Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Pharmacy Requests For Office Notes

How is everyone handling the new practice of pharmacies requesting 6 months of office notes on Medicare patients who are requesting diabetic testing supplies? They also request their latest HgBA1C. I refuse to send these and tell them that if the patient wants to release that information to them they will have to pay for the cost of copying, pick them up and then do with them what they please. I feel this is further intrusion into one's health history. Why should the pharmacist at Wally Mart be able to see that Joe was treated for GC after visiting a prostitute? Why should the pharmacy tech at Wallygreens have access to Jane's confession of beastiality? And, who reviews the HgBA1C? What are they doing with that information? I am so disgusted with the way medicine/insurance/government are going. Spreading manure all day is more enjoyable now than coming to the office.

never had this happen. shocked to see heading.

Sorry about the heading.....I did not mean to put it all in caps.

Leslie, I get this all the time. Spurred on by strength gained from some of your posts about insurance companies, I tell them to get lost.
Actually, what they are doing is collecting records in case they get a CMS audit. I tell them, if CMS contacts you for an audit, have them contact me, and I'll send records.

Havent' been bothered since.

I do not do any business with diabetic supply companies in DEERFIELD, FL. IMHO, that is a haven for shady, medicare ripoff artists.

Excellent, Vicki.

I agree with Vicki's response. We just ignore the request.

Really, Leslie, confessions of beastiality? Your practice sounds a lot more interesting than mine! LOL

Yeah, Donna, but what's a little sexual dysfunction when we have The Wire, Homicide, and John Waters.

Leslie,

I've gotten these from the chain pharmacies. Wally world especially. I tend to ignore them.

It's going to get worse. I love the consulting pharmacist who sends me notes on nursing home patients, requesting a TSH, or Renal Panel or platelet count. Uh, take a look at my notes and orders!

Tom

You are so right, Tom. But then, I have two patients who have not been able to get their supplies because of it. I encouraged them to go elsewhere.

Wait a cotton pickin' minute here... Is this NOT reversing the roles here a bit too far??? Since when is it the Pharmacy's job to be in the Script writing and approving side of the business??? YOU the Licensed Doc wrote the script and unless it needs an insurance carrier Prior Auth, it is Their JOB to Simply follow YOUR Orders and do what YOU, the doc with the License to write and perscribe wrote and ordered.... NOT the other way around. That is how I would handle this crap and I would report them to both my own and their own State AG for practicing medicine without the proper license....

If they felt that you were writing a dangerous drug, flagged a controlled substance issue or were aware of a conflict in drugs that could have a bad interaction on the patient's med list, then yes they could inform you of such and in the case of the controlled substances, they could refuse to dispense if it did not meet certain perscribed by law standards to do such.... But to have them start requesting if not even "requiring" that you folks, the actual Docs submit medical records to them, for their own internal purposes, that is starting to insert themselves dangerously in the role of practicing medicine without a license and prescribing medicines that they are not licensed to write for... They can certainly Dispense but only after YOU Write and you Prescribe, not the other way around.... Nor are they an insurance carrier authorized to manage and control care and costs that might under certain circumstances be allowed to direct or influence the direction and choices of care, therapy and treatments....

To me this is clearly Illegal and a clear violation of the separate and yet interactive relationship between a writing licenced Doc with a state license to practice medicine and a federal license to write prescription medicines, and the pharmacy and pharmasists that are allow to fill, BASED upon YOUR script and only your script and without it, they are NOT allowed to do so... Since when is it their job to review medical charts and history to see if you the doc are properly writing meds... This is also acting as an imposter as a defacto gov't like regulator and review agency that was not elected or has no public oversight, much the same way the RUC, the AMA and CMS are illegally setting rates ala an agency like behavior without oversight or public review as well....

Next time one of you get something like this send all of the details to your State AG's office, especially here in NYS as we have a special healthcare section for insurance and other similar abuses.... This is a clear extra set of steps over the lines and boundaries that should keep these two very different but interactive and cooperative parts of the system on their own side of the fence and for good reasons. You are the much more clincially schooled and trained licensed to do so doctor, and they clearly are not...

Paul

Unfortunately for us, we have pharmacy boards and nursing boards that have voted themselves more and more authority. The nursing board oversees nurse practitioners, and has decreed that a NP can set up an independent practice with no MD affiliation and have full prescribing authority; a PA with much more training is under the medical board, however, and need a collaborating physician. Similarly, the pharmacy board would really like to have pharmacists able to prescribe directly (almost got this law passed a couple of years ago). Pharmacists, of course, have all sorts of "stupid doctor" stories to share, and have the view that only they really understand drugs. I have all kinds of stories of fights I have gotten into with one or another pharmacist who did not personally know me but was convinced I was a moron. I have had to go so far as to send reprints of UpToDate recommendations to get a prescription filled.

It is very frustrating, and liable to get worse.

Thank you Vicki. I appreciate the help. From now on, I will refuse to send the notes unless an audit has been requested. It is a waste of the staff's time.

I also agree with the shady companies in Florida. Most of my patients tell me they were cold-called by these companies and offered 'free' items such as DM testing supplies, heating pads, penile pumps, etc.

Funny I had never heard of a pharmacy requesting notes until I read this post. I just received one today. I am ignoring the request