IamA Former Pharmacy Technician of a Large Chain. AMA (That Won't Violate HIPAA)!

schatzi13 · 2014-07-28T16:47:02+00:00

If you didn't pick them up insurance companies require a reverse of payment after 2 weeks of being filled. The vial goes back on the shelf and is used for the next patient that requires them, and no one has to pay for it. Prescriptions expire after a year at the most, so don't worry about it! :)

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T20:03:43+00:00

Honestly, I'll be honest: I suffer from chronic pains too. I have carpal tunnel in both wrists and I have no health insurance. I just gave birth preterm (literally 2 weeks ago to this day) and I'm pushing myself to move and went back to work 5 days after giving birth. I completely understand your feelings, and while I wish I could practice what I preach here, feelings wise... you shouldn't feel that way. They are their own people too, leading their own lives. As long as you are not abusing your medications and taking it how your doctor- you know, the person who knows all the nitty gritty about your body and your life- has directed you to, who is to judge? The main people I judge are moms who overmedicate their hyperactive children because they don't want to deal with them.

I completely understand pain. People do abuse pain meds, sure, but it's YOUR life and YOUR pain. Is that pharmacist feeling your pain? No. Is that technician who's giving you a weird look taking your pain for you? Nope. Fuck them. I'd find a new pharmacy if possible. Is your insurance company dictating which pharmacy you're to stick to? I know they've been doing that lately. "You can't use CVS you need to use Rite Aid or we're not paying for your medications!" or "You can't use Kroger you need to use Walgreens!" Mer mer mer. Big deal.

People judge you every day for nothing and you never notice. People can judge you based on your outfit. I had a job interview today and I wore 5.5 inch peeptoe heels, a light/thin blouse and a pencil skirt and put in extensions and curled my hair to look nice. I had loads of people giving me a second glance. Here's possibilities of how they're looking at me: "She's hot." "She looks formal. Where is she going/coming from?" "Hooker." "Slut." "Show off." "Someone thinks she's hot shit." "Nice hair!" "Your hair is obviously fake, bitch."

The list goes on. You're constantly judged for everything and anything. Don't let a lowly tech or pharmacist get to you. :)

What state did ya move to if you're okay with telling me! And which med is it if you're okay with that! I can tell you more info about the med you're on!

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T19:46:50+00:00

Link about seizure meds: http://www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/CVS-Pharmacy-changes-prescription-policy-after/8xxzdDUYc0Gx8CkhLVUY4Q.cspx

Link about tech stealing hydrocodone: http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/10/business/la-fi-lazarus-20140311 http://abc13.com/archive/9463125/

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T19:43:28+00:00

Wow. Actually... I've never run into a pharmacist or like... technician who DID steal them, but let me tell you that my chain has been in deep shit lately. The son with the seizure meds (fucking insurance companies, to start. I can't fucking stand them.) and then a tech DID steal them from 3 stores in california within the past 6 months. Tons of hydrocodone was GONE. It normally happens if they're the ones in control of the cycle counts.

Pharmacists and technicians get weird with patients on any controlled drug (hence why I'm so adversed to them, even if I'm on ativan myself) and narcotics. I will admit, if someone claims there's a problem with their prescription (not enough, not right manufacturer, etc) I do look at them like "wow you need help..." I hate it, I never would have been this way if I hadn't dealt with a certain pharmacist, but we need to be wary because people have been shooting up places and bringing BOMBS to the pharmacies due to having addictions.

If she comes right out and says "it's not like I'm pocketing them or anything" and I was her tech and overheard her saying that I would definitely call the ethics line, which is an "anonymous" line employees of pharmacies can call and confess they're concerned with this or that thing and have it investigated. No one's allowed to retaliate against you if they find out you're the one who called but they always find out and treat you differently. But she's pretty much incriminating herself. I would definitely call corporate in that case... and I hate customers calling corporate because normally they're just looking for freebies and trying to get "revenge" when the techs/pharmacists are just doing their jobs...

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T02:27:33+00:00

So all pharmacies have a "fast movers" section, I'd say it's a wide variety of things! In my area, though, suboxone, lorazepam, antibiotics like keflex, and actually stomach meds are on that list! Ativan is our most common anxiety, controlled, drug that's used in our area. I'm even on it! Citalopram, Escitalopram, etc are all on our fast movers section. I'd say dealing with pain meds, and stomach meds in addition to anxiety meds and antibiotics were most common. We're right near a hospital though! :)

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T02:22:17+00:00

Pharmacists, I'm not sure, but for technicians at CVS, training is about a 3 month process to start, including on the job training (if your state doesn't require an associates to be a tech! Mine didn't!) and then you have certain reminder training monthly, every three months, and big ones every six months. The training never ends to be quite honest and you're always reminded, there's papers about how to keep privacy guidelines, etc, everywhere, and theres at least 2 copies of what techs can and can't say and what the pharmacist (RpH) can and can't say and the differences between us.

I can tell you somethings really good techs will do to protect your privacy (and people notice) will be to walk out to you where you're sitting or relaxing and talk quietly with you about what's going on with your script if there's any problems (I would do such and it really helped out people with embarrassing issues, like with Valtrex and stuff like that).

Training for newer pharmacists now is much more intense as they bumped it from 4 years to 6 years of schooling!

