Iowa doctor sues pharmacy board to mandate dispensing of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin

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rph3664

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That's correct, folks. Someone is doing this in 2023.

www.kwqc.com

Davenport doctor sues to treat COVID without state interfering

A Davenport doctor says he should be able to prescribe controversial drugs to treat COVID-19 without interference from state health boards. The Iowa Board of Medicine began investigating Dr. David Hartsuch, a former Republican legislator, after a pharmacy refused to fill one of his patient’s...
www.kwqc.com www.kwqc.com
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Yeah crazy that a FDA approved drug that is prescribed off-label by a doctor would not be filled by a pharmacy. I actually had quite a few issues with this A few of the doctors in my ED thought ivermectin was safe enough and had enough upside that they would prescribe to some patients. The issue was just what this guy, evidently, is suing over. The patients would call back to our ED and the docs would ask me if I could talk with the pharmacy to get them to fill it. I actually had this issue with Walmart and an independent pharmacy. It was company policy and no explanation would be accepted. There was two pharmacies in our area who did fill these scripts so I would direct the docs to prescribe to them. But yeah, hard to believe pharmacists wouldn't fill this.
 
Too bad the article seems to be barely more than the headline
 
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From the more recent article:

"An Iowa physician is seeking a court order that would require pharmacies to fill prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19."

So is the goal to "allow" or to "require" pharmacists to dispense ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine?

Either way, sounds like he's a quack who was reprimanded for harassing the pharmacist, not for his off label prescribing.
 
Non-pharmacist here. If the patient dies or is hospitalized when the pharmacy refuses to fill medication could the Pharmacist be sued? I don't agree with the Ivermectin treatment etc but in the end why does the Pharmacist care? Or are they liable for "off-label" treatment?
 
percyeye said:
Non-pharmacist here. If the patient dies or is hospitalized when the pharmacy refuses to fill medication could the Pharmacist be sued? I don't agree with the Ivermectin treatment etc but in the end why does the Pharmacist care? Or are they liable for "off-label" treatment?
Click to expand...
The pharmacist doesn't care. It is at the direction of their employer. You can make most doctors or pharmacists prescribe/dispense or not prescribe/dispense most anything as long as it's in an order set, has a pop up in their system, or a memo is sent out to every one.
 
percyeye said:
Non-pharmacist here. If the patient dies or is hospitalized when the pharmacy refuses to fill medication could the Pharmacist be sued? I don't agree with the Ivermectin treatment etc but in the end why does the Pharmacist care? Or are they liable for "off-label" treatment?
Click to expand...
The pharmacist can be held liable for medication dispensed, even when it was filled accordingly to what the prescriber ordered.

I don’t think there has been a case where a pharmacist was held liable for NOT dispensing a medication though (feel free to correct me on this one though)
 
rph3664 said:
That's correct, folks. Someone is doing this in 2023.

www.kwqc.com

Davenport doctor sues to treat COVID without state interfering

A Davenport doctor says he should be able to prescribe controversial drugs to treat COVID-19 without interference from state health boards. The Iowa Board of Medicine began investigating Dr. David Hartsuch, a former Republican legislator, after a pharmacy refused to fill one of his patient’s...
www.kwqc.com www.kwqc.com
Click to expand...
Hey Doc, 2020 just called, they want you back to the future. Isn't this a little late to the party that was COVID?
Regardless of all points of view, politics, and affiliations, you cannot "mandate" or "require" a pharmacist to dispense any medication!
And to the non-pharmacists, NO, you cannot be indicted for murder, if you refuse to dispense a drug, because there are hundreds of other places you can fill an Rx. And you have P&Ps and protocols in place to back you up.
 
Can your employer mandate you to not dispense an fda approved medication if you believe it is a legitimate prescription in all senses?
 
storyhill said:
Can your employer mandate you to not dispense an fda approved medication if you believe it is a legitimate prescription in all senses?
Click to expand...
Yes. Although I think it’s more common for financial reasons more so than clinical ones.
 
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Rockinacoustic said:
Sure. Just like a formulary dictates which med a patient can or can't get covered.
Click to expand...
I am not even considering insurance. That is an agreement that you make with your insurance company as far as I understand. For example your pharmacy doesn't want you to dispense gabapentin if it's being used for restless legs. Is that actually something that can required for pharmacists to follow? I have close to zero retail experience.
 
rph3664 said:
That's correct, folks. Someone is doing this in 2023.

www.kwqc.com

Davenport doctor sues to treat COVID without state interfering

A Davenport doctor says he should be able to prescribe controversial drugs to treat COVID-19 without interference from state health boards. The Iowa Board of Medicine began investigating Dr. David Hartsuch, a former Republican legislator, