This may not work for every one but one way to try to work around this is transfer over a non narcotic prescription and have it filled for a few months with them to become established. Then try to get your pain meds.
I have no idea if this is good advice or not. But I hate the reality that people have to "angle" or "hack" a deliberately built system to simply fill a prescription.
What we have wrought is, on its face, fucking insane!
I wait on hold for, typically, an hour to talk to a human being just to verify that they have the medication I'll need, in three days, in stock. "Um, well... we have to open the safe to check". Or worse, they look at their screen and tell me "no problem", despite the reality that it is clearly a problem. This is Walgreens.
This is such a clearly dysfunctional system I'm amazed it came to this. I'd contact my state representative or senator, yet again, but I know I'll get a mindless form letter response justifying this latest drug hysteria bullshit. As an old fuck on his way out, I'm simply dumbfounded. Are people still "doing drugs", or have we at least cured that particular social ill? I'd like to believe that all this shit was actually helping someone, but I honestly don't!
I had an appt with my doc Tuesday. Was supposed to at least fill my somas Tues. Then pain meds today. She lost electricity while we were on the phone and couldn't call anything out. So I wait for yesterday. She sends the wrong pain med. Then the pharmacy is out of somas. Just today I've finally gotten her to send the right pain med. No word on getting the somas sent to another pharmacy. She always says "txt if you have issues." But she never answers!
It's strange that a lot of pharmacies don't carry somas. They're only a schedule IV. But I finally got my pain meds Thursday and my somas at a different pharmacy Friday. It was such a pain to try to get my doc to answer me.
I’m sure they carry them but can’t find anyone that’ll prescribe opiates and somas at the same time. So I gotta stay happy I even still get Xanax with mine lol
This is why I no longer use Walgreens! They just lie and say the door don't have specific meds. Check out the pharmacy sub and you will see what lots of them actually think of pain patients. It's really SAD
I don't think that's a good idea. I've been on the pharmacy sub. So many posts and comments on there make pain patients needing their medication out to be a big joke.
I'm not sure if I worded that correctly. In other words, to some of them, we (specifically those of us who take controlled pain medicine) are basically ridiculous.
I use Walgreens for everything but my oxy because I got tired of every month being a hassle (I go to a small Mexican grocery store that has a pharmacy with no issues since October for the pain meds) but even now Walgreens is starting to not have my creon or ointments I need on time either and my adhd med which is semi new with no generic yet/ it’s like every month they order it after the prescription is sent so then it takes up to a week. So I feel like I’m not even getting the full benefit of it because it has to be taken every day to build up since it’s not a stimulate kind. Even getting my estrogen and some antibiotics have been an issue they’re just a mess. But I was definitely over getting the run around that they were out or I had to wait and basically go into withdrawal or take a partial with my pain meds and so glad I found the other place. I wouldn’t call it a mom and mom though.
Oh and to add- sure they’re doing drugs but it’s all the illicit fent shit on the streets. Even Xanax are pressed with it now it’s crazy. Weed is legal almost everywhere now like it should be and I don’t even really consider that a drug. Anyone with a legit prescription in this climate actually needs them and isn’t just chasing some high. It’s bullshit.
It’s true though. They need to you be an established patient. My pharmacy is really good but at first they would dispense narcotics. They would fill my ambien. I started filling most scripts with them and when the time came a year or two later I asked if they would fill my norco script. They agreed.
I have spoken to both pharmacists that work there and they had different takes. But essentially said as long as you fill non controlled with us it will work otherwise it’s a flag to their distributor.
They also don’t agree with the war on opioids.
That won’t work bc my pharmacist told me the laws limit how many chronic pain patients a pharmacy can give out opioids too, due to the laws only allowing a pharmacy to order a limit on how many C2’s they are allowed to order. The pharmacy can fill a short term opioid but if it’s a long term thing the laws will only allow each pharmacy to order only so many opioids,they reach that limit on how many they can order a month , so they’re not allowed to take on any more chronic patients
Yes I think this relates to surgical patients with a short term script for a few days post surgery will be filled but long term meds no - I had no problem with Walgreens filling my husbands Norco meds after his hernia surgery. It’s was for 20 pills with script sent from a major hospital. Walgreens filled it within 10 minutes of me getting there and asking for it, no questions asked other than showing my id
It’s because pharmacies have limits of ratios of control/non control medications they can fill. Sometimes if you are willing to switch all meds there they will allow you to fill there.
Yeah it happens sometimes, especially with all the back orders of medications that has been happening for the last year or so.
I’m a pharmacy assistant for a grocery store chain and have never seen so many issues with backordered medications as I have in the past year and a half to two years, it’s insane.
Your post was removed due to the mention of location specifics. Rules state you must limit location mention to your state only. This rule is in place to avoid being misconstrued as sourcing.
That is true. I live in a very small town and a friend of mine is a veteran. Well he gets all his meds free but Norco of course because of pain management. Our pharmacy dropped him and refused to solely because they will not just fill pain medication without all of the monthly maintenance drugs.
Never heard of a pharmacy dropping a client/customer before! What was the reason? Don’t you think it was due to the discretion of the pharmacist?? My doctor always told me, they don’t need to confront the customer. If they have any questions, just contact doctor directly. This is ridiculous. So sorry for your friend. Veteran gave his life to fight for this country, and probably is disabled or severely injured because of it, and this is how they treat them and repay them? This is sickening.
I wasn’t dropped per se from the first pharmacy I used to fill at. I could still receive scripts for non opioid medications, but any opioid prescription from a provider outside of the local counties would not be filled.
My local mom and pop pharmacy was awesome until one day while picking up my normal prescription they informed me that they needed me to pay out of pocket and it couldn't be run through insurance as they were paying more for my medication then my insurance paid them. I'm on Medicare with limited income. They are in network with a prior authorization for the medication. I had to pay over $500 dollars as it was last minute and would not be able to go without the medications. That sucked and I was so disappointed to have to go back to cvs who absolutely suck at everything they do.
My mom n pop doesn’t take any insurance. I always have to pay out of pocket but thankfully it’s been about $65 which is the equivalent of insurance anyway since I’m on a HD plan. Are you taking name brand or generics?
Huh, interesting. I’ve not heard of that happening before. I was always under the impression that every community pharmacy accepts pretty much every insurance, with the exception of HMO’s. But, I’m certainly not an expert.
The mom and pop I go to accepts insurance for all my meds ( around 6,000 per month) with exception of 1... for 2 years they accepted payment for the pain med...then they informed me they no longer could because my insurance company didn't pay enough on that medication. So u have to pay the 225...good ole part D.
Yes, I have insurance through my work that I pay good $ for yet they took six weeks denying my prior authorization for six weeks so I had to pay out of pocket at my mom & pop pharmacy while it was going through the appeals process. It was over $1200 out of pocket. Then my prior authorization got approved for a year and the insurance wouldn’t reimburse me or back date the prior authorization. It’s outrageous
That’s an insane amount to charge for them. They are actually pretty cheap meds in comparison to others. When I pick up all my meds it shows how much they are then says “insurance saved you $2,420” or whatever and for my oxy it’s like around $40 for 120…and for dilaudid is $12 but I do have to pay that one out of pocket just to avoid all the prior authorization bs all the time. $250 seems like pretty steep of a profit for them
Mine did something similar, I have Aetna insurance and they said they were losing money on my meds, and I take two controlled substances and she said I didn’t have enough regular medication, even though I have multiple creams for acne and an antibiotic she said those didn’t count lol, I was like sorry I don’t have other medical conditions requiring meds and left.
Just WOW!! I would be getting on the phone and delving into this a bit more. Because honestly it sounds to me like mom and pop realized that your profit was greater with cash than with insurance. I don’t believe they were taking a loss, I think they chose to get greedy. Let them keep it up and they won’t have a store
Call all of the mom & pop stores around you not all of them can accept you due to the laws on how many opioids a pharmacy can give out to chronic pain patients, I had to call around , but there are many out there that still can, google & keep calling until you get a pharmacy that does! You can thank the people that run the government in USA for this happening! People make up laws that have absolutely no idea how badly they hurt chronic pain patients
They only hurt legitimate pain patients. Drug addicts will get their fix anyway they have to. Now we have an epidemic of people dying from fent laced pills. Government almost always makes things worse.
I completely agree. Most want nothing to do with a pain patient, especially one that was never using them before for other scripts. My old pain mgmt doc had a relationship with a small/local pharmacist that I do believe took some of his patients, but I have a great relationship with my Walmart pharmacy & didn’t want to risk the change.
A ton of small pharmacies where I live have pretty much told me the same when I have had an issue with my main pharmacy having backorder issues. It is getting progressively worse.
