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I am totally disabled and on Medicaid. My physician prescribes Percocet for pain control of colitis. He issues me a prescription for a 30-day supply every 30 days. On February 25, 2013, I submitted my prescription for Percocet to the above referenced Walgreens Pharmacy. The date on the label shows the prescription was filled on February 25, 2013. Their website shows the prescription was not filled until February 26, 2013.

On March 25, 2013, I submitted a prescription for Percocet to the same pharmacy. The representative stated that the prescription could not be filled until April 1, 2013, because I had not picked up the previous prescription for Percocet until March 1, 2013. In response, I stated, "You are going by the pickup date of March 1, 2013, versus the dispensing date of February 25, 2013." The representative responded, "Yes."

Questioning Walgreens' use of the pickup date, on the morning of March 26, 2013, I called Medicaid and spoke to a representative by the name of Dawn. She ran a trial claim for a prescription of Percocet, and she said that it was accepted and approved. I explained to Dawn that Walgreens was using the pickup date versus the dispensing date. She stated to call Walgreens Pharmacy and asked when the prescription for Percocet could be filled. Immediately I called the same Walgreens Pharmacy. I asked the representative by the name of Maryann when my prescription for Percocet could be filled. She pulled up my profile and stated it could not be filled until April 1, 2013, because I had not picked up the previous prescription for Percocet until March 1, 2013. I questioned her about using the pickup date. She stated that it was the law to use the pickup date, and she could do nothing about it.

In response, I told her it was not the law because I had just spoken to Medicaid, and they ran a trial claim for the Percocet using March 26, 2013, as the date of dispensing, and it was accepted and approved. I told her it was Walgreens Pharmacy policy to use the pickup date and not the law. Today, March 29, 2013, I submitted the same prescription for Percocet at a Walmart Pharmacy. They filled the prescription, and Medicaid accepted and approved it on their computer system. This clearly substantiated that Walgreens Pharmacy has created their own policy to use the pickup date versus the dispensing date. It is Walgreens Pharmacy's dirty little tactic to delay filling prescriptions.

As I am disabled, I am not always able to pick up my prescriptions on the same day I drop off the prescription at a pharmacy. I do not drive, and I have a caregiver drive me to the pharmacy. Furthermore, I schedule my appointments with my primary physician based on the dispensing date of Percocet and not the pickup date. The bottom line: A person could run out of his prescription because Walgreens Pharmacy is using the pickup date versus the dispensing date for Percocet.

Furthermore, Medicaid uses the dispensing date and not the pickup date for billing. The pharmacy is required to use the dispensing date and not the billing date in submitting a claim for reimbursement of the cost of the prescription. Therefore, I question the legality of Walgreens using the pickup date and falsely telling a customer the prescription cannot be filled based in the pickup date instead of the billing date.

Monetary Loss: $50.

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

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Guest

RE: Previous Post To be clear, my husband wen to pick up another Rx on the date it was filled, and Walgreen’s mistakenly gave him BOTH prescriptions...there was never an intent to deceive, and when I realized a mistake had been made, I contacted my insurance carrier.

Guest

Walgreens released a CII Rx 2 days before the DNFB Date, and when questioned they blamed my insurance, and said the insurance was to blame for approving it!!

Guest

We have to file a disability discrimination complaint with the state, then the federal agencies. That is what I intend to do.

Guest

The same thing happened to me tonight at Walgreens and mine wasn't even a narcotic. It's a sleep aide.

I was out of town for 2 weeks and my mom takes the same medicine I do. So she loaned me a weeks worth that I have to pay her back with mine when I pick it up. Well, the script was filled on 10/20/15 and because of what I stated above-- it was not picked up until 10/27/15. Even though the bottle has a date of 10/20/15...

She said the pharmacy manager (who is convienently out of town for a week said I could fill until 10/27/15. After arguing with the associate for 15 minutes and finally stating "it is against the law for you NOT to give me my script AND my doctor decides the fill date--- not YOU!!!"

I will never use Walgreens again.

They overstep the line on what their job is and always try to play doctor! Ugh!

Guest

if u didnt pick up till the 1st u shouldnt need another 30 day supply till 30 days later. its not to delay ur fill. its to help prevent abuse and sales of prescriotion narcotics!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-992007

Hopefully, these issues will happen to your self-righteous person. I've been on both sides of the argument on pain meds.

