APhA Is Wrong And Making Themselves Look Stupid. Or Maybe They Are Just Stupid. It's Hard To Tell

     Greetings from the land of retirement, oh five loyal readers I have left! Things sure are different for the Drugmonkey these days! Instead of slogging it out with you guys through "I don't have a deductible!" month, I've been working on my chess game. No longer bothered with the payables and receivables, I am happy to report that people not fortunate enough to have an internet connection have a chance to hear my words, as I have been spewing my ham radio signals to the far corners of the earth. I also spend a lot of time these days discussing with Mrs. Drugmonkey where the home thermostat should be set. It is retirement after all. 

     I see some things in the old pharmacy world haven't changed though. The forces that control the profession continue to come up with new and innovative ways to screw the average pharmacist. I love how the DIR fee "reform" that came with the new year comes with a major cash crunch for every business that tries to fill a prescription. The voice that claims to speak for you pill chuckers though, The American Pharmacists Association, is on the case, whipping lawmakers into shape to address this DIR crisis before it spells the end of every non-CVS pharmacy in the country.

    BBBBWWWAAAHHHAAAA I kill me. APhA is the same pack of dolts they've always been.

     I say this as I see in this morning's email the source of APhA's "dismay." Namely, a program approved by the FDA that allows the state of Florida to import prescription drugs from our Canadian friends to the north. 

   Or maybe they're not our friends, because friends wouldn't be trying TO POISON US, as the APhA seems to stop just short of claiming. Here's the beginning of today's press release:

    The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) is dismayed that FDA gave the green light to Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada, jeopardizing patient safety and compromising our nations'  drug supply. FDA’s authorization of the State of Florida’s Section 804 Importation Program does not address significant concerns that create vulnerabilities for the introduction of counterfeit and unsafe drugs into the marketplace.

     Jeopardizing patient safety and compromising our nation’s drug supply. Really......which is why you are always warned never to drink the water when you vacation in Canada, as it's a country incapable of delivering basic health and safety measures to protect its citizens from all manner of poisons.

     Hold on, I'm being told now that Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi are actually cities in the United States. Anyway, I'm sure APhA knows what they're talking about when they say it is Canadian health and safety standards you need to be afraid of. 

    So does APhA go on to say that the savings generated by this risky scheme simply aren't worth the death and destruction sure to follow? No, they actually say something even stupider:

“This importation program frustrates reason by undercutting our nation’s drug supply chain integrity and patient safety in exchange for little or no cost savings,” said Ilisa Bernstein, PharmD, JD, FAPhA, APhA Senior Vice President of Pharmacy Practice and Government Affairs.

     She actually said that. That if you buy drugs from Canada you will get "little or no cost savings." So I guess when Bernie Sanders used to organize trips to Canada for his constituents to fill prescriptions, they were really just going to admire the fall foliage and eat some poutine, and that the multitude of Canadian pharmacies doing a brisk business selling prescriptions to Americans are there simply because we like to subsidize the Canadian Post Office. My God, has this woman ever been to Canada? Probably not, as she evidently is afraid of being poisoned. 

    By the way, has anyone even asked the Canadians what they think about selling their drugs to the United States? Yes, they have as a matter of fact, and it turns out the Canadians aren't too thrilled about it:

Canada’s pharmaceutical industry also expressed concern with the FDA approval on Friday. Innovative Medicines Canada, the industry’s national lobby group, said it will work with Health Canada to “safeguard” the country’s drug supplies.

“Canada simply can’t supply drugs to Florida, or any other U.S. states, without significantly increasing the risk and severity of drug shortages nationwide,” David Renwick, the group’s interim president, said in a statement.

      So let's recap. The American Pharmacists Association chose to spend its time today communicating how "dismayed" they are about a policy, then proceeded to give counterintuitive to a first grader reasons for opposing such policy, and the policy is likely to never scale up to the point where it significantly affects the American drug market anyway. 

     Meanwhile, chain pharmacists across the United States are unable to practice pharmacy due to the increasingly draconian demands of their employers, and independent drugstores are facing a crisis that threatens their very existence. No dismay about any of that. 

     Yup, some things never change. Unlike the thermostat in this place, which I'm about to crank up, consequences be dammed. 

This One's For The Kids.

Because you need to know what's waiting for you on the other side of a pharmacy degree, and no one else is gonna tell you.

Your professors aren't gonna tell you.

The corporate hacks you interview with aren't gonna tell you.

The American Pharmacists Association isn't gonna tell you. They're there to let you know provider status will create a world where every child gets a puppy and unicorns frolic in the pastures shitting rainbows all day long.

But you need to know. So when I saw this out on the internets I figured I'd put it here where some of you kids would see it. There's not one word in here that surprised me. As a matter of fact, I'd be surprised if you weren't treated to some variation of this if you make the mistake of slinging pills for the corporation. Read it and weep. Then figure out what you're gonna do about it.

This was around the point where back in the bad old days I would have put in some sort of joke about how it was too late for me, but you can still save yourselves.

But it wasn't too late for me. Which I guess means this post isn't just for the kids. I sure as shit didn't have any special entrepreneurial skills  when I set out on my own. I didn't even know what happened to the money after I dropped it off to the community college hack on my way out the door.

Yet here I am am. Three years now and counting. If it's too late for you to find another major I have every reason to believe you could do it too.

No one at CVS probably even read this letter. More people will see it here than at their corporate headquarters. Nothing will change there, but that doesn't mean it has to be this way.

It doesn't. You don't have to accept this.

The letter's long and maybe not of much interest to people outside the profession, but if you're thinking about your major, or if god forbid you're close to accepting a job with one of the chains, you need to read every word.

Then figure out how to keep this from happening to you.

__________________________________________________________________


To Whom It May Concern,

Please accept this letter as notice of my resignation from the position of pharmacist at CVS Health.

As per the terms of my employment contract, I will continue to work for the company for the next 2 weeks, completing my employment on February 26, 2016. If there are any areas in particular you would like me to focus on during my notice period, please let me know. As always, I will continue to give my best effort – I want to leave my team in the best possible situation, and I hope that the new pharmacy manager gets off to a good start.

Although this should be difficult decision to make, I have recently come to recognize that it is really the only decision left, largely due to what I feel is a serious deficit in my immediate supervisor's management abilities. I recognize that she is a strong pharmacist, and I have a lot of respect for her as such, but I have spent the last 3 years under her supervision becoming increasingly frustrated with the state of our district and the way it has been handled. I can no longer keep these feelings of frustration and hopelessness to myself, and will detail some of them below. I hope you will understand my reasons for moving on.


I will start with the broader issues, involving the company as a whole. Let me lead off by saying that I have worked for CVS for 10 years, from intern to pharmacy manager. I have worked in 3 different states, under different management teams, and weathered many storms with and for CVS. I had a colleague, who has about the same tenure, say to me the other day, “I used to recommend that all of my friends try to get jobs here. It was such a good company to work for. Now I tell them to stay far, far away.” I hear this sentiment echoed over and over again throughout the world of retail pharmacy, from those who were previously employed by CVS and from those of us who’ve stuck around, faithfully holding up our ends of the bargain and hoping CVS would see the error in their ways and do the same. The downfall of CVS as a desirable employer began when Tom Ryan retired. His philosophy was always people-driven. He wanted to run a healthcare company, one that took care of and did right by its patients. He wanted us to be able to provide the best possible patient care, and valued our customers as people, not as dollars. He valued his employees as individuals – raises were merit-based and people were recognized for their accomplishments, encouraged, and rewarded.