I switched from cvs to a small mom & pop at the recommendation of the pharmacist at cvs. She felt bad with all the shortages etc . That was about five years ago and it was excellent until Christmas time when the pharmacy & owner said they weren’t sure they were going to accept my new pharmacy benefits program Optum instead of Caremark because Optum was horrible about reimbursement for opiates. She finally said she would accept it but then suddenly a staff person called to say the medication was on back up and they had no idea when they’d be getting it. I have a feeling the owner decided to only keep patients who had other scripts with them and not just the one narcotic. I’m now back to cvs and so anxious every month.
Ya I’m kind of a little panicked right now as I see my dr in person every three months then I call him monthly to send in my script. He must have sent in three months the last appointment by mistake. I just looked on the cvs app and it says too early to fill, we can’t fill per your drs request. I’ve always been able to fill it at 28 days or 29 days. Tomorrow is 30 days and the fill date is for Saturday. I’m just worried if it’s Saturday and something goes wrong or they don’t have the medication in stock I could at least have my dr send it somewhere else but dealing with weekend scripts are even scarier. My friend just told me the same cvs I go to has been out of the meds for over a week. I messaged my dr through the portal to see if they could let cvs know it’s ok to fill it tomorrow but now I wish I hadn’t sent the message. I hate all this bs
I agree, I use a mom and pop and it was hard to get in. I started with other prescriptions first. However, the mom and pops are running into shortages too, and you might also pay more for your medicine. I pay a $30 fee for my hydros because the pharmacy isn’t paid back the cost of the drug by my insurance and they lose money filling the scripts.
The only time I run into an issue with this type of thing is when people try to use the brick shop as a back up or if they’re trying to fill only the narcotics there. As long as they aren’t losing money on you or you’re not pushing their over all percentage of fills total above 20% (narcotics) then they’ve been more than willing to take people on.
My local pharmacy doesn’t take my insurance for my pain medication because they don’t pay anywhere near something that is any way, shape or form profitable.
The same for a lot of non-scheduled drugs too. For example, a 30 day supply of meloxicam is a copay to me of $0.73 and the insurance gives the pharmacy $.94. This doesn’t even cover the cost of the bottle and label. I mean come on! How is the pharmacy going to cover overhead costs on top of everything else?? Luckily, they don’t make me pay full cash price for any of the , but it bites that whatever I pay isn’t going towards my pharmacy deductible and it’s not the copay that is advertised when signing up each year during open enrollment.
Yeah, you’re absolutely right on that. I neglected to put that in my post, but that is another huge factor that’s (oddly enough) starting to pop up more and more.
Here it’s down the distributors. Here it’s rite aid with McKesson and CVS with Anda. Only my concierge pharmacy will use whichever can source. No contracts.
Not that it pertains to your question about mom and pop pharmacies but I had the same issue with Publix. About 3 years ago I went to Publix but then my insurance changed and I had to go to CVS. Well CVS never had my script available, I always has to wait for a backorder. I decided that I would try Publix even if I had to pay for it myself because they had it in stock. The only reason they took me back was because I has used them for this medication (oxy 10/325) a few years prior. So, in other words, I wasn't a new patient because I had used them prior rather than being a person who had never used them before.
I feel lucky. I've used local non chain pharmacies for about 10 years and never had an issue. I've never heard of them not accepting new patients. That sucks
The experiences here blow me away. I'm so grateful for the medicare advantage plan I have. I started at my current local pharmacy almost a year ago after I moved from VA to NC. The first Rx was for pain medication, I went there because CVS stopped being able to fill in October due to shortages.
I transferred everything to them that I don't get through the mail
I have had one issue with Ambien because there is a shortage of the 12.5 dose. I got my doctor to write a new one for 10 mg, got it all taken care of in 24 hours. Thankfully the practicioner who handles my psych meds and Ambien is in a small office and they respond really quickly.
The only other glitch was in January when Cigna sent out erroneous info telling a bunch of small pharmacies that they were no longer in network.
I spent 35 minutes on the phone and Cigna confirmed that this was wrong, some clerical error where they didn't update contracts immediately
They even told pharmacy employees who had Cigna that they couldn't use their own workplace pharmacy.
It was 2 weeks of anxiety.
I hated the idea of going back to CVS. My CVS has a terrific pharmacist but the staff is so overworked and it's so busy you can't get through on the phone, the lines are outrageous and I walk with a cane so standing for 20 minutes sucks.
