorado is the easy example these days, but there are others) where Barney Fife isn't out to persecute every drug user he can find or imagine.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Tuesday September 26 2017, @01:43AM
My father-in-law was a Pharmacist. On many occasions he saved a patient's life by noticing that a doctor had prescribed a drug that was deadly when combined with something else that the patient was already on.
After he semi-retired, he took up a part time job reviewing patient drug profiles. The aim of the job was to reduce the number of medications and complications by using complementary drugs and minimising the number of drugs that were simply to manage side-effects of other drugs. I think his record was getting a patient from 18 different drugs down to 3. Good outcome for the patient. Less money for the pharmacist, but it seems that they genuinely care about the wellbeing of their customers.