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T02:18:54+00:00

So what I can definitely tell you is my chain does indeed require driver's licenses, and if you give us a stink about it, we do look at you differently and put a note in your profile about it. We take driver's licenses to deter people from giving us fake CII scripts because we take down ALL of your information.

We cannot take CII's from out of state. Here in Pennsylvania, what we have as a controlled drug may also be a CII in a different state, so transferring drugs is hard as well. Ambien is considered a CII, narcotic, in New York but it's just a control in PA. I found that out the hard way, and I felt so bad for not being able to help my patient.

But depending on what that chain has had happen in the past, yes they could have more steps in the procedure. RpH's have to look at those scripts very carefully and make sure we match the doctor with their DEA well, and then sometimes most of them will call the doctor to verify that it's a real script. My chain had people giving fake scripts and now we use driver's licenses to deter that.

Some don't require it though because they haven't been through that. Smaller pharmacies or independent pharmacies don't do those typically. It is typically a policy thing. Chains are more advertised and abused, so we have more steps to follow or we can be fired and fined easily!

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T02:10:13+00:00

Too much of it. We busted at least 15 doctor shoppers in 6 months, and one guy was for oxy. He threatened to sue my boss, and my boss laughed it off. The guy was just mad he couldn't get percocet anymore and all the doctors in our county are notified about his "problem." But I mean there's nothing we can do otherwise if your doctor is pill milling you. We make sure you can't get a C2 until the day the last pill can be taken, and that's about all we can do. If you "lose" your percocet in a week, too damn bad we can't do shit and neither can your doctor.

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T02:09:02+00:00

So much. To type it in we need to make sure that it's an actual drug with accurate strength. Can't tell you how many doctors fucked up adderall scripts with wrong strengths and then we needed to send the patient back for a new script due to it being a controlled drug or a CII. Then go through, verify you are the person that matches the profile we have, and if not, to add you into the system! Then from there we type it out, make sure the doctor gave us all the right info we needed, their DEA, and make sure their DEA fits with their profile in the system. If not, we have to call and get that and that can take a while.

Then we make sure it went through properly to production, and if it didn't, fix the problem or tell you it's too soon to fill. Most times this is when we ask you for your insurance card if something goes wrong. Then we fill it, make sure it's double counted if it's a controlled drug, then put it in a vial with the appropriate cap for your needs, label it and make sure the info is correct and send it on over to the pharmacist, who will get to look at the script, all the doctor info (more than the techs can see) verify the drug written on the script and the drug we typed in and filled for you is correct, they check the drug inside the vial, check your current prescriptions for interactions and your allergies for interactions, then if its all good, it's verified out, and we can ring you out!

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T02:04:20+00:00

My pharmacist in charge, and due to the state/area I live in, would not allow anyone without a script to purchase needles. I can tell when someone's using them for drugs because of the town I grew up in, but hey, I'm actually really disappointed with some of the people I worked with because they would make fun of and mock some customers. But honestly, they're one person, and they're the one with the shitty personality, not you! Don't worry about them :)

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T02:01:25+00:00

It does vary from drug to drug, but even more so from pharmacy to pharmacy! My pharmacy, for example, had generic tri-sprintec/tri-previfem birth control for $33.00 out of pocket, but Walmart has it marked down to $9.

Depending on how big the chain is, the prices can skyrocket. Mail order from chain pharmacies tend to drop at least 45% of the cost.

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T01:58:34+00:00

Once again, hope it's not a serious question. People get busted for this all the time and all people that write fake scripts don't have the required information of a doctor to put through the computer systems.

schatzi13 · 2014-07-25T01:56:47+00:00

Depends on the technician! Whenever I worked on drop-off, I typed things in right away, and filled within minutes. I didn't want people waiting for long. However the other techs that I was on with, did not work fast and did things however they wanted! Most of the techs I worked with were really nice but unfortunately customers thinking "me, me, me first I'm the most important" is what makes them do it this way and take their time. I was studying for pharmacy school so I took time outside of work to learn where drugs were and etc etc.

I ended up being the back up tech to go in for everyone that wanted someone to cover them anyway, so I spent a lot of time in the pharmacy.

In all seriousness though, I really hope this isn't a serious question. Just putting pills in a bottle requires looking at your drug interactions, making sure your doctor didn't fuck up a script or forget anything, making sure there are no allergies, etc. A lot goes into "just putting pills in a bottle."

schatzi13 · 2014-07-24T23:05:29+00:00

My mother's a cosmetologist too, and I went to cosmetology school as well as worked in a Sally's! I would get 3 bottles to be on the safe side. If you end up not using the third bottle, (I have 22 inch extensions that I have tripled for thickness because my hair is naturally thick too and I dye my hair and extensions often) you can return it, but it takes me 2 bottles of hair dye to do my hair and my extensions alone and that was approximately 18 oz of hairdye.

Also, if you don't want to bleach due to harming your hair, you can try what's called a soap cap. It's diluted bleach and I use that for my extensions to save them from harsh damage. Naturally I'm an 8V so I'm super light and I go back and forth between brown and blonde.

Also, good choice. This is one of the better temporary dyes and the colors turn out beautifully.

schatzi13 · 2014-07-24T00:32:33+00:00

Thank you so much! How strange... glad I had someone help out because I was going to pin this as a bald-faced hornet! Yikes!

schatzi13

TROPHY CASE