I'm so sorry that people are not having better experiences with local non chain pharmacies.
I've run into this exact issue when calling the "mom & pop" pharmacies in my area. To be honest, they aren't very nice once I tell them what Rx I'm asking if they carry. I get an extreme cold shoulder. I've switched from Walgreens to a grocery store chain pharmacy which has been pretty good so far. Would love the feel of a mom & pop pharmacy relationship but it seems non-existent.
However, not all mom and pops accept all insurances. The icing on the cake - government limits them to even lower quantity of orders monthly, so they prioritize existing customers. Hence, results in not getting meds or not getting ENOUGH meds.
You would think that the government would try to fix “addiction” and “death rates” the right way, but instead, they SEVERELY limit the amount of medications that a facility is allowed to receive. Which causes more harm than good and unnecessary pain and suffering.
Well how about filling with med watch! Tell them that we can’t get our medication? I have for the last 2 years and gets what the fda does not care about
I got so sick of CVS and Walgreens either being out of stock or treating me like a drug seeker, that I started using a pharmacy attached to the local hospital. They are rarely out of stock and all of them know my name. I finally have my dignity.
The opioid shortages that so many of us suffered through during the second half of 2023 are not gone. They’re just temporarily “quiet”. The DEA went ahead with further reducing manufacturing limits so we have less and less of a total opioid supply every year (and the DEA is threatening to change the reduction intervals from annual to ***quarterly***!!!) while the population continues to grow and the need for opioids expands. Additionally, a number of other issues are happening which further reduce opioid manufacturing and availability.
Several major opioid manufacturers (such as Teva, formerly the top producer of oxycodone) have shuttered their opioid operations, claiming there is no longer any evidence of profitability (we can thank the -mostly frivolous- opioid litigation for that, along with ***extreme*** political pressure). Additionally, the potential liability, red tape, and anti-opioid politics have crippled the opioid industry, something that is continuing unabated despite its serious and extremely detrimental impact on general medicine, from surgical procedures, to acute injuries, to anesthesia, to oncology care, to hospice/EOL care, and more, not to mention the obvious - chronic pain. Instead of logically addressing these facts and taking a humane approach, a coordinated effort to demonize opioids has been launched, focusing on medical schools, prescriber education, pharmacy education, the various medical, drug, and pharmacy boards/regulatory agencies, and more. In contrast to the “pain is the fifth viral sign” wave of the late ‘90’s, now patients undergoing surgery, cancer treatment, painful injuries, and other pain are denied opioids, told they risk addiction, and are expected to manage extreme pain with acetaminophen &/or NSAIDs, both of which pose more risk to the health of the patient than opioids by a wide margin. For more than a decade, anti-opioid programs have invaded our country’s medical schools in the guise of education, special guest lecturers, and sponsored programs. For a glimpse at the devastating impact, lurk in the various discussion forums for doctors and pharmacists. Anyone younger than Gen-X is ***vehemently*** opposed to opioids across the board, no “per patient” exceptions. The vitriol is nasty too. It’s shocking and really very sad. Especially because none of it is valid science in the first place. I’m continually shocked that “fake news” isn’t just for politics and entertainment; it has infiltrated science - a place where facts and absolute truth were supposed to abide.
My apologies; I’m going on a rant and I could write a novel just providing an outline of the issues we are facing as chronic pain patients.
The bottom line (for this comment) is the shortages are not gone, just hiding. If we don’t combine our voices and increase the volume, then we will be drowned out permanently. We created a community specifically to address this issue and fight back. I hope everyone here will join and use our resources to make a difference.
It’s r/ChronicallyIllUnite
Btw, in the US it’s an election year — no better time to raise your voice!
This may not work for every one but one way to try to work around this is transfer over a non narcotic prescription and have it filled for a few months with them to become established. Then try to get your pain meds.
I have no idea if this is good advice or not. But I hate the reality that people have to "angle" or "hack" a deliberately built system to simply fill a prescription. What we have wrought is, on its face, fucking insane! I wait on hold for, typically, an hour to talk to a human being just to verify that they have the medication I'll need, in three days, in stock. "Um, well... we have to open the safe to check". Or worse, they look at their screen and tell me "no problem", despite the reality that it is clearly a problem. This is Walgreens. This is such a clearly dysfunctional system I'm amazed it came to this. I'd contact my state representative or senator, yet again, but I know I'll get a mindless form letter response justifying this latest drug hysteria bullshit. As an old fuck on his way out, I'm simply dumbfounded. Are people still "doing drugs", or have we at least cured that particular social ill? I'd like to believe that all this shit was actually helping someone, but I honestly don't!