I have Medicare Complete & not Medicaid. I worked as a Fla St Corrections Officer(keeping criminals away from you) & went as long as I could @ 10 years with two ruptured discs(calcified), spinal stenosis & beginning Arachnoiditis(in 2006). I had a two-level spinal fusion(@31) which I had to learn to walk again as what was left of one disc "exploded" and sent fragments into the spinal area. I used a damn walker for three months & finally tied my shoes in six.

And today, a third fusion is in my near future as the degeneration is accelerating & the disc above the fusion site is fissuring. The Thecal Sac(covering of the spine) is also protruding at the fusion site. This is all due to the load bearing in the spinal column not being spread out amongst healthy discs & vertebrae. I'm barely into my 40's & this is my future.

I'll soon be the "Fusion Man" & it sucks some repugnant ***.

I lost my career & way of life and now I'm on SS Disability that really *** me off. I took 90mg of MS Contin per day for over 7 years & requested to have it dropped to Percocet in Feb. 2017 & finally to Lortab in Sept.

2017. That's pretty impressive for anyone who's been in my situation. I can go much stronger but I chose the different path.

YOU have much to learn & should stop listening to the uneducated opinions of *** who have been blessed w/ good health.

Some of us are legitimate & are tougher than your minuscule mind can comprehend. Oh, I also served in the US Army. The doctors who prescribe this stuff for money or whatever are the individuals who you should be angry. Punish their *** and not those with legitimate issues.

And as far as this refill only in relation to the actual pick-up date is not a law. The billing is on the date filled and not pick-up. That's when the count should begin. Oh, and not all Walgreens follow this apparent store policy.

My last store before I moved did not ever employ this absurdity. Isn't that odd? And here's an answer to your imbecilic inquiry, I will, from time-to-time lower & then remove the pain meds in my system to avoid any established tolerance. At which time, my BP will rise to very dangerous levels from the pain being uncontrolled.

Another reason why I take these meds is so I don't have a stroke(even w/ three BP meds). Yes, it can do that if it's intense enough as I've been to the ER and received two Nitro patches & other meds which lowered it to 140/90. This is something you must do. And, I always will have some kept back if a situation arises like my doctor walking out of his medical group & resigning.

I am not obese & have always been very physical w/ no smoking & occasional alcohol. At one time, down to 6% body fat.

You see, there are so many issues that one encounters in this predicament. But, attitudes of the ignorant public shouldn't be one.

Guest

It begs the question... What medication are you taking between the dispensing date and the pick-up date?

Guest

I just had the same experience with Walgreens. I was three days late picking up in April, so they made me wait until Friday, 32 days after the last fill date, to pick up this month.

But they get around any official problem by putting a false date on the bottle. Mine says May 5, the day I dropped the Rx off, instead of May 9, when I picked up.

Pharmacy staff assumes their policy is fair because the Rx "should last 30 days." But if an elderly person has trouble picking up and is late most months waiting for rides, that person could end up with only 11 fills in a year and only 330 pills instead of 12 fills for 360. Even 12 fills would leave a person short 5 days.

This policy is punitive and some staff members are judgmental that we are all drug seekers who take every pill we get right away.

No doctor who follows good pain-management practices wants patients living from pickup to pickup with barely enough pills. We are supposed to try to have a few reserves in case of emergencies. This is difficult to do, but if we can pick up maybe a day early, we might be able to do this without living with pain. I have gone without or taken just half occasionally in order to put away a pill or two.

I have sometimes put a few in my safe deposit box right after pickup in order to do this and if I run out before pickup, I just either go without or take reserves thinking I'll put them back after pickup.

That's what I meant to do in April because I didn't know about this policy until I dropped off this month, so I lost those reserves. The counter person didn't explain, just kept on saying I couldn't pick up until May 9 and wasn't friendly either. If Walgreens is going to start a policy different from the law, they should tell chronic-pain customers ahead of time so this won't happen to them. This reflects an uncaring attitude toward chronic-pain patients.

I have hearing loss besides nerve damage so can't take blood pressure meds -- they can damage hearing.

My BP goes way up with pain, so I shouldn't go without, but feel I must to have reserves. We don't all just take every pill we get, as some of the staff comments assume. What is unfair about this is that once you're late, you are stuck with late dates every month after that.

God help you if you're late twice in a row or more -- you could end up short on meds after a while and spend quite a few days in unrelieved pain as a punishment for late pickups.

Someone actually thinks this is fair? :upset

Mayur Fzh

This has it be illegal. Medicaid is paying Walgreens three days earlier, though they know the product won't be provided for another few days.