When Tom Ryan’s reign ended and Larry Merlo took over, it did not take long for their corporate philosophy differences to become apparent at the ground level. Technician hours were slashed; business metrics became the focus over patient satisfaction metrics; employee satisfaction declined and turnover went through the roof; employee benefits were cut, including the extension of the tenure required to achieve an extra week of vacation, stock options, and hiring everyone in at part-time employment to ensure that they didn’t have to be paid health insurance benefits; CVS acquired Caremark (not sure how the FTC allowed this) so that they could force their insurance recipients to use their own pharmacies and as such could lower their service standards to abominable levels, because patients had no choice but to use CVS. They no longer represent what ANYONE went to pharmacy school for, except maybe the paycheck. We are no longer healthcare providers – we have been relegated to being dispensing machines without regard to our own safety or that of our patients.


Now, these corporate changes began several years back. They are not my primary reason for leaving, despite the fact that they are significant. I came to terms with working for one of the corporate giants that was selfishly destroying our society by hurting employees and customers so that the upper echelons of management could bring in money hand over fist. I told myself that it was just the unfortunate way that capitalism in the US has gone, and that it was out of my control. My true reasons for leaving, now, after all this time, are more personal and immediate. Since my prior pharmacy supervisor, Sarah Freytag (the best manager I have ever had the pleasure of working for) moved into a corporate position a few years ago, my district has steadily declined under the management of [pharmacy supervisor name]. I have been underwhelmed with the quality of the management team we’ve had since her departure, and have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of response to the district’s decline.


It starts with respect. My current pharmacy supervisor treats her pharmacists and technicians with zero respect. As pharmacists, we are not even acknowledged as individuals with varying backgrounds and skill sets. Really, I think that it comes down to the fact that she does not spend enough time out in her district or talking to her pharmacists to know us as people, and doesn’t have the slightest inclination as to what we are individually capable of within our roles as retail pharmacists. As an example, a few months back I had text her to let her know that the website was down for our supplier, and I wasn’t able to place an order for the store I was filling in at. Her response was to call the store manager at home (after the order cutoff time had long passed) and ask her to call the store and talk me through how to place an order. I have worked for CVS for nearly 11 years – I have very successfully managed multiple pharmacies, and trained dozens of new technicians in the process. We have been ordering essentially the same way the entire time I’ve worked for the company. I thought to myself, “Does my immediate supervisor really think that I am that ignorant of the functions of my job? Would she really not know that sending an order is something that is well within my comfort zone, and not something that I need someone to talk me through? I can talk someone through just about any procedure in the CVS computer system with my eyes closed.” It really opened my eyes to the true lack of leadership that I was dealing with.


I’ve always felt like [pharmacy supervisor name] didn’t like me. I’ve never understood why, or what I was doing wrong. I’ve never had much feedback, positive or negative. In the 3 years I’ve worked under [pharmacy supervisor name], I’ve never even had the courtesy of having a review (which should be done annually, according to company policy). Last year, I received a very small percentage raise, much below the standard I had seen across my 10 years. I hadn’t had a review, so I checked my online personnel file where the written reviews are stored. I pulled up all of the reviews in there, 1 from Sarah and 2 from [pharmacy supervisor name]. The two from [pharmacy supervisor name] were both blank – all I could find was a rating of “Meets Expectations”. I emailed her to inquire about my raise amount since I had received an average rating, and asked if there was something I should be doing differently to improve my chances of getting a better raise next year. I never got a response.

Finally I called her, and she told me that she didn’t have anything for me to work on, but that my raise was low because my pay was high compared to other pharmacists in the company with the same title and tenure (PT Floater, 10 years of service). So now, my supervisor was telling me that it really didn’t matter what my performance level was or how hard I worked, that I was going to get a menial, ridiculous raise each year regardless, because I had worked very hard to move up earlier in my career and was now situated above some other people who hadn’t worked as hard. This year when I went to fill out my side of my review, my goals that [pharmacy supervisor name] had set for me revolved around “Manager Controlled Profits”, which involves script budgets and payroll management. Last year’s review was in March, and I had been floating since the previous September – the goals she had set for me weren’t even relevant to the job I was in. [pharmacy supervisor name] has so little respect for her pharmacists that she doesn’t even know who they are with respect to what positions they hold under her, and can’t even bother herself with writing out relevant reviews and goals for them.


But the lack of respect goes beyond that. Interns and technicians are essentially abused, and pharmacists are treated as pawns that should have no say or even opinion on their own career paths. I have seen technicians asked to take their day off to drive across town, pick up a cookie for a new pharmacist that was just licensed (and only one or two of the many, mind you) as congratulations, deliver said cookie to the pharmacist, and drive back home, all without pay.

I have seen countless interns on management rotations forced to work in stores as free labor, not to be shown a single thing about how to be an effective manager. I was even told by one intern that she was forced to personally deliver a narcotic prescription to an angry patient’s home – the patient’s regular pharmacy did not have her medication in stock, so the intern had to pick up her prescription hardcopy at the regular store, take it to another store to be filled, then drive it to the customer’s home. The patient was irate and somewhat unstable (I had spent over an hour on the phone with her myself a couple of days prior), and the intern was put in a very uncomfortable position where her personal safety was compromised so that the [pharmacy supervisor name] didn’t have to deal with the situation. Needless to say when [pharmacy supervisor name] asked her if she was interested in working for CVS, the answer was no.


As far as my personal situation goes, I have always been extremely flexible with CVS. I worked full-time until the birth of my daughter 4 years ago, and have since gone back and forth between full- and part- time, floater and pharmacy manager to meet the needs of my district. I have experienced swings from being told there are no hours for me to being asked to go back to full-time a couple of months later, and always taken it in stride and done whatever was asked of me. I have managed “challenged” pharmacies and turned them into “excellent” pharmacies,

I have been told by multiple pharmacy managers that I am the only floater they have ever had that will go above and beyond my daily duties of filling prescriptions to actually help them run their stores, and I have been told by technicians that I am the best boss they’ve ever had. I have a very strong urge to work my hardest and do my best regardless of whose store I’m in, whether the final outcome of how the store is doing is my responsibility or not, and I find my biggest frustration with floating was knowing that if I had more time at a store, I could make a bigger difference. This lead me to recently volunteer to manage a pharmacy that was really struggling, despite the fact that I have opened a small business and have a 4 year-old at home, and really want to be working part-time. I decided that for a while, I could sacrifice my personal needs to help my district succeed.


The back story on the situation at this store needs to be explained, as it is one of the major faults I see in [pharmacy supervisor name] management outlook. Since turnover has been so high under [pharmacy supervisor name], she has developed a habit of hiring the first person that walks in her door, regardless of their abilities as pharmacists or managers. She has also decided that the best way to get a pharmacy manager in a store that is in need is to force someone who doesn’t want the position and/or can’t handle the position to do it anyway. My biggest issue with this is with newly licensed pharmacists who have just graduated from school. They have no experience as a pharmacist, no experience being the one in charge of everything that’s going on that day, no experience handling being pulled in 8 different directions at the same time, and no experience managing people. They are not only being expected to magically become strong, fast pharmacists overnight, but they are expected to do so in very busy stores, and even as pharmacy managers.