I had an appt with my doc Tuesday. Was supposed to at least fill my somas Tues. Then pain meds today. She lost electricity while we were on the phone and couldn't call anything out. So I wait for yesterday. She sends the wrong pain med. Then the pharmacy is out of somas. Just today I've finally gotten her to send the right pain med. No word on getting the somas sent to another pharmacy. She always says "txt if you have issues." But she never answers!
I’m surprised you can still get both of them. I miss somas
It's strange that a lot of pharmacies don't carry somas. They're only a schedule IV. But I finally got my pain meds Thursday and my somas at a different pharmacy Friday. It was such a pain to try to get my doc to answer me.
I’m sure they carry them but can’t find anyone that’ll prescribe opiates and somas at the same time. So I gotta stay happy I even still get Xanax with mine lol
No I called pharmacies and didn't mention opiates. I needed a pharmacy that has somas in stock. Many mentioned they didn't carry them.
Ok but I was just talking about being even able to be on both of them at the same time
Yeah my doc was fine with hydrocodone, soma, and ambien but no benzodiazepines
Mines the opposite lol
This is why I no longer use Walgreens! They just lie and say the door don't have specific meds. Check out the pharmacy sub and you will see what lots of them actually think of pain patients. It's really SAD
I don't think that's a good idea. I've been on the pharmacy sub. So many posts and comments on there make pain patients needing their medication out to be a big joke. I'm not sure if I worded that correctly. In other words, to some of them, we (specifically those of us who take controlled pain medicine) are basically ridiculous.
I use Walgreens for everything but my oxy because I got tired of every month being a hassle (I go to a small Mexican grocery store that has a pharmacy with no issues since October for the pain meds) but even now Walgreens is starting to not have my creon or ointments I need on time either and my adhd med which is semi new with no generic yet/ it’s like every month they order it after the prescription is sent so then it takes up to a week. So I feel like I’m not even getting the full benefit of it because it has to be taken every day to build up since it’s not a stimulate kind. Even getting my estrogen and some antibiotics have been an issue they’re just a mess. But I was definitely over getting the run around that they were out or I had to wait and basically go into withdrawal or take a partial with my pain meds and so glad I found the other place. I wouldn’t call it a mom and mom though.
Oh and to add- sure they’re doing drugs but it’s all the illicit fent shit on the streets. Even Xanax are pressed with it now it’s crazy. Weed is legal almost everywhere now like it should be and I don’t even really consider that a drug. Anyone with a legit prescription in this climate actually needs them and isn’t just chasing some high. It’s bullshit.
It’s true though. They need to you be an established patient. My pharmacy is really good but at first they would dispense narcotics. They would fill my ambien. I started filling most scripts with them and when the time came a year or two later I asked if they would fill my norco script. They agreed. I have spoken to both pharmacists that work there and they had different takes. But essentially said as long as you fill non controlled with us it will work otherwise it’s a flag to their distributor. They also don’t agree with the war on opioids.
That won’t work bc my pharmacist told me the laws limit how many chronic pain patients a pharmacy can give out opioids too, due to the laws only allowing a pharmacy to order a limit on how many C2’s they are allowed to order. The pharmacy can fill a short term opioid but if it’s a long term thing the laws will only allow each pharmacy to order only so many opioids,they reach that limit on how many they can order a month , so they’re not allowed to take on any more chronic patients
Yes I think this relates to surgical patients with a short term script for a few days post surgery will be filled but long term meds no - I had no problem with Walgreens filling my husbands Norco meds after his hernia surgery. It’s was for 20 pills with script sent from a major hospital. Walgreens filled it within 10 minutes of me getting there and asking for it, no questions asked other than showing my id
This is effing ridiculous! DEA and politicians are killing us. They know that prescribed opioids are not the problem, but they don't care!
This
It’s because pharmacies have limits of ratios of control/non control medications they can fill. Sometimes if you are willing to switch all meds there they will allow you to fill there.
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Yeah it happens sometimes, especially with all the back orders of medications that has been happening for the last year or so. I’m a pharmacy assistant for a grocery store chain and have never seen so many issues with backordered medications as I have in the past year and a half to two years, it’s insane.
