dopetalk
Core Topics => Drugs => Opiates & Opioids => Topic started by: sk8phaze on September 22, 2017, 12:31:41 PM
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https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cvs-limit-opioid-prescriptions-7-day-supply-n803486
CVS Pharmacy will limit opioid prescriptions to a seven-day supply for certain conditions, becoming the first national retail chain to restrict how many pain pills doctors can give patients.
When filling prescription for opioid pills, pharmacists will also be required to talk to patients about the risks of addiction, secure storage of medications in the home and proper disposal, the retail pharmacy chain said Thursday.
The move by CVS to limit prescription opioids like OxyContin or Vicodin to a seven-day supply is a significant restriction for patients — the average pill supply given by doctors in the U.S. increased from 13 days in 2006 to 18 days 2015, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
We are further strengthening our commitment to help providers and patients balance the need for these powerful medications with the risk of abuse and misuse,” Larry J. Merlo, President and CEO, CVS Health said in a statement.
CVS, which manages medications for nearly 90 million customers at 9,700 retail locations, plans to roll out the initiatives to control opioid abuse as of February 1, 2018.
Daily dosage limits will be based on the strength of the opioid and CVS pharmacists will require the use of immediate-release formulations of opioids before extended-release opioids are dispensed, lowering the risk of tolerance to the highly addictive drugs.
Related: Opioid Prescriptions Are Down But Not Enough, CDC Finds
CVS — which was the first large retail pharmacy chain to stop selling cigarettes in 2014 — is now hoping to help curb the opioid epidemic in the United States. One in three Americans, or 91.8 million Americans used opioid pills in 2015, according to a recent survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. More than 15,000 people died from prescription opioid overdose in 2015, according to the CDC.
With counseling on secure storage and disposal of opioid pills, the CVS pharmacists may be able to limit easy access to the pills. Five percent of adults surveyed told the National Institute on Drug Abuse researchers they took opioids without their doctor’s permission, often getting the prescription meds for free from friends or relatives. The CVS drug disposal collection program will expand to 1,550 units, with the addition of kiosks at 750 retail pharmacies nationwide, adding to 800 units previously donated to law enforcement.
In addition, CVS has pledged to increase its commitment to community health centers by bolstering contributions to medication-assisted treatment programs by $2 million.
The CVS announcement comes on the heels of a special publication released by the National Academy of Medicine, "First, Do No Harm," which calls on the leadership and action of doctors to help reverse the “course of preventable harm and suffering from prescription opioids.”
“Simply restricting access to opioids without offering alternative pain treatments may have limited efficacy in reducing prescription opioid abuse,” said representatives from NIDA. But the move is a major part of the multi-dimensional solution needed to conquer opioid abuse and a long awaited step in the right direction.
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Am I thinking of the wrong retailer when I say the chain's owners's son died of an od? It's shitty but I'm sure most ccp will just use another pharmacy?
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I think it was Walmart's owners son who died of an overdose.
From what I've read about CVS and the 7 day restriction...it doesn't seem to apply to CPP. The restriction is only for new prescriptions for acute and post-surgical pain.
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Can't help but wonder how secure those drug disposal kiosks are... Probably easier to get into than a pharmacy safe I would imagine.
Then again 90% of it is probably 5mg hydros, codeine syrup with like 20ml left in the bottle, and naproxen "this is the good stuff" sodium.
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Where I live, there is a drug disposal kiosk at the Perlice Station.
I'm sure its under video surveillance--just like the pharmacy ones are. I can just image a new guy on the force having to empty the kiosk every week.
Think about all those parents who find a meriwanna cigarette in the kid's room, and then go to drop it off at the kiosk, wearing a hoodie so they cannot be recognized, but park their car with the license plate in full view of the camera ::)
Anyway, here comes the FNG copper to empty the kiosk and finds lots of fun stuff to take home. Just be careful about piss tests, or gets some clean pee from suspects (like DUI cases) and save it. Keep that hair short so they cannot trace drug use chronologically.
I remember about 7 years ago, a local pharmacy got exposed by a local News Crew for throwing-out expired, controlled substances in an open dumpster !!
Me (and about 45000 others) were like: 'Blimey! I wished I had gone a dumpster diving an hour before The Action 4 News Team got there!" :'(
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Would have been better to have prescribed lidocaine patches instead of hydro to first-timers & moderate back pain.
Would still be good to let em be generic- in CA it's $400 or something like that w/o insurance.
For us, for whom that ship has sailed, I have been going to the same mom & pop shop for years. When I was broke, they were cheapest & took medi-cal. They know me, we have established trust. Same-same w/pain doc: I'm Rxed (done & hydro) 2 mos at a time now (filled 30 days @ a time).
I imagine this will just push pain patients to other pharms.
It would be such a hassle to have to go to the store once a week.
On a side note, once I got back to work I needed help again (after getting totally clean w a strech taper-see my prev posts for deets). When hydro tolly started to rise, instead of switching back to done w/ hydro for breakthrough, I suggested going the other way, and pain docs agreed:
I take hydro for basic maint & done for more serious episodes.
I've been level for about a year, bumping the done when travelling, then cutting back.
Hope everyone is well!
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Wish I had a buck for every time I fantasized about a dive like that, morphy.
Glad to see you post!
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Wonder how much that will impact their business. Also how long before all pharmacy's do this?? seems crazy that a pharmacist is being givin this much control power. They can tell doctors how their patient should be treated. WHAT?! Fuck their judgmental asses. In my opinion a pharmacist is basically a glorified cashier.