In this particular store, 4 technicians were accepted into pharmacy schools at the same time. They were all scheduled to start their programs in August. The pharmacy manager was working on getting new technicians hired to replace them, and the staff pharmacist gave notice that he was moving away. The first terrible decision of a long series of terrible decisions was to, at the same time that the staff pharmacist and all the technicians were leaving, pull the pharmacy manager out and transfer him to another store. This left my store with no leadership, no permanent pharmacist, no technicians, and no one to follow through with the new hires. She decided to promote a staff pharmacist from another store (45 minutes away) and have him commute to my store to be the pharmacy manager, and put a newly licensed pharmacist in as the staff.

At the same time, the pharmacy manager at his original store gave his notice. [pharmacy supervisor name] decided that the best call was to let the transferring pharmacist remain at his original store as the pharmacy manager, and to force the newly licensed pharmacist to be the pharmacy manager at this store, with no steady partner for support. This was one of the worst decisions she could possibly have made, both for the pharmacist and the store.

Our district has plenty of experienced staff pharmacists who are plenty capable of being pharmacy managers. In this situation, I cannot understand why you would not take an experienced pharmacy manager from a slightly slower store and move them to this busy store, take an experienced staff pharmacist and promote them to a pharmacy manager at the slower store, and then take the newly licensed pharmacist and allow her to “get her feet wet” as a staff pharmacist. Dumping a new pharmacist into a management position is never a good idea. Dumping them into a super busy store is never a good idea. Combining the two is a terrible idea. Needless to say, the new pharmacist quit, leaving the store with no regular pharmacists and severely understaffed with technicians. I had been floating there some, and in an effort to keep the new pharmacist (who I had worked with when she was hired as an intern) I volunteered to take over as manager of that pharmacy, thinking that this would allow her to relieve some of her burden and be able to hang in there. I did eventually get put in as pharmacy manager, but not until a couple of weeks after the new pharmacist had left the company and the store continued to struggle, with no support from management.


About the time I was put in as the pharmacy manager at my store, [pharmacy supervisor name] went on maternity leave. I strongly believe that the only reason I was allowed to take the position was that she wasn’t there to say no – she had decided several months back that she would not staff me permanently in a store because she did not want to accommodate my schedule restrictions.

I was told by the district manager and the interim pharmacy supervisor that, when I expressed concerns with the way things had been managed to this point, that, “We’ve been doing things the [pharmacy supervisor name] way for a while now, and it’s obviously not working. Now we’re going to do things my way.” I was under the impression that meant that I would be staying in this store for several months, allowing them time to hire a staff pharmacist for the store, get the technician staffing under control, hire a pharmacy manager, make sure the pharmacy manager was capable of handling a store of this volume, and then make a transition once the store was stabilized.

Unfortunately, as soon as [pharmacy supervisor name] came back from maternity leave, this plan went out the window. In my first conversation with her after she was back, I asked when she could get me transferred into this store permanently, so I could access all of the tools that are only available to pharmacy managers. Her response was, “Why would I transfer you there? You aren’t the pharmacy manager there. You aren’t going to be the pharmacy manager there. We’ve already got someone to replace you, and I just heard back today that he passed his drug test and background check.” Here we are back to respect, and treating people with some basic human decency.

I was shocked. I asked her about my pay, as the pharmacy manager position awards you a $1 per hour increase – she informed me that she would NOT be backdating my pay for the time I had been manager at the pharmacy, because despite the fact that I had power of attorney and was managing the pharmacy, I was not actually the manager there. All of this was completely sprung on me, in a completely tactless and inappropriate way, while I was in the middle of my shift. I felt the entire situation was extremely inappropriate, and I called the district manager. I was told that this was always the plan, despite the fact that one week earlier when she had been in my store, I had mentioned that I heard they had a partner for me, and she had acknowledged that and said she was excited that we were moving in the right direction. She and the interim supervisor had asked me to apply to the internal job posting for the manager position, and even had me spend my personal time writing a resume for the job. There are two options here – they were leading me on, lying to me about their intentions for me, or they lied more recently, informing me that this was always the plan.

Either way, I’m not satisfied with being treated that way. It’s not the decent way to treat anyone, and especially someone who has dedicated their professional life to CVS and volunteered to make personal sacrifices for the betterment of the district.


Now, my career is up in the air, my job in turmoil. No one has bothered to discuss with me what the plan is for my future, where I want to go and what I want to do. My store is in a state of unknown – under my guidance, turnover has stopped and my technicians are once again happy to come to work. We went from running consistently 500-700 scripts past due, to consistently running on time, and even occasionally getting some cleaning and organizing done, despite the fact that we are still understaffed by 60 technician hours a week.

Now, a pharmacist that is new to CVS is being sent in to manage the store. As has been described, throwing unknowns into this store hasn’t been very successful. It’s a tough store. It’s old, small, poorly laid out, and very fast-paced. We have recently grown by about 20% (just in the last few weeks) and have been able to maintain, but the technicians who have been through all of this just a few short months ago are terrified that a new pharmacist will not be able to handle the store and that it will return to how it was. I hope that’s not the case, but to be honest, no one knows.

One interview with someone isn’t going to show you that, and once again we are back to our old management tactics of putting all of our stock in one person to hold it all together. I even volunteered to stay on as the staff pharmacist, feeling that this would bring some stability to the store and that I could be an excellent supporting pharmacist to a new pharmacy manager that is not familiar with CVS’ system and the exact expectations and requirements of the job. This suggestion never even received a response beyond “We’ll talk…” which we never did.


I am not happy to be writing this letter. I had high hopes that a new district manager would bring real change, and that the district would no longer be subjected to the irresponsible and destructive management style that [pharmacy supervisor name] has brought with her.

Despite all of my frustrations, I still struggled with this – my professional career has only ever known CVS. I have made countless friends through this job, in technicians, pharmacists, front store staff, and patients. It’s difficult to walk away. But my hope is lost, my faith is gone. I hope for everyone else’s sake – all of those wonderful people who are still hanging in there, hoping for improvement – that I am wrong and change does come.


Thank you,
Lindsey Hoehn
PharmD

Basking In The Sunshine Of Some Mailbag Love

You are the problem fucktard! I'm a retired and very disabled nurse with MS and can't get the meds that allow me to have any quality of life because of fucking terrorists like you that presume anyone with a CII Rx is a worthless junkie. Fuck you, you snot-nosed brat!

That came in at 8:26 this morning anonymously as a comment to this post about how CVS employees seem to love their job. At 8:28 it was resent under the name "Nurse Ratchet"

Then at 8:30 we had this:

Fuck you, you have no business behind that counter treating ppl who ACTUALLY NEED THEIR MEDS TO HAVE A MEANINGFUL LIFE like criminals...shame on you!!

I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say there might be some other reason the good nurse's pharmacist isn't enthused about getting her business.

Ask your doctor if a tranquilizer dart may be right for you.