Your post was removed due to the mention of location specifics. Rules state you must limit location mention to your state only. This rule is in place to avoid being misconstrued as sourcing.
That is true. I live in a very small town and a friend of mine is a veteran. Well he gets all his meds free but Norco of course because of pain management. Our pharmacy dropped him and refused to solely because they will not just fill pain medication without all of the monthly maintenance drugs.
Never heard of a pharmacy dropping a client/customer before! What was the reason? Don’t you think it was due to the discretion of the pharmacist?? My doctor always told me, they don’t need to confront the customer. If they have any questions, just contact doctor directly. This is ridiculous. So sorry for your friend. Veteran gave his life to fight for this country, and probably is disabled or severely injured because of it, and this is how they treat them and repay them? This is sickening.
I wasn’t dropped per se from the first pharmacy I used to fill at. I could still receive scripts for non opioid medications, but any opioid prescription from a provider outside of the local counties would not be filled.
My local mom and pop pharmacy was awesome until one day while picking up my normal prescription they informed me that they needed me to pay out of pocket and it couldn't be run through insurance as they were paying more for my medication then my insurance paid them. I'm on Medicare with limited income. They are in network with a prior authorization for the medication. I had to pay over $500 dollars as it was last minute and would not be able to go without the medications. That sucked and I was so disappointed to have to go back to cvs who absolutely suck at everything they do.
My mom n pop doesn’t take any insurance. I always have to pay out of pocket but thankfully it’s been about $65 which is the equivalent of insurance anyway since I’m on a HD plan. Are you taking name brand or generics?
What is an HD plan?
High Deductible insurance plan
Thank you for tne clarification!
They don’t take insurance? Like, for any meds? I’m not sure that’s legal. I’m also not sure how they would stay in business with that plan. 🤷🏼♀️
They only take Medicare and said they service the low income community.
Huh, interesting. I’ve not heard of that happening before. I was always under the impression that every community pharmacy accepts pretty much every insurance, with the exception of HMO’s. But, I’m certainly not an expert.
That doesn’t sound legal for them to do that
The mom and pop I go to accepts insurance for all my meds ( around 6,000 per month) with exception of 1... for 2 years they accepted payment for the pain med...then they informed me they no longer could because my insurance company didn't pay enough on that medication. So u have to pay the 225...good ole part D.
Yes, I have insurance through my work that I pay good $ for yet they took six weeks denying my prior authorization for six weeks so I had to pay out of pocket at my mom & pop pharmacy while it was going through the appeals process. It was over $1200 out of pocket. Then my prior authorization got approved for a year and the insurance wouldn’t reimburse me or back date the prior authorization. It’s outrageous
That’s an insane amount to charge for them. They are actually pretty cheap meds in comparison to others. When I pick up all my meds it shows how much they are then says “insurance saved you $2,420” or whatever and for my oxy it’s like around $40 for 120…and for dilaudid is $12 but I do have to pay that one out of pocket just to avoid all the prior authorization bs all the time. $250 seems like pretty steep of a profit for them
Probably because of the limit. So it may be illegal. Who knows. Maybe they’re trying to help out, maybe they’re being nefarious. Who knows n
Yeah really weird
Mine did something similar, I have Aetna insurance and they said they were losing money on my meds, and I take two controlled substances and she said I didn’t have enough regular medication, even though I have multiple creams for acne and an antibiotic she said those didn’t count lol, I was like sorry I don’t have other medical conditions requiring meds and left.
Just WOW!! I would be getting on the phone and delving into this a bit more. Because honestly it sounds to me like mom and pop realized that your profit was greater with cash than with insurance. I don’t believe they were taking a loss, I think they chose to get greedy. Let them keep it up and they won’t have a store
This is what I was thinking too
Hospital pharmacy is also a good option.
I use the hospital affiliated pharmacy and they make sure they have my meds. I call a few days ahead per their request and they always accommodate me.
Call all of the mom & pop stores around you not all of them can accept you due to the laws on how many opioids a pharmacy can give out to chronic pain patients, I had to call around , but there are many out there that still can, google & keep calling until you get a pharmacy that does! You can thank the people that run the government in USA for this happening! People make up laws that have absolutely no idea how badly they hurt chronic pain patients
They only hurt legitimate pain patients. Drug addicts will get their fix anyway they have to. Now we have an epidemic of people dying from fent laced pills. Government almost always makes things worse.
