CVS Pharmacy complaint: the Pharmacy strongly resists filling my legal prescriptions for hydrocodone

Since April 15th, I have had a slipped disc and extreme sciatica. I was in bed for five weeks, unable to sit in a chair. I go to a pain management clinic for arthritis treatment as a regular client, from which I receive a monthly prescription for 28 Hydrocodone to be used at my discretion, as well as other medications. On May 2, I saw my doctor and he sent by e-mail a new prescription for 60 hydrocodone to CVS, Hillandale. The pharmacist told me that it could not be filled until May 15th because my last prescription for 28 had been filled on April 15th, or thereabouts. I still had a quantity of the 28 pills left from the April 15th prescription so that was fine.

I called the Phamacy last week to check on the hydrocodone prescription that was due to be ready and the pharmacist reported that my doctor had to talk to them on the phone for the prescription to be filled because it is a controlled substance. I called my doctor and left the message and he complied. Today, May 23, I called to see if this prescription was ready to be picked up and the pharmacist said no because due to insurance regulations, they can only give me 7 at a time. I have asked them in the past to fill this prescription outside my insurance policy because I am ill and it is a hardship for me to go to the store every week and they have generally complied.

Today, when I asked that the 60 hydrocodone be filled without my insurance policy, the pharmacist agreed to do so. I then asked if the prescription would be ready today. He said no, because it was out of stock. I asked if it would be ready tomorrow and he said he didn’t know because it is a controlled substance. He didn’t know for sure when it would be in stock. He said he would request some to be sent to the store.

Now this may not seem like a big deal but I am suffering and this sort of thing has happened many times before with this pharmacist, a tall man whose name is Mr. Tufa. He conspicuously acts as if I am a drug addict and seems to find satisfaction in denying my medication. He is never sorry about his denials and has never apologized for the many inconveniences he has caused me. I am 70 years old, have advanced arthritis, and certainly am not selling these things on the street corner for pocket money. After a previous, similar incident, my husband went to pick up the hydrocodone for me and Mr. Tufa told him that I was hoarding the medication. I told my health provider about this and he told me to tell the pharmacist to ‘mind his own business and fill the prescription.’ You are welcome to these statements and my condition with John Yingling, PA-C at Advanced Spine and Pain clinic at (410) 732-2727. I am seeing him tomorrow, as a matter of fact, and will report that in three weeks, your store has yet to fill a NEW prescription for hydrocodone.

Your other pharmacists at this store are not like the zealous Mr. Tufa; they are helpful and seem to comprehend that I am in pain that is sometimes unbearable. They take trouble to be kind and try to work out any glitches that result from legal precautions and restrictions; they will call my health providers for refills and explain when my medicine will be ready for pick-up.

I live very close to your pharmacy and have persisted as a customer because of the short drive. I have been a lifelong customer of CVS and before that, Peoples Drug Store. I once observed one of your pharmacists stealing drugs at the Langley Park CVS and reported it many years ago because customers deserve to receive their full prescriptions on a timely and honest basis. That is why I’m writing to you now–I hope that Mr. Tufa is not depriving other innocent people of relief from their pain and health limitations. In his excess professionalism, he may be concealing problems of his own. Why is it always my controlled substance prescription that is late or delayed?