From The Mailbag. The Buckeye Board Of Pharmacy Figures It All Out. Way To Go Ohio.

Straight from the inbox. Complete and unedited:

Ever since CVS started their scorched earth policy regarding massive tech cuts the state board has received an increased percentage of complaints regarding prescription mis-fills. As the guardians of public safety(according to their mast head) they had no choice but to tackle this problem head on and come up with the appropriate solution; which of course they did.  From now on every pharmacist licensed in Ohio must now take  at least four(4) hours of continuing education consisting of "patient safety concerns when filling a prescription". 

This should definitely fix the problem of mis-fills.  We never practiced safety!  Who knew?

To be fair, this is only half of their safety solution. The other being the jailing of anyone guilty of making an error. Now that the second part of the plan is finally in place, you can breathe easily consumers of Ohio.

And by "consumers of Ohio" I of course mean "corporate bean counting assholes who are actually responsible for the problem." I doubt you had much worry they were going to inconvenience you in any way in order to keep people from experiencing preventable illness and death, but now you can rest assured you were right.

And to my friends left behind toiling for the chains, I'll say this is just the latest reason you need to get out. You know it as well as I do. I promise you you're not stuck there the way you feel you are. I made it out of that world and deep down.....you know you can too.

It won't get any better.

A Question Looking to Be Crowdsourced By You CVS Chain Slaves

This one showed up in today's mailbag, and here are those out there who know more about this than me:

I recently had to write about a CVS case that talks about the DUR system. After reading your blog, it seems like you are very familiar with it. I have one question for you: Are these “hard stops” exclusively managed by pharmacists? Or could some of them (the silly ones) be handled or “overwritten" by a trained technician? I mean, could some of them be managed by others and then the hard ones, only be handled by a pharmacist? That way pharmacist be more focused on the more important ones.

As a former Rite Aid chain slave, I know we had to override them all, and there was *something* to override on almost every prescription. (Caution using birth control in reproductive age women was my favorite.) Not sure if CVS is the same way.

Pharmacy Jesus Saves Another Pharmacy Soul

From today's mailbag:

It's been a year since I left CVS behind, in part due to your incisive, honest assessments of the debilitated state of our profession. I now work in a nursing home pharmacy with some of the best people you'd ever want to meet in a sweet little town in the scenic north Georgia mountains. My stress is gone, my arrhythmia is much better, I'm a better husband and father, and generally a better person for leaving that toxic environment. I think for all the complaining retail pharmacists do, I don't think they realize how bad it is until they get out and see how good life can be again. Thanks again and keep fighting the good fight.

Crucified and resurrected my friends. Curing stress and arrhythmias. Making you a better person with a happier life. That's what I do. I'm Pharmacy Jesus.

And I'm waiting for you, Mr. or Mrs. Walgreen's pharmacist just home from a 12 hour shift, your hands still shaking as you reach for the scotch and the Prozac, to come join us. It is doable. You do not have to live like this. 

Your liberation starts here

Sometimes, My Friends, The Jokes Just Write Themselves. That Won't Stop Me From Taking A Crack At It Though.

During the tour of CVS corporate headquarters, it was indeed obvious Foulkes takes her butts seriously.

"No one, and I mean no one, has assembled a bigger collection of assholes than we have right here in this building"  She gushed. "And not just in the drugstore industry. I'll go on the record right now in saying that I don't think there's a company in the history of commerce that has had more butt openings than you see in front of you right now"

UPDATE 1- So here's a real quote from the butt-stopping issue. (God why am I actually reading this magazine?)

After 22 years at CVS, and a multitude of different experiences throughout the organization, Foulkes has “gotten comfortable living in ambiguity,” she told DSN. “I’ve been thrust into situations where I just don’t know, and I have gotten comfortable not knowing."

I think what we just learned here is that the CVS President in charge of stores freely admits to, as many of her employees might put it, having her head up her ass.

Wow, I need to be breaking stories like this, These executives never seem to want to talk to me for some reason though.

It's A War Of The Corporate Cocksuckers At Walgreens. Pull Up A Chair And Root For Lots Of Injuries.

Holy crap all hell is breaking loose at the Pharmacy America Trusts For Some Reason. Chaos in the corporate suites, anarchy in the executive ranks, a food fight in the corridors of power.

This afternoon though, I sat on hold with my local Walgreens for about 45 minutes with no human contact, which means it's pretty much business as usual at store level.

Alert readers of this blog may remember my poking fun at two Walgreens executives who were given the boot, along with a generous severance package, after apparently making a billion dollar profit projection error.

However it now seems that one of those executives, former Chief Financial Officer Wade Miquelon, takes exception to the term "error," when applied to him.

The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 16, was in response to allegedly false and defamatory statements about Miquelon, including that he was responsible for a $1.1 billion forecasting error. Miquelon says Walgreen CEO Gregory Wasson and Alliance Boots chairman Stefano Pessina made the statements during meetings with investors between Aug. 5 and Aug. 8. The Wall Street Journal... reported that Walgreen directors told the investors that they had no idea the forecasting change was coming.

   Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson, addressing the media from a fort he made of apples. "Ain't no doctor gonna come within a mile of me."

Miquelon's probably gonna have to come up with some evidence that this billion dollar forecasting screwup wasn't all on him though. I don't envy him in that task. After all, he's going up against a very sophisticated titan of the business world, skilled in the ways of corporate culture and surely not likely to leave much help lying around for a lawyer trying to find proof that his client wasn't the only one involved.

 There are numerous other claims in the decidedly juicy lawsuit, such as that Wasson pressured Miquelon to forecast what the CFO thought was an entirely unreachable $6 earnings-per-share figure for fiscal year 2016. According to the court filing, on June 11 Wasson sent a text message to Miquelon that stated, “Let’s push for a 6 somehow.” Miquelon says he responded, “I don’t think there is any way we could ensure that,” to which he says Wasson replied, “No choice. Need a 6. We’ll find a way.”

D'OH! The dreaded Text message ploy! Whoever would have known such a thing would persist and have the ability to be recalled after it has been sent! Well played Mr. Miquelon, well played indeed. 

"I am sad. I wish I had more money. Also, that I had heard of Snapchat before right now."

One thing's for sure though, no matter where the facts take us, we can look forward to a thorough, fair hearing conducted on both sides by men of character and honor. 

 Miquelon’s lawsuit alleges that in a conference call on June 24, one activist hedge-fund investor told him that if he did not start “doing his job,” two other activist investors would “stop at nothing to get you out of the way, including getting personal dirt on you and embarrassing you publicly.

Wait. Forgot who I was talking about there for a second. Never mind. 

So, let's recap. Walgreens is off by a billion dollars or so on a recent profit projection, and promptly blames the Chief Financial Officer, who then leaves the company with a $4.7 million dollar check. Chief Financial Officer then says, "Oh no you don't! you were putting pressure on me to make that projection after I didn't want to, and now I'm going to sue you for a lot of money!" Which evidently $4.7 million doesn't qualify as. "See you in court bitch!"

And I didn't even get to the part where Miquelon claims he was promised the CEO job if he would just play ball. We could just be getting warmed up here my friends.