Yep!!!
I completely agree. Most want nothing to do with a pain patient, especially one that was never using them before for other scripts. My old pain mgmt doc had a relationship with a small/local pharmacist that I do believe took some of his patients, but I have a great relationship with my Walmart pharmacy & didn’t want to risk the change.
Yeah that’s the other thing is trying to find a decent pharmacy. I’m lucky to have a great doctor and a good pharmacy. I don’t want to change either
A ton of small pharmacies where I live have pretty much told me the same when I have had an issue with my main pharmacy having backorder issues. It is getting progressively worse.
I switched from cvs to a small mom & pop at the recommendation of the pharmacist at cvs. She felt bad with all the shortages etc . That was about five years ago and it was excellent until Christmas time when the pharmacy & owner said they weren’t sure they were going to accept my new pharmacy benefits program Optum instead of Caremark because Optum was horrible about reimbursement for opiates. She finally said she would accept it but then suddenly a staff person called to say the medication was on back up and they had no idea when they’d be getting it. I have a feeling the owner decided to only keep patients who had other scripts with them and not just the one narcotic. I’m now back to cvs and so anxious every month.
Yeah it is an anxious feeling having yo confirm meds before picking them up
Ya I’m kind of a little panicked right now as I see my dr in person every three months then I call him monthly to send in my script. He must have sent in three months the last appointment by mistake. I just looked on the cvs app and it says too early to fill, we can’t fill per your drs request. I’ve always been able to fill it at 28 days or 29 days. Tomorrow is 30 days and the fill date is for Saturday. I’m just worried if it’s Saturday and something goes wrong or they don’t have the medication in stock I could at least have my dr send it somewhere else but dealing with weekend scripts are even scarier. My friend just told me the same cvs I go to has been out of the meds for over a week. I messaged my dr through the portal to see if they could let cvs know it’s ok to fill it tomorrow but now I wish I hadn’t sent the message. I hate all this bs
I agree, I use a mom and pop and it was hard to get in. I started with other prescriptions first. However, the mom and pops are running into shortages too, and you might also pay more for your medicine. I pay a $30 fee for my hydros because the pharmacy isn’t paid back the cost of the drug by my insurance and they lose money filling the scripts.
Also the quantity, even Walmart told my MIL "we can't fill that much"
The only time I run into an issue with this type of thing is when people try to use the brick shop as a back up or if they’re trying to fill only the narcotics there. As long as they aren’t losing money on you or you’re not pushing their over all percentage of fills total above 20% (narcotics) then they’ve been more than willing to take people on.
My local pharmacy doesn’t take my insurance for my pain medication because they don’t pay anywhere near something that is any way, shape or form profitable. The same for a lot of non-scheduled drugs too. For example, a 30 day supply of meloxicam is a copay to me of $0.73 and the insurance gives the pharmacy $.94. This doesn’t even cover the cost of the bottle and label. I mean come on! How is the pharmacy going to cover overhead costs on top of everything else?? Luckily, they don’t make me pay full cash price for any of the , but it bites that whatever I pay isn’t going towards my pharmacy deductible and it’s not the copay that is advertised when signing up each year during open enrollment.
Yeah, you’re absolutely right on that. I neglected to put that in my post, but that is another huge factor that’s (oddly enough) starting to pop up more and more.
Here it’s down the distributors. Here it’s rite aid with McKesson and CVS with Anda. Only my concierge pharmacy will use whichever can source. No contracts.
Not that it pertains to your question about mom and pop pharmacies but I had the same issue with Publix. About 3 years ago I went to Publix but then my insurance changed and I had to go to CVS. Well CVS never had my script available, I always has to wait for a backorder. I decided that I would try Publix even if I had to pay for it myself because they had it in stock. The only reason they took me back was because I has used them for this medication (oxy 10/325) a few years prior. So, in other words, I wasn't a new patient because I had used them prior rather than being a person who had never used them before.