So they are getting government money and earning interest on gov.

$ frauduently and knowingly for the extra days. Multiply that with all the other RX they do it for and you are talking some real bucks stolen.

Mayur Fzh

THEY NEED TO CLEARLY ADVERTISE THE PICK UP POLICY RATHER THAN ABUSE THE CUSTOMER WHO DOESN"T KNOW!

If Walgreens choses to go by the pick up date they should advertise that AND put it somewhere on the bottle so the date is clear. When you are a person with disabilities and have several RX you plan the day to run errands & pick things up.

If you can get all your RX picked up at the same time it saves gas & $. Abusing me for looking at the date on the bottle from the month earlier and assuming that was correct says way too much about how you value your customers...YOU CONTROL THE DRUGS< YOU ARE THE PUSHER why treat me poorly for using your service. (Even giving coupons for changing to you!) A PUSHER WITH COUPONS!

TOO MUCH!!! :grin

Mayur Fzh

Walgreens did this to me after they were closed on Xmas eve & Xmas day, so I couldn't pick it up til the 26th. (Ambien).

She was snotty telling me "You didn't pick it up til the 26th". So it affected the Jan. rx. She didn't even count it correctly.

She then said I couldn't get the next RX until the 26th, forgetting that Dec. had 31 days, not 30 and she didn't count the first day of the RX as the first day. BUT... they do fill it on the correct day they just don't give it out unless you can go in when there is a different and nicer employee who doesn't treat you like an ADDICT!

OH NO MUST BE ADDICTED TO SLEEP SINCE I WANT IT EVERY DAY !!!!! 8)

The issue is not early refill but how can I plan my errands and drive all that way assuming the date on my bottle is correct and then be told, no I have to make a whole other trip AGAIN to get them! If that is the case, then type the pick up date on the bottle and use the first day of use as the first day of counting! Why is it their issue anyway ?

Regardless of the fill they aren't giving me more than 30 days anyway! And it is absolutely not appropriate that they insert themselves into medical treatment. They are not qualified. I don't authorize them to get my private information by simply buying a product!

Some of these comments are nuts! Walgreens has no right to discuss my long term treatment plan with my dr.

as if they know my 30 years of medical issues that even specialists have trouble with! It's an abuse of power by a clerk!!!

Guest

no its not to delay, its to stop people from abusing c drugs...

:x

Guest

Happy life nice. but other times, life is a misery. Be nice

Guest

You are wrong...if YOU are going by the pick up date ...count 30 days...you should have still had percocet left. My pharmacy cannot dispense more than what I am prescribed during a thirty day period...which is what you were trying to do.

If you didn't pick them up until the 15th do you think they would have been able to get them filled on the 25th?? Nope!

Guest

Walgreens bases next refill dates on pick-up dates, not dispensing dates because like a poster below me said, it was not in your possession until march 1 and if it was a 30 day supply, then you shouldnt have run out. And actually walgreens refills controlled substances 2 days prior to last pick up date so if you picked up an RX on the 1st of march, then you can process and pick up the next refill on march 29th.

Different walgreens have different policies however. Either way, you cannot be angry that walgreens won't refill your RX until the 30 days are up. Your RX was written for 30 days and if it ran out before the next refill was due, then its your fault. Walgreens is just following policy.

You can't blame them for that. We at walgreens always try our best to help out pts in anyway we can but we have rules to follow and we won't be breaking them for anybody.

Guest

Why don't you become consistent with what you do. Go to Wal-Mart and get your FREE **** filled there.

I bet you sell the drugs and not even take them for your alleged pain. Maybe the pharmacist should call the doctor to verify what your alleged pain is, and to see what is going to be done about the long term care. Because if you are this B*tchy, I would not want you in my place of work thinking you are ENTITLED to FREE ****.

Get a life, better yet, go on Intervention get off the drugs and do something constructive with your life. :(

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-678966

You need to get a life!!

Guest

It is completely logical to go by the pick up date. Medication was not in your possession until March 1st, thus there is no reason why your 30 day supply should not last until be April 1st. This would not be an issue if your medication was taken directed.

I have no sympathy for you having to wait a few days to receive your free ***.

Guest

please get a life - you pay for nothing, misuse free drugs and then complain?

Guest

LadyScot sucks! Beware, walgreens hires ignorant low class people like LadyScot that like to use the heroin addict nikki sixx image as their avatar because it best represents her drug induced blabber.

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