Reached for comment, a CVS spokesman issued a statement that read in part: BBBBBBWWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAHHHAAAA!!!!!!!!! THIS IS AWESOME!! Meanwhile, in Lima, Ohio, Walgreen's customer Larry Heisen said meekly, "I just wish they'd pick up the phone." 

I Stand This Night In Awe Of The Evil Brilliance of CVS. Or, Maybe Republicans Aren't Always Wrong About Everything.

"Drugmonkey there's some sort of typo in your headline" you're saying. "You've never once had anything good to say about CVS,  I know you make more than your share of slips on the keyboard, but this time is the whopper of them all. "

Except it wasn't a typo. Yes, I once made a joke about the company getting into a new scandal every month that turned out not to be a joke because they seriously do seem to get busted for something with every turn of the calendar page.

And yes, the second most visited page in the history of my little blog garden is that in which I gave space to a CVS employee who opens up on the company with both barrels. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I've never....seen anything....like the hatred CVS employees seem to have for their corporate master.

But I meant it when I just said I am in awe of them this night. They may have just made the move from evil to evil genius.

Let's back up a bit and remember the last time the company made national headlines, getting even the President of The United States to notice they were no longer going to sell tobacco in their stores. Speculation ran rampant as to the motivations of such a move, which was estimated to cost them $2 billion in annual sales. "Well, tobacco is a no growth category" the conventional wisdom went, "they evidently feel the good publicity will be worth whatever loss in revenue will occur, and it probably will help their Minute Care clinics pick up a contract or two. "

Oh how you underestimated these guys mainstream business pundits. It's more than just a contract or two at stake here.

For those of you playing along at home who don't follow the prescription processing industry, I'll mention here that CVS also owns Caremark, the second largest prescription benefit manager  in the country.

Now hold onto your seats, because here it comes, via The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot blog: 

Caremark... will soon require some customers to make an extra co-payment, in some cases up to $15, on any prescription that is filled at a pharmacy selling cigarettes and other tobacco products

...and in one fell swoop my friends, CVS can potentially cripple it's two main rivals though the 1 in 4 Americans whose prescriptions are managed by Caremark. Absolutely fucking brilliant. "We'll be agnostic [about] where the consumer fills their prescription," said CVS CEO Tom Ryan when the merger with Caremark was under regulatory review. " Well, it looks like they just found religion.

And I'm just....not sure how I feel about this. Other than being awed by the evil brilliance of the plan. I mean, there's no way you can say this isn't using the power of oligopoly to deliver Walgreens and Rite Aid a kick to the nuts, but ...if I were in a position to do it, I'd be more than happy to crush either one of those company's testicles. And you know, tobacco in pharmacies IS stupid. It was a burr up my ass every day I worked for Rite Aid and had to stare at the cigarettes on the other side of the store while selling people asthma meds. I even once wrote my State Representative and Senator, who was on the health committee at the time, making a case for the California pharmacy board to deny a license to any location that sold tobacco. Never heard back from the Representative. Got a letter full of nothing from the Senator.

Yet here we have a brutal bastard vs bastard vs bastard free market business free for all accomplishing what impotent government officials gave nothing but lip service to. The other "Big Two" are gonna either give up tobacco or lose a shitload of prescriptions.

Which... is exactly what should happen. I guess the free market wins this round, said the pinko pharmacist who never did sell tobacco in his store.

Jazzfests And Milestones.

I heard the note and held on to it as long as I could. Held on until the last one of the night was played I did, the gloom slowly settling inside my mind as it came just as assuredly as the fog was settling in outside on the bay. One last trumpet blast and the Monterey Jazzfest was over for another year. Maybe my last year.

Unemployment is like slowly spiraling down a drain. You wake up the next day and almost nothing has changed, you've probably slept in a little and actually feel a little better than when the alarm clock ruled your life the day before. You work on your resume' a little and fantasize about landing that position that has none of the problems of your now ex-job.

The day after that you wake up and realize you're getting low on coffee and empty on cash. The drain on your resources begins. You make the first withdrawal from the ATM that has no assurance of ever being replaced.

The trappings of affluence slowly start to fall away. The day before Jazzfest I had used the last of my Laphroaig and begun my unemployment gin in the plastic bottle. As much as CVS wants the world to think of them as some sort of health center now that they stopped the tobacco it remains a wonderful place to find cheap ways to rot your liver.

Jazzfest tickets are a crown jewel perk of the affluent. Being used that night two years ago in a different world from when they were purchased. There had been no bites on the resume'

And I wasn't kidding myself that there ever would be. I had just spent the last seven years flipping the middle finger to the decision makers in my industry and there wasn't any assurance I wasn't in a long, slow drain spiral, spinning off the comforts of the comfortable until I slid into homelessness with nothing but a pair of once-fashionable eyeglasses.

That was probably an exaggeration I kept telling myself. But make no mistake, life is different when the soul-crushing large checks those pharmacy chains can write you stop coming in.

At least I had an uncrushed soul now.

I couldn't hold on to that last trumpet note forever so I picked up the bag with the vinyl copy of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew that I probably shouldn't have bought and started walking and when the lady at the gate said "see you next year" I almost cried.

And I kept walking home and thinking and walking and falling and spinning a little closer to that drain. The money isn't the worst part of being unemployed. It's that persistent feeling of uselessness. When you wake up and make that coffee run you are surrounded from the moment you leave your condo with people with a purpose. The gardener. The plumber that just drove by. The people riding the bus to work. They all have a function this day, a role to play in this world that is humming along and you do not.  The most you can think of yourself is as some sort of spare part.

That's what it feels like from the moment you get out of bed. So the day after Jazzfest two years ago I didn't get out of bed.

But...that was two years ago. Tonight, I just got back, from this years Jazzfest. The Roots kicked ass and I'm getting married in April and I haven't been this happy in a long time.

And to the decision makers in my industry, or, should I say, my fellow decision makers now, this middle finger's for you. I haven't forgotten. Here's to a good many more years of it being right in front of your face.

Into The Mailbag We Go.......

Got this one as a comment to this post about the fun times people have working for CVS. Thought it deserved to be out front on its own:

Being a regular pain medication customer of CVS, I find it hilarious that not one single pharmacist will take ownership for their own fuck-ups. After getting rear ended at a stand still by a car traveling 60+ mph last year I was left with 8 bulging discs and an immense amount of pain that I will have to endure the rest of my life. My insurance won't work with Walgreen's so I got stuck with having to deal with CVS. I have a prescription for Tramadol and I don't know how many times I was supposed to have a script ready only to be told by my pharmacist that it can't be filled! You want to talk about a living hell? Try going through a Tramadol withdrawal on top of serious back pain! I am going through it again as we speak. I went back to my prescribing doctor and even pleaded to be put on anything else and he told me that there was nothing else that would help. He adjusted my prescription to where the frequency was 1 to 2 tablets every 4 hours as needed on a 120 count bottle. I have had one refill and one renewal since the adjustment and just had the online app tell me that my script was ready for a refill. I only had a few pills left so this seemed right. I put in the order online and was told it would be ready at 11:00 am. I show up at 1 pm and get told that they can't fill my script because it is too soon! They try to tell me that it was supposed to be a one month supply and I look at the label on my bottle and see "1 dose every 4 hours as needed". I talked to my prescribing doctor and he verified that he did not change the script. So some fuck head pharmacist filled out the script wrong the last time I renewed and I'm left to suffer until I can get this mess sorted out. Having just started a new job, this is the worst time to be going through this and I hope there is a special place in hell for all the fuckers at CVS who have repeatedly fucked me over. I am lodging a formal complaint with the pharmacist board. I have had enough. Meanwhile you fucktards whine about corporate pressure and how horrible it is. Then fucking quit! I can't quit my pain! Stop bitching and take ownership of your actions. Jesus Christ what a bunch of whiny fucking babies you all are . . .