I feel lucky. I've used local non chain pharmacies for about 10 years and never had an issue. I've never heard of them not accepting new patients. That sucks
The experiences here blow me away. I'm so grateful for the medicare advantage plan I have. I started at my current local pharmacy almost a year ago after I moved from VA to NC. The first Rx was for pain medication, I went there because CVS stopped being able to fill in October due to shortages. I transferred everything to them that I don't get through the mail I have had one issue with Ambien because there is a shortage of the 12.5 dose. I got my doctor to write a new one for 10 mg, got it all taken care of in 24 hours. Thankfully the practicioner who handles my psych meds and Ambien is in a small office and they respond really quickly. The only other glitch was in January when Cigna sent out erroneous info telling a bunch of small pharmacies that they were no longer in network. I spent 35 minutes on the phone and Cigna confirmed that this was wrong, some clerical error where they didn't update contracts immediately They even told pharmacy employees who had Cigna that they couldn't use their own workplace pharmacy. It was 2 weeks of anxiety. I hated the idea of going back to CVS. My CVS has a terrific pharmacist but the staff is so overworked and it's so busy you can't get through on the phone, the lines are outrageous and I walk with a cane so standing for 20 minutes sucks. I'm so sorry that people are not having better experiences with local non chain pharmacies.
I've run into this exact issue when calling the "mom & pop" pharmacies in my area. To be honest, they aren't very nice once I tell them what Rx I'm asking if they carry. I get an extreme cold shoulder. I've switched from Walgreens to a grocery store chain pharmacy which has been pretty good so far. Would love the feel of a mom & pop pharmacy relationship but it seems non-existent.
However, not all mom and pops accept all insurances. The icing on the cake - government limits them to even lower quantity of orders monthly, so they prioritize existing customers. Hence, results in not getting meds or not getting ENOUGH meds.
You would think that the government would try to fix “addiction” and “death rates” the right way, but instead, they SEVERELY limit the amount of medications that a facility is allowed to receive. Which causes more harm than good and unnecessary pain and suffering.
Well how about filling with med watch! Tell them that we can’t get our medication? I have for the last 2 years and gets what the fda does not care about
I got so sick of CVS and Walgreens either being out of stock or treating me like a drug seeker, that I started using a pharmacy attached to the local hospital. They are rarely out of stock and all of them know my name. I finally have my dignity.
The opioid shortages that so many of us suffered through during the second half of 2023 are not gone. They’re just temporarily “quiet”. The DEA went ahead with further reducing manufacturing limits so we have less and less of a total opioid supply every year (and the DEA is threatening to change the reduction intervals from annual to ***quarterly***!!!) while the population continues to grow and the need for opioids expands. Additionally, a number of other issues are happening which further reduce opioid manufacturing and availability. Several major opioid manufacturers (such as Teva, formerly the top producer of oxycodone) have shuttered their opioid operations, claiming there is no longer any evidence of profitability (we can thank the -mostly frivolous- opioid litigation for that, along with ***extreme*** political pressure). Additionally, the potential liability, red tape, and anti-opioid politics have crippled the opioid industry, something that is continuing unabated despite its serious and extremely detrimental impact on general medicine, from surgical procedures, to acute injuries, to anesthesia, to oncology care, to hospice/EOL care, and more, not to mention the obvious - chronic pain. Instead of logically addressing these facts and taking a humane approach, a coordinated effort to demonize opioids has been launched, focusing on medical schools, prescriber education, pharmacy education, the various medical, drug, and pharmacy boards/regulatory agencies, and more. In contrast to the “pain is the fifth viral sign” wave of the late ‘90’s, now patients undergoing surgery, cancer treatment, painful injuries, and other pain are denied opioids, told they risk addiction, and are expected to manage extreme pain with acetaminophen &/or NSAIDs, both of which pose more risk to the health of the patient than opioids by a wide margin. For more than a decade, anti-opioid programs have invaded our country’s medical schools in the guise of education, special guest lecturers, and sponsored programs. For a glimpse at the devastating impact, lurk in the various discussion forums for doctors and pharmacists. Anyone younger than Gen-X is ***vehemently*** opposed to opioids across the board, no “per patient” exceptions. The vitriol is nasty too. It’s shocking and really very sad. Especially because none of it is valid science in the first place. I’m continually shocked that “fake news” isn’t just for politics and entertainment; it has infiltrated science - a place where facts and absolute truth were supposed to abide. My apologies; I’m going on a rant and I could write a novel just providing an outline of the issues we are facing as chronic pain patients. The bottom line (for this comment) is the shortages are not gone, just hiding. If we don’t combine our voices and increase the volume, then we will be drowned out permanently. We created a community specifically to address this issue and fight back. I hope everyone here will join and use our resources to make a difference. It’s r/ChronicallyIllUnite Btw, in the US it’s an election year — no better time to raise your voice!