This is the second time in six months that two of my needed prescriptions meds are "out of stock". They estimate the current delivery date at May 30th. Over the summer it was Adderall which I do not take.Any ideas?

It keeps happening on my Hydro-codone that I take.

I get different reasons from the pharmacist as to why. At times its a shortage then its only a certain amount is allotted.

Whatever it is its BS. I am in pain and get some relief from the prescribed meds. I have to jump through hoops to do everything required of the prescriber them when I get to the pharmacy they are out.

They are fucking with peoples lives and its getting old.

My son has been delayed in getting his Advair (generic asthma med) for about the last six months every month. I believe most of the compounds in it are produced in China?

Be greatful you are not Type II diabetic and on a semaglutide such as Ozempic or Wegovy. The fat ladies are competing with the diabetics for these drugs. The fat ladies generally pay full price as insurance doesn't usually pay for weight loss.

Guess whom the pharmacies sell to preferentially.

RMD

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
Be greatful you are not Type II diabetic and on a semaglutide such as Ozempic or Wegovy. The fat ladies are competing with the diabetics for these drugs. The fat ladies generally pay full price as insurance doesn't usually pay for weight loss.

Guess whom the pharmacies sell to preferentially.

RMD

It has bugged me since COVID era about pharmacies knowing the diagnoses of the patient. What business is it of theirs? It seems to me (and I'll reserve the right to be ignorant on this, perhaps) that what I'm taking and WHY is between me and the prescribing authority. If they think I should have it, then who is the pharmacist to say otherwise?

They will say a second layer of protection. They are subject to HiPPPA as well.

I have also run into this problem on two medications. Local pharmacist whom I trust to tell the truth said her distributors are out, which suggests the problem goes back to the manufacturer. Really unbelievable for this to happen in the US, which used to lead the world in medicines and the ability to deliver them. Notice the Biden administration's FDA has been silent on the problem.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:

what I'm taking and WHY is between me and the prescribing authority. If they think I should have it, then who is the pharmacist to say otherwise?

I agree with you 173% !

I had a very unpleasant incident with a pharmacist who thought that she knew more than my doctor. Unkind words were exchanged and I left the store before it escalated out of control.

After discharge from more than a week in hospital due to Guillain Barré, the doc prescribed Lyrica. When that wasn't working, the decision was made to discontinue it and try Gabapentin. The pharmacist refused to fill the prescription for Gabapentin because "it was too similar to Lyrica" and I should not be taking both of them. I calmly explained that the Lyrica was being discontinued and changed to Gabapentin, and even offered to give her the remaining Lyrica, but nope, the bitch knew better than my doctor. Discussion elevated to the point where I left the store before the cops were called. Could not reach the doctor, to have him call the pharmacy and read her the riot act, because this was just after doctor's closing time on a Friday.

Fuming, I thought about it, and wound up going to a different pharmacy, explained everything to the pharmacist, who stated that the first pharmacist had no authority to do what she did. He (second guy) called the first place and told them to transfer the prescription to him immediately; he filled the Gabapentin prescription and had me on my way in less than ten minutes.

In retrospect, I should have filed a formal complaint about the first one, with the state agency that licenses pharmacists.

You encountered an idiot who overstepped her bounds. I would have complained to corporate not the board.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
It keeps happening on my Hydro-codone that I take.

I get different reasons from the pharmacist as to why. At times its a shortage then its only a certain amount is allotted.

Whatever it is its BS. I am in pain and get some relief from the prescribed meds. I have to jump through hoops to do everything required of the prescriber them when I get to the pharmacy they are out.

They are fucking with peoples lives and its getting old.

Hydrocodone ( narcotic analgesic) usually in combination with acetaminophen ( Tylenol) is frequently in short supply. All narcotics are in short supply in the states, because as a nation we use over 90% of the narcotics by prescription used in the entire world. Also the DEA and state regulatory agencies demand multi factor authentication to prescribe these narcotics. For some reason, Americans are very averse to pain and want all pain to go away. Other countries don’t seem to have this issue

I asked one of my doctors this exact question about a week ago, if they knew the reason for shortages of otherwise important common medications. She said they are seeing the shortages, but nobody where she works knows the answer. She said some of her patients (Diabetes doctor) cannot get enough insulin.

That is very bad when you can't get insulin.

My guess is all the fallout from uncle shitbrain as potus, causing us to go into the situation as in the movie "Idiocracy".

No I'm not kidding, I'm pretty sure that's basically it, Idiocracy literally. I capitalized it purposely, I believe it's actually a thing now.

There's no other explanation I'm aware of.

I just secured two very important prescriptions this afternoon, both a month late, fighting tooth and nail for over 3 weeks to get them. Before this situation I got them regularly with no problems. One of them keeps me alive and I'm pissed.

Now that the Democrats are in full-tilt Idiot mode, they will pull out ALL the stops to win the upcoming potus election, including wild and openly brazen cheating of all kinds, including voting for ALL illegal aliens, fake ballots, the whole nine yards. And they won't even bother to hide any of it because they know they will be protected by their corrupt friends in the justice system.

