Controlled substance prescriptions

[MRG]

I've always thought that schedule 2 controlled substances require you(or your delagate) to physically pick up the prescription at the DRs. office and take them to the pharmacy. I can understand that given the addictive nature of this class of meds.

I sometimes take a schedule 4 controlled substance and my DR. had just called in or electronically submitted the prescription. Yesterday I get a phone call from his nurse saying my prescription is ready and all prescriptions for any controlled substance, schedule 2-5 (this includes cough syrup with codeine), are now required to be picked up at the DRs. office and carried to the pharmacy. She said it was the group that owns the practice new policy.

Sure enough when I get there they have a new bigger file folder for controlled substance prescriptions. I have to give my id and sign that it's me that picked up the prescription. Then drive to the pharmacy to hand it to them. In the age of EMR and rising health care costs, this seems like a giant leap backwards, and a PIA.

I can ask my DR. what's the deal, but I know how much he dislikes the new group that runs the practice. I'm guessing the owner's think there's less liability for them somehow.

Is this the new age of reducing costs? Anybody had this happen?

 

[aaronc879]

Must be just for your Doctor. A family member has taken large amounts of prescription morphine for a couple decades and always picks it up from the pharmacy not the doctors office.

 

[ERhoosier]

Understandable policy changes considering the big rise in prescription narcotic overdose deaths (and sales!) over recent years. They are now responsible for more deaths in US than heroin and cocaine COMBINED.

CDC - Prescription Painkiller Overdoses Policy Impact Brief - Home and Recreational Safety - Injury Center

 

[NW-Bound]

I was prescribed Oxycodone after surgeries. My wife picked up for me at Walgreens. She had to provide her driver license.

By the way, I really do not understand how people get addicted to these drugs. Oxycodone numbs the pain for me, but gives no euphoria whatsoever. For the first few days in the hospital, I was given a stronger drug intravenously. Same thing.

However, another drug I was given in an attempt to control unstoppable hiccups (tiring and painful!) gave me such a drowsiness and near paralysis as side effects, yet did nothing for the hiccup. I told my surgeon that the FDA should have banned it.

 

[W2R]

I was prescribed Hydrocodone after my dental implant surgery last year. I think that is in this category, maybe? Honestly I don't know.

I protested that I wouldn't need it, but my oral surgeon insisted that I MUST pick it up on the way home after that outpatient surgery and take one immediately. I did, but did not need it or any more after that.

CVS had no problem in filling that prescription and charged me about a buck for it. Here, the doctors and surgeons submit their prescriptions via the internet. I suppose there is some sort of digital signature.

 

[calmloki]

I was prescribed Hydrocodone after my dental implant surgery last year. I think that is in this category, maybe? Honestly I don't know.

I protested that I wouldn't need it, but my oral surgeon insisted that I MUST pick it up on the way home after that outpatient surgery and take one immediately. I did, but did not need it or any more after that.

CVS had no problem in filling that prescription and charged me about a buck for it. Here, the doctors and surgeons submit their prescriptions via the internet. I suppose there is some sort of digital signature.

Ditto on the implant hyrdocodone. One and done. Also agree with NW-Bound on the Oxy effects based on prior use - still hurts but I just didn't have the energy to care or whine as much. That's better? For others? No attraction for me.

 

[eytonxav]

I suspect this may have more to do with state law vs any preference of the practice to change policy

 

[NW-Bound]

I recently watched the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, then read the memoir this movie was based on. The author and his friends binged on prescription drugs to the point of paralysis.

As mentioned earlier, that drug that they gave me in the hospital for hiccups was so bad that I would not want to go through it again. I do not understand how people like to be in that state.

 

[brewer12345]

I was prescribed Oxycodone after surgeries. My wife picked up for me at Walgreens. She had to provide her driver license.

By the way, I really do not understand how people get addicted to these drugs. Oxycodone numbs the pain for me, but gives no euphoria whatsoever. For the first few days in the hospital, I was given a stronger drug intravenously. Same thing.

However, another drug I was given in an attempt to control unstoppable hiccups (tiring and painful!) gave me such a drowsiness and near paralysis as side effects, yet did nothing for the hiccup. I told my surgeon that the FDA should have banned it.

Different drugs affect different people in different ways. After some oral surgery early this year, I was very, very glad to have some hydrocodone for a couple days afterwards. I think in the case of oxy the junkies crush it and snort it. No doubt google could satisfy your curiosity, but have a funny feeling I do not want to know.

 

[growing_older]

I was prescribed Oxycodone after surgeries. My wife picked up for me at Walgreens. She had to provide her driver license.

I had a similar post surgery prescription. The doctor's office would not release the prescription until AFTER the surgery, and the pharmacy required the script be hand delivered to them and picked up by the person it was prescribed for (with id). Needless to say I was in no condition to drive, so a friend had to not only go to the pharmacy, but drag me with them. Maybe it's a state rule, or just doctor policy. I was sufficiently out of it after surgery, I just did what they told me to.

 

[Meadbh]

These drugs are very effective painkillers. They are also highly addictive. A recent Canadian study showed that they are responsible for 1 in 8 deaths in young people. I strongly support restricting their use.

OxyContin and other opioids tied to 1 in 8 deaths in young adults, Ontario study shows - Health - CBC News

 

[Mo Money]

In my profession (lawyer) I have had first-hand encounters with those who are dealing with legal troubles arising from addiction and access to Schedule 2 substances. And those troubles are far-reaching, and ultimately appear to have caused a lapse in precautions that were simply devastating. (Sorry to be vague, but I can't be more specific for professional reasons.) I think that it's probably a pain in the butt to pick up the scrip physically, but it's also within the realm of reasonableness given what addicts, their addict buddies (and those who can make money from addicts' dependency) will do to circumvent regulatory controls at almost any human cost to support the habit or to make some money from others' addiction. The regulators in the states I am dealing with are getting increasingly harsh. On the one hand, they are each a giant state bureaucracy that is mind-numbingly draconian and slow and inefficient and expensive to deal with. On the other hand, these bureaucracies are taking what (inefficient) weapons they have, and are wielding them furiously against the actual and perceived wrongdoers. That's a long, lawyerly way of saying: "God, what a mess." Sorry for the rambling rant, but gosh it's tragic, inefficient, and has a bunch of sick/greedy addicts at heart of the problem. So pick up your scrips in person, and please be careful to use them sparingly.

 

[growing_older]

I think that it's probably a pain in the butt to pick up the scrip physically, but it's also within the realm of reasonableness

Sounds good in theory, but doesn't always work in practice and there should be more room for accommodations. Immediate post surgery I had 4 hours to pick up a prescription, while at the same time being under doctors orders to bed rest. I had to haul myself to the pharmacy (on crutches) still half zoned out from the anesthesia. I got it done, but it was a mindlessly stupid requirement and could have been dangerous.