If you are a healthcare patient, you are not alone in that exam room with your doctor. The insurance company is in there with you. If you are a chronic pain patient, the room is kinda crowded. besides you, your doctor and the insurance, law enforcement and politicians may be on the other side of the curtain.
Once I moved to New Orleans from Chicago, I was shocked to learn that my pain would no longer be treated with the pain medication I had been taking for nearly a decade. I was put through a Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Boot Camp. I'm feeling very strong, healthy and my pain and fatigue have decreased. But, for how long? Once I stop exercising I know Fibromyalgia will return with a vengeance.
It turns out the no opioid prescriptions, even with an opioid compliance contract, is not a Louisiana policy or law, it is the policy of the three major health care systems in the state. I don't think someone who has never treated a patient should be able to supersede the professional opinion of the physician who does, especially if the physician and patient are adhering to an opioid pain management contract.
Add to the hospital policy is the policy of at least one pharmacy, CVS will not fill a 30-day script for opioids, they will only fill a 7-day supply. They state this policy is formulated based on Federal and State laws, rules and regulations concerning dispensing opioids. The CVS pharmacist informed me that the company believes this will help patients monitor their opioid use and discourage overdosing. I don't think this company decision is as altruistic as they are attempting to present it. For
the chronic pain patient who needs a 30 day supply and is now forced to get 4 seven-day refills a month, will his/her copay be divided by 4, or, will it be multiplied by 4? Example, with insurance a 30-day copay is let's say $10. Under this corporate induced hardship, will the patient now pay $2.50 a week, or, $40 a month?
One more thought, is CVS imposing this "as a corporation, we know better than your doctor" policy because as a corporation it truly does know better or because the company is being sued over the issue of the number of opioid prescriptions it fills?
Comments