My husband had some surgery yesterday, and today he was discharged from the hospital with a prescription for 10 days worth of Percocet.
When I got to the pharmacy, I found out that our insurance wouldn’t cover the prescription because they only cover opioid prescriptions for up to 7 days now. My husband was already overdue for a dose of pain medicine by the time I got to the pharmacy, and it would have been cruel to make him wait while we tried to get a 7-day prescription from the surgeon’s office, so I simply paid for the 10-day prescription in cash.
But I fail to see how a limitation that can be avoided by people who can afford to pay full price for their medicine is going to do our society any good. I also resent paying the $140, but that’s a lesser issue.
The “attempts” at tackling the opioid epidemic are only really affecting people like your H, @Marian - people who are legally using their prescribed meds.
Limiting necessary pain killers to suffering patients is NOT going to solve the crises. I will bet any kind of money that the self righteous law makers who tie doctors’ hands, will always find ways to get these drugs if they or their loved ones are ever in serious pain.
I disagree and I don’t give a flip what the Guardian says. These painkillers are very overprescribed and have contributed greatly to the crisis. I’m sorry you couldn’t get what you needed for your husband, but people having extra meds and them being stolen or sold is a big part of the problem. I’ve been to a number of seminars connected to work on this issue and, yes, this is a big contributing factor. I’m glad our family members are all “the exception”.
@gouf78, perhaps they should have, but the pharmacy was crowded, and I was so pleased that they expedited the prescription that I didn’t ask a lot of questions. My main concern at the time was another form of stupidity in our medical system, which is sending patients home from the hospital at a time of day when they’re almost due for their next dose of medication without giving them those pills to take with them. How quickly do hospitals think we can get the patient home and then get to the pharmacy and get the prescriptions filled?
@MomofWildChild, my point wasn’t that my husband didn’t get what was prescribed for him, my point was that he DID get it – because we can afford to pay out of pocket. A less affluent patient would have had a different experience. That’s unfair, and it doesn’t make sense. If there truly is a risk to society in a patient getting 3 extra days’ worth of opioids, then wouldn’t that risk apply regardless of the patient’s ability to pay?
By the way, I’m no fan of opioids, and neither is my husband (who passionately hates the constipating effect). But this was orthopedic surgery, and the surgeon was emphatic about not using NSAIDs because of their negative impact on bone healing. In this situation, the opioid is apparently the lesser evil. My husband would have been delighted to take Motrin, but it’s not allowed.
I was appalled when D was given a 30-day prescription for opiods after routine laprascopic gall bladder surgery. She only needed one pill and dropped the rest off at the police station.
And my BIL, who is disabled and intense pain at all times, has to regularly go and prove his need for methadone, after years of being prescribed opiods and even having morphine pumps implanted.
It’s crazy, and yes, unfair that you can override the limits if you can afford to pay full price.
I do agree - it would help if the hospital gave you an initial dose of meds. D had hip surgery a few years back and wasn’t discharged until very late at night. We didn’t want to leaver her sitting in the car while we filled the scripts, so ended up bringing her home and I then had to hunt around to find a pharmacy still open at that hour so she wouldn’t miss any doses.
In the era before the Great American Opioid Freakout, I used to ask for my own or my children’s post-procedure prescriptions at the pre-procedure office visit so that they could be filled the day before the procedure, and several doctors and dentists (oral surgeons) were willing to give them to me.
But that probably wouldn’t work any more, and besides, I wasn’t present at my husband’s pre-procedure office visit anyway, and it didn’t occur to him to ask (probably because he wasn’t the one who had to deal with stoned kids who have just had their wisdom teeth pulled – which was the situation that first prompted me to ask).
I was in the ER at 1 am this weekend (broken vertebra and trashed knee) and they would only give me one pain pill before discharge. Now where is DH going to get percoset at 2 am on a Saturday night so I have it if needed the next morning?! Thankfully I had some left from my appendectomy last June.
I get funny looks filling prescriptions for S2 now that he is self-pay. Never mind that I use this pharmacy regularly and they know me!
The “attempts” at tackling the opioid epidemic are only really affecting people like your H, @Marian - people who are legally using their prescribed meds.”
Yes! We agree on something! It’s ridiculous. The drug scammers know how and where and who to see to get their fix, and everyone else suffers with the theater that is “drug control”.
@CountingDown, you live in Montgomery County, right? So the answer is the 24-hour CVS on Key West in Rockville, where I have filled prescriptions in the middle of the night on several occasions.
But it’s ridiculous that people should have to know the name and location of what’s probably the only 24-hour pharmacy in a large geographic area. I only know it exists because another CVS sent me there once when they were out of stock on a particular drug. While I was there, I happened to notice the 24-hour signs.
Also, OUCH! A vertebra and a knee at the same time! That’s unfair.
“Marian: If there truly is a risk to society in a patient getting 3 extra days’ worth of opioids, then wouldn’t that risk apply regardless of the patient’s ability to pay?”
Yes, of course.
“By the way, I’m no fan of opioids, and neither is my husband (who passionately hates the constipating effect).”
No kidding! I don’t know how ANYONE takes those things for any length of time.
I wanted to pick up the prescriptions for D’s meds following wisdom tooth extraction but of course could not get them beforehand and the only pharmacy was a half hour drive away from her doctor (longer from her apartment) so the poor thing had to sit in the car for a couple of hours following surgery while I figured out how to get there, picked up the prescription, and fought traffic back to her place in an unfamiliar city.
I’m pretty sure this was not the best medical approach and I’m also quite sure that it made absolutely no difference in the opioid crisis.
The restrictions are because prescribing more than the minimum needed creates an excess supply of unused opioids floating around in medicine cabinets, purses, etc. It also habituates people to the idea that any pain is unbearable. When my daughter had her wisdom teeth out we did not immediately fill the prescription. If she had not been able to sleep because of the pain we would have filled it in the morning. She slept and we were able to avoid adding to the supply of unused opioids. Hurrah for ibuprofen.
