Is it legal for a pharmacist to change my prescription ?

[carrie417]

You are reading carrie's post as I have.

It appears to be a pharmacist mistake in writing 30 instead of 15 and not any intent on the pharmacist's part to deprive carrie of her medication.

It altered the doctor's prescription but it appears to be an error that the pharmacy has located and is working (albeit slowly) to correct.

It is not legal for a pharmacist to simply alter a doctor's prescription. They are not allowed to do that.

But a good pharmacist might notice an error in the prescription as written (perhaps a conflict with another drug the patient is taking) and contact the doctor for corrections or to verify a prescription. A new prescription can be issued.

With prescription errors, human error definitely plays a role. Errors can be traced to a pharmacist's misreading of a doctor's handwriting. There can be data entry errors.

Your goal should be to get your medication and, if the pharmacist erred in filing your prescription, the error could be reported to the Pharmacy Board later.

Maryland Board of Pharmacy complaints:
https://health.maryland.gov/pharmacy/Pages/complaint.aspx

Because prescriptions are generally entered in a national database, if one pharmacy won't fill a prescription, other pharmacies may not fill it either.

Good luck.

Thank you so much for this link , you have seen the situation correctly . The pharmacy still hasn't fixed this I just don't understand how 1 can admit to a mistake but argue about fixing it. Which is what they are doing.

 

[Zigner]

I cannot get my prescription filled anywhere until the 30 days have past ,that is the problem.

Who says that you can't fill a new prescription from your doctor before 30 days?

 

[not2cleverRed]

Who says that you can't fill a new prescription from your doctor before 30 days?

Well, I know my local pharmacy won't!

Insurance won't cover it, because the paperwork indicates that Carrie still has over a week left on her 30 day supply.

And, depending on the nature of the medication (if it has street value ), there may be other rules in play.

 

[Zigner]

Well, I know my local pharmacy won't!

Insurance won't cover it, because the paperwork indicates that Carrie still has over a week left on her 30 day supply.

Whether or not insurance will cover it is a different matter.

And, depending on the nature of the medication (if it has street value ), there may be other rules in play.

That is true - which is why I asked

 

[justalayman]

I’m missing something. None of my meds state the fill is for 15 days or 30 days or anything else. The scrip states how many to take per day and how many total to dispense. It takes math to figure out how long that fill lasts.

Op needs to speak to the pharmacys manager. If they can’t fix it on the spot, contact corporate services for the store.

There is no reason the pharmacy shouldn’t be filling the scrip now.

Btw: I often get 90 day supplies on my scripts so yes, insurance compnanies will often pay for more than 30 days at a time. In fact I save ones months copay when I buy a 3 month supply over 3 one month supplies.

 

[quincy]

I’m missing something. None of my meds state the fill is for 15 days or 30 days or anything else. The scrip states how many to take per day and how many total to dispense. It takes math to figure out how long that fill lasts.

Op needs to speak to the pharmacys manager. If they can’t fix it on the spot, contact corporate services for the store.

There is no reason the pharmacy shouldn’t be filling the scrip now.

Btw: I often get 90 day supplies on my scripts so yes, insurance compnanies will often pay for more than 30 days at a time. In fact I save ones months copay when I buy a 3 month supply over 3 one month supplies.

Whether you can get a 90 day supply of a drug depends in large part on the drug.

I know Michigan and other states started implementing laws last year with new restrictions on the prescribing and dispensing of opioids.

It appears here that there was an (admitted) error by the pharmacy. If 60 pills (covering an additional 15 days of the prescription) are missing or unaccounted for, it does not bode well for the pharmacist.