Actually it was the answer I wanted to make sure everyone saw. Here goes:

Dear Whiny Douchebag:

Imagine you just got a letter from your insurance company about your tramadol coverage, and in it it said for you to get any more refills, you had to suck my dick. I bet you'd be all like "No way!! You guys can go to hell!" Right? Or at least something similar.

At least I hope so, 'cause I'm not getting any kind of hot chick vibe from your writing style.

Now, let's say I came to you and said for $15 a month, I'll tap you with a magic wand that will make sure your pain is under control and you will never have to go through tramadol withdrawal ever again. Assuming you're not a liar, (Many, many people with these type of stories are.) I bet you'd say something like "Wow! tramadol withdrawal sucks so bad, and I have this new job now with some dough coming in, and I work better when I'm not in pain, That's a bargain!! Sign me up!"

Well guess what Mr. Whineyfuck, this is your lucky day. because I am about to give you a clue as to how you should have been able to solve your problems all along.

I brought up my first point to show you that there is no law that says you have to do what your insurance company says. You wouldn't (I hope) suck my dick to get your tramadol, and you don't have to go to a pharmacy run by incompetent clowns. I'm not about to defend CVS here. The obsession with short staffing that permeates the chain drug world ensures that many people go through your type of experience.

Notice I said chain drug world, which means I wouldn't count on your Walgreen's being any better.

So what's a hurtin' tramdol dependent dude supposed to do? That's my second point. If you came into my place, I'd have you fixed up in about 5 minutes. Ten tops. And I'd charge you around $15 dollars a month without your insurance. If I happened to be in your fucky company's network, it'd be even less.

I'd also tell you the maximum dose of tramadol is 8 tablets a day, so your doctor kinda fucked you if he really did make out a prescription for 1 to 2 tablets every 4 hours. Do the math.

Which brings us to our conclusion. I'm not sure why I have to tell you this, but you don't have to be your insurance company's little bitch boy. Take some ownership of your own life, get your head out of your ass, and find yourself a real pharmacy. It'll cost you less than a Jackson. And if avoiding a life of pain and withdrawal isn't worth that much to you, then you'll get no sympathy from me.

You're welcome asswipe.

CVS Makes A Paradigm-Shifting, Disruptively Innovative, Strategically Focused Business Decision. Then Wows The World With Its Modesty.

WOONSOCKET, RI- In a major announcement seemingly sent simultaneously to every media outlet in the world, leading pharmacy operator CVS unveiled a bold decision unlike anything it or any other drugstore operator has tried in living memory.

Actually doing the right thing for once.

The operator of over 7,000 pharmacies and possible spawn of Satan announced it would phase out the sale of tobacco products in its stores over the next eight months, leading almost no one to ask "Why the hell was a company that claims to be a health care leader selling tobacco in the first place?"

Instead, the company that has, among other things,  fought multiple accusations of Medicare/Medicaid fraud, violates the intent of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy's labor standards with impunity, once dispensed multiple prescriptions written for children's flouride with an anti-cancer drug, and was caught employing a fake pharmacist when someone finally bothered to do a routine license check has been treated like it won the Nobel Peace Prize or something.

"You don't get a cookie for doing what you're supposed to do!!" comedian Chris Rock once said in his act. But evidently he was very wrong, as everyone from the AMA to anti-cancer groups to the president of the United States has lined up to present cookies of all flavors to the drug chain that recently finished tied for last place in Consumer Reports ranking of pharmacies.

Hopefully they were low fat cookies. Not the kind that CVS sells.

"This is a wonderful way to distract attention from the ways in which our company falls short......" said CVS President and CEO Larry Merlo before a lawyer started whispering in his ear. "I mean, I'm proud that we're able to finally set an example for ethical business practices and make those fuckers at Walgreen's look like schmucks....um....rather, and do the right thing."

"I'd like the word 'finally' struck from the record" the lawyer then added.

Asked if the company might now look for other ways in which it could actually do the right thing, Merlo was noncommittal, but did say, "This one is gonna cost us two billion dollars, so you can probably guess. Right now we'll just savor the fact we actually  one time took into consideration the possibility that we might want to live up to the image we like to project."

"After all,"  he concluded, "that's a claim no other drug chain can make."

I Provide Much Needed Aid To The American Prescription Filling Consumer. Seriously, You Need To Read This Post Before You Get Your Next Prescription Filled.

Because, Mr. and Mrs. American pill popping consumer, you need my help. You evidently really need my help. I'll start with a snippet from Drug Topics, the world's greatest trade magazine that employs the world's  greatest pharmacy columnist:

When it comes to filling scripts at retail pharmacies, a shopper behavior study indicates CVS is the top consumer choice, followed closely by Walgreens.

"Sad but not surprising" those in the profession are saying. "They are the two biggest, managing to shoehorn themselves on nearly every street corner in the country."

....The study also provided insight into why consumers choose certain pharmacies

"Well this will be useful." us insiders are now saying. "It will be good to know exactly how these behemoths managed to get in this position of market dominance."

"CVS shoppers (68%) were most concerned with quality;"

Everyone in the profession just now shot coffee out their nose. Seriously. Even if they weren't drinking a cup when they read that, the shock of what they just saw instantly created coffee out of nothing and made it spew forth from their nostrils.

Some families got more than they bargained for at a New Jersey CVS drugstore when their childrens' prescriptions for fluoride pills were filled with a popular breast cancer drug instead. 

Tamoxifen, the drug mistakenly given to the kids, is a popular estrogen-blocking drug, used to treat many breast cancer patients with estrogen-receptor-positive cancers.

Yup, at CVS quality is job one.  Here's some more:

Police say a 26-year-old woman has been filling pharmacy prescriptions with false credentials.
Nancy Rose McGowan has been working at a CVS pharmacy in East Austin for about two months, using the identifying information of a licensed pharmacist and a counterfeit US Army ID card. 

She was arrested last Thursday after a Board of Pharmacy investigator reported her to police as a person acting as a pharmacist without a license. The board was conducting a routine compliance check at the drugstore.

Routine compliance check turns up what CVS' pre-employment screening process doesn't. Hell yeah. That's what quality is all about. I could go on, but I'll just say I'm thinking the American consumer has been bamboozled, or perhaps is smoking large quantities of crack while participating in shopper behavior studies. Back to the Drug Topics article::

Walgreens pharmacy customers cited speed of filling prescriptions, while Rite Aid customers identified price as their most important factor in choosing a pharmacy.

The 20 minutes plus I routinely spend waiting to talk to a human when calling my local Walgreen's makes me lean more towards my crack-smoking hypothesis. Also, a hint to Rite Aid customers: I used to work there and know exactly what you've been paying.  Wave your little Wellness Plus card around all you want, but 20% percent off an astronomically high price is still pretty damn high.