IF they succeed, we will be officially deeply embedded in a new Idiocracy.

We constantly are facing shortages and substitutions in our EMS drug boxes. Epinephrine has been short for the past couple years. I have a hospital Pharm D friend who usually lkeeps me up to date on what the lastest shortage is.

I work for one of the largest global generic pharmaceutical companies in the world, so I will ad my two cents worth. I work with the raw materials and part of the supply chain department. I see what the buyers and planners go through daily in getting materials delivered. Most of the active ingredients come from overseas. We are sourcing materials that used to come from China from other countries. Most of them are available and being ordered and tested. We go through phases of being slammed for a few months and then slow for a few weeks, this happens all the time to supply of these materials which affects delivery to distribution centers and then to the pharmacies.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
Be greatful you are not Type II diabetic and on a semaglutide such as Ozempic or Wegovy. The fat ladies are competing with the diabetics for these drugs. The fat ladies generally pay full price as insurance doesn't usually pay for weight loss.

Guess whom the pharmacies sell to preferentially.

RMD

It has bugged me since COVID era about pharmacies knowing the diagnoses of the patient. What business is it of theirs? It seems to me (and I'll reserve the right to be ignorant on this, perhaps) that what I'm taking and WHY is between me and the prescribing authority. If they think I should have it, then who is the pharmacist to say otherwise?

It's because the professional standards hold the pharmacist responsible for anything he or she "should have known". If you are getting an unusual dose of a drug and the pharmacist doesn't question it by contacting the physician and it is determined to be inappropriately prescribed by either the medical board or the pharmacy board at a later date the pharmacist can be held liable and possibly lose his or her license.

Remember how all those pharmacy chains were fined billions of dollars over the last few years for filling all those opioid prescriptions? Virtually every one of those prescriptions was a legitimate prescription written by a valid prescriber. Did you ever hear about any prescriber being fined huge amounts of money for inappropriate prescribing? No you didn't. It was too big a job to go after all the individual prescribers in the county so by successfully fining the drugstores billions of dollars the government got the drugstores to regulate and challenge the appropriate prescribing of opioids with prescribers.

Like so many things these issues are very complex.

I recently read that the EPA had cracked down on a number of chemicals used in the manufacture of prescribed medications, resulting in US companies having to buy from foreign sources.

I've been getting my prescriptions at military pharmacies for decades, first on active duty and later as retired.

A few months back I experienced my first ever "not in stock" situation with a base pharmacy. It was suggested I try a local civilian dispensary. Of late I'm finding they will provide several partial pill containers from different generic manufacturers in order to provide me with a 90 day supply of a given drug.

Crazy.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

They are subject to HiPPPA as well.

Is that anything like HIPAA?

Back a few years, middle of the covid, I found a couple of times that my prescriptions could not be filled on time. Out of stock, or not enough to fully fill the script amount.

I talked to my Doc and got another couple scripts, I walked those into my local Costco.

I did NOT give Costco my insurance card yet, I wanted to see what the cash price was. My Doc had told me to use Good RX for the best cash discount.

I was astounded that I could get a 90 day supply of my meds for under $10 to maybe $25 by paying cash.

I never did give Costco, and still have not, my insurance info. I just pay cash and go on.

One day I asked the Costco pharmacist if I was limited to 90 day supplies. He said NO, you can get 6 months if you want to since you are a cash buyer.

DING DING!!!

I quickly built up a ONE YEAR supply of all my meds.

Now that I have that, I usually use my insurance to get what I need every 90 days at my regular pharmacy using my insurance.

That way I always have a rolling 12-month supply, I just use the oldest first. 1st in, 1st out.

This may work for you if you are not on very expensive drugs. But for those of you who can get scripts for what is less than the cost of eating out, well consider this.

If you live near a Costco or SAMs, if you don't well maybe you can find a way.
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My insurance uses an online mail order pharmacy, we'll just call them 'Optum'. I have severe UC and Crohn's and I've had the same issues everytime I have to switch meds. Started off with Humera, well it quit working so I needed to switch to Entyvio. Pharmacy said they couldn't fill the script b/c I still have 4 months of injections left (that don't work so they were discontinued). They won't take meds back so while I waited it out things got worse. Doc gets involved.

Next, Entyvio quits being effective so doc switches to Rinvoq which last a month and a half before it quit working. Had 20 days of Rinvoq left so I had to wait that one out too. Switched to my current medicine, Stelara, at 30k a dose. I can't tell you how difficult that was to get approved.

Have I mentioned insurance is a scam?

I've been off my Mounjaro for over a month because they can't get any. Its the only thing they have found to drop my A1C.

Now Ill probably have to start back at a lower dose when it ever gets back to get back up to speed.

But in the meantime, no control of my type 2.

Wife has been missing several on and off over the last few months and she is on a couple life sustaining meds so its more serious when she runs out.