But I'm here to help my friends. To be a problem solver as opposed to just a bitch and moaner. The next time you let one of the Big Three pharmacy giants start to make you feel all warm and fuzzy with the power of a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, take a look at this chart from your good friends at Consumer Reports, the highly respected and not nearly widely enough read journal that tries to keep you from wasting your dollars:

Seems pretty self-explanatory, but just in case it's not, I'll point out CVS, Walgreen's and Rite Aid all come in dead last for "speed and accuracy." As a matter of fact, it kinda looks to me like CVS is tied with the Son of Sam for worst rating in everything.

By the way, take a look at where your local independent drugstore stands. You'll want to start at the top.

So American Public, I'm not sure exactly on what you were basing your perception of CVS quality. Something besides evidence apparently. Now however, you know what has been obvious to pretty much everyone in the pharmacy world for at least a decade.

CVS sucks. You're welcome.

When I First Heard "Some Dumb Little Thing From CVS" I Thought They Were Talking About Larry Merlo. Turns Out To Be Something Else Entirely

Walgreens, One Of The Nation's Leading Peddlers Of Tobacco, With A Slogan Of "Be Well." And Evidently A Bit Touchy About The Subject

Got a request to post this for the world to see, and I'm happy to oblige. From the good folks at Twitter:

drea, Jan 31 02:54 PM:
Hello,

We have received a complaint that your account, @WalgreenTobacco, may be in violation of Twitter's policies on impersonation and/or trademark. Twitter firmly believes in the freedom of expression; however, impersonating another or misusing another’s trademark on our platform is against the Twitter Rules (https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311).

If you had intended to create a parody, commentary or fan account, your account must comply with our policy for such accounts (http://help.twitter.com/entries/106373). Follow the instructions below to make sure you are in compliance.

*Instructions*: Please edit each of the following parts of your profile within 48 hours of receiving this notice:

Account name
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Please understand that your account may be subject to permanent suspension if you fail to comply with these instructions or if your account is found to further violate the Rules. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Thanks,

drea
Twitter Trust & Safety

Poor Walgreens. Raking in millions by providing the product responsible for 1 in 3 cancer deaths while simultaneously trying to pass themselves off as a health and wellness destination. HOW DARE someone poke a little fun at the rank hypocrisy.

To be fair though, they're not the only ones. CVS and Rite Aid ride the hypocritical horse as well. Which is why I have it on good authority a rechristened Twitter critter might be popping up to annoy all of them.

Stay tuned.

Holy Crap I've Been So Busy I Forgot It's Been Over A Year Now Since The Fuckers At Rite Aid Have Had Any Power Over Me.

Since they forced me to make the best decision of my life. It's been a year and a couple months actually and what's embarrassing isn't how my time at the chain that keeps it personal ended. What's embarrassing is that I degraded myself by submitting to their power for so long.

Because this is the kind of thing they did with that power. Twisted the arm of educated professionals to fill prescriptions that everyone knew, or should have known, had no business being filled.

Not that Rite Aid had a monopoly on this. Both Walgreen's and CVS have run into far bigger problems for pushing obscene amounts of narcotics in the state of Florida. How embarrassing. For the people there deluding themselves by trying to maintain a veneer of professionalism in those sweatshops.

To those I left behind in the chains and to the person at corporate headquarters who's paid to do a Google search for "Rite Aid" every morning and will come across this post I say... it doesn't have to be like this. You do not have to sell your self respect for a fat paycheck that is destined to get smaller as the pharmacist surplus turns into a glut. You have no idea how good it feels to wake up in the morning and not be beholden to their bullshit. I work harder, and for far longer now than I ever did back then. But I have a bottle of scotch in the cupboard that I haven't felt the need to touch for months. And my self respect. And I haven't slept away a day for over a year now. Because now the days mean something to me.

It is deeply embarrassing it took me so long to stop being a coward.

To those of you left behind, it doesn't have to be like this.

__________________________________________________

Original Blogpost Air Date, January 25, 2009

Updated: I Am Fucking Tired, So The Quality Of This Post Will Suck. But I Feel Bad For Teasing You. My Personal Story Of Trying To Do The Rite Thing.

Because at work I like to keep things personal.

I think most of us in the profession can agree that making an effort to not have our customers become addicted to benzodiazapines would be the Rite thing to do. Our duty as health care professionals even. I think we can all agree on that.

At least I thought we could all agree on that. Evidently there is at least one exception. My Pharmacy District Manager, with whom I really don't have a personal relationship. I've never met him. He was of no Aid to me when I tried to do the Rite thing though. Benzodiazepines are high markup items, so maybe he's thinking the company needs the money. He could be right about that part.

Customer wanted a refill of temazepam that was filled 4 days ago for a 90 day's supply. While the other pharmacy was being contacted to confirm said 90 day supply was indeed picked up, the customer EXPLODES, and contacts the corporate office. She managed to find the Rite number to call without much Aid.

It's taking awhile to confirm the 90 day prescription. It was dispensed from a big mail-order outfit. I don't have to tell you what it's like to navigate through an organization like that to even find a person, much less one whose head is not up their ass.

I should say at this point I am asleep while all this is happening. I usually sleep until around 2 in the afternoon.

I should also say at this point the Pharmacy District Manager ORDERED THE OTHER PHARMACIST TO FILL THE PRESCRIPTION. Ordered the other pharmacist to dispense a 30 day supply of a controlled, habit forming medication when there was reason to believe a 90 day supply may have been dispensed 4 days before. A Pharmacy District Manager ordered this, which makes me think he may not be the Rite man for the job. Or perhaps he needs some Aid in his position.

The other pharmacist buckles. Don't blame her. She's here on an H-1 visa and if she's fired she's deported. She's also a good person and perhaps the best pharmacy manager I've ever worked for.

In stumbles the Drugmonkey in a caffeine-deprived haze. The other pharmacist is upset and doesn't want to talk about it, then leaves. At this point, the refill Rx has been filled, just as the District Manager ordered, and is ready to be picked up. The staff fills me in on the situation.

Step 1) Grab that refill off the shelf and make sure it ain't going nowhere.

Step 2) Sharpen the Drugmonkey claws.

I called the large mail-order operation and found someone with their head nowhere near their ass. There is a person working at a large mail-order operation whom if I ever meet in the real world, I will take out for dinner and as many drinks as they'd like. They were able to confirm delivery of the 90-day package and that it was signed for. As Kramer would say, Giddyup.

Oh, and the two prescriptions were from two different doctors.

I called the customer to tell her we would be unable to fill her 30 day refill request. You know what the customer said? The crazy customer who went ballistic only hours earlier?

"I understand. Thank you for calling."

Do you know what my District Manager said when I told him this? After putting me on hold for half an hour? That we still didn't have the power to deny the customer an early refill. My conversation with the customer was far more rational than the conversation I had with my District Manager. That's the saddest part of this whole episode.

The conversation with the District Manager quickly devolved into a semi-screaming match, at the end of which I reminded my District Manager there was a poster in every pharmacy in the state of California that spells out in clear terms the circumstances under which a pharmacist can refuse to fill a prescription. Preventing harm to the patient is one of them.

"Send me what this poster says in an e-mail" Said The District Manager who has sent out dozens of e-mails to every store he manages telling them the exact place to hang these posters. This was his way of blowing me off and ending the phone conversation.

My first thought was that my District Manager was a rookie under pressure from above to kiss customer ass who had a decision to make and blew it. After this phone conversation however, I realized I was wrong. He is a smug, arrogant, cocky power hungry bastard who has turned this into a pissing contest for no other reason than the need to feel his dick is bigger. He also is not an unintelligent man, which concerns me. I'm used to District Managers being kinda dumb and overwhelmed.

At any rate, I spent Friday in a nasty flame war with my District Manager. If I get fired, maybe I'll publish some of what I wrote here. There's some good stuff in there.

That's where it stands at the moment. A District Manager for a major pharmacy corporation maintains he has the power to order pharmacists to give out early refills of controlled medications.

Again I ask you Dear Readers, who the fuck needs cable? There is drama all around. I'll keep you posted.

Update 1/30- After almost a week, the District Manager decided to say he did not, in fact, order the other pharmacist to fill anything. The other pharmacist had documented in the patent's profile notes, however, that the DM did indeed order her to fill the early 30 day refill. Determined not to let him slip out of this, I sent an e-mail to the DM pointing this out, and thanking him for teaching us the importance of documentation. A meeting was held between myself, the other pharmacist, and the DM. The District Manager claims it was a case of miscommunication. The other pharmacist maintained she most certainly felt as if she was being ordered to fill this prescription. I made the District Manager look me in the eye and say he did not have to power to force a pharmacist to fill a prescription against his or her professional judgement. Outcome acceptable. Situation stable. For now.

Non-CVS Pharmacy Company Fined For Wrongdoing.

In a shocking press release made public this month, the Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed that the latest target of a pharmacy related investigation was not leading drugstore operator CVS.

"We have concluded an investigation into the diversion of oxycodone through legitimate pharmacies in the state of Florida and onto the streets of cities throughout the country, and have concluded that it in no way involves CVS." said lead field agent Dirk Bradford at a press conference at DEA headquarters this afternoon. "As unbelievable as it may sound, CVS is in no way accused of doing anything wrong at this time."

The investigation uncovered stores that had sold as many as 2,200,000 pills of oxycodone over the course of a year and not a one of them was a CVS. Seriously. The company that has over the years been accused of among other things, bribing state senators, employing fake pharmacists, overcharging both the Medicare system and individual Medicare recipients, as well as letting a customer have an asthma attack in one of their stores because they were a couple dollars short had nothing to do with this scandal.

I'm not kidding you. Six stores lost their DEA license in Florida over this. And a company that is not CVS will pay an 80 million dollar fine.

Walter Brombach, a retail analyst at Goldman Sachs expressed concern the company was losing its competitive edge.

"After being a trailblazer in showing just how far a corporation can go in skirting the law to profitability, these latest developments raise the specter that CVS' competitors may be catching up and developing their own ways of calculating the reward/risk ratio of defying accepted laws and social norms. That being the case I am immediately downgrading my rating on the stock from 'strong buy' to 'hold"

Other analysts were more optimistic, noting that CVS had its own oxycodone scandal in 2012 and this was simply a case of others mimicking the industry leader.

Reached at the company's headquarters in Rhode Island, CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis said "We remain committed to serving our customers and will work with the proper authorities.....wait....no....this isn't us.....no comment."

Rite Aid, Battered Like A Wife Of OJ Simpson, Somehow Manages To Rise From The Dead And Limp Around Like A Mutant Zombie.

CAMP HILL, PA- In a surprise news conference today that turned out mostly to be a one man monologue, Rite Aid CEO John Standley announced what he called "a bold new era of service to our customers, our patients, and our employees."

"Let's be honest, this company's been in trouble for a long time now, and our recent announcement of a return to profitability after six years surprised me as much as anyone. Naturally the first thing I thought of was that the boys in accounting screwed up again, they're not exactly the sharpest pencil in the drawer you know."

"Then I thought maybe it was a practical joke, and I got scared. Lying on official SEC filings, no matter how funny, is something that could put me in jail. And the stories Marty (former Rite Aid CEO Martin Grass) has to tell can make the hair on your back curl."

"But then it began to sink in. We just might make it. All our hard work, well, mostly my hard work, is finally starting to pay off. Our vision, our determination, and our drive, has finally put us in a place where after a three month period we have more money left than we spent. After I let that sink in, I asked myself 'now what are we going to do with it?'

"Why not use it to build something different, I asked myself. Why not use our near death experience as a teachable moment, an opportunity to show the world that when an organization buckles down, looks deep inside itself, and demands incredible sacrifices from its members in order to survive, that it should use that survival to show the world that those sacrifices were worthwhile. That's why I'm pleased to announce the new Rite Aid, committed to being the most dynamic and rewarding place to work in the whole drugstore industry. From now on, our business leading program, "RiteLife" will strive to find ways to let our employees know we value and care for them as people."

"For example, obese people have by and large a lower quality and shorter life than those of us of normal weight. So our new program of mandatory weigh ins is just a way of showing how we care for you. And the savings generated by not having as many fat asses on our payroll will go a long way towards generating many more profitable quarters to come."

"Profitable...and rewardable...for you!!! Just think of every time you step on the scale soon to be installed in every breakroom as like a treat from Grandma. Without the calories!!"

"And if you think that's exciting, just wait until you see what else RiteLife has in store. I don't want to give away too much, but let me just whet your appetite with 5 words, keystroke loggers and phone taps! All perfectly legal, after you sign the RiteLife Rewards Release form."

"One thing's for sure. Now that we have some monetary resources coming in, every employee will soon know just how much we care. About everything they do."

"Everything."

Reached for comment, CEO of leading drugstore chain CVS Larry Merlo said "Groundbreaking my ass, we've been weighing the fatties for months now. And just because he got away with firing some jackass who shot off his mouth in front of the whole goddamn internet he thinks he's head of the CIA or something. That punk doesn't have the slightest idea what controlling someone's life is about."

"Trust me" Merlo concluded, "No one cares for their employees more than CVS."

"No one."

Today's Cruel Little Legal Joke

An actual line from the actual California Pharmacy Permit application:

"any non-pharmacist owner who commits any act which would subvert or tends to subvert the efforts of the pharmacist-in-charge to comply with the laws governing the operation of the pharmacy is guilty of a misdemeanor"

To which CVS says......BBBBWWWWWWAAAAAAHHHHAAAHHHAAAHAAAAAA!!!!!!! What a quaint little law from a different time. Kinda like the one still on the books in the nearest town from here that says a driver has to honk his horn at the city limits in order to warn any horses on the street.

"But.....why were you looking at a pharmacy permit application Drugmonkey?" some of you may be asking.

More will be revealed my friends. Stay tuned.

You Are The Donkey Here. The Chair Is CVS.

Or Rite Aid. Or Walgreens. You get the idea.

And sometimes the chains that bind us are 7,000 store corporations.

But, you do not have to be bound to that plastic chair my friends. Trust me on this. News is coming soon.

I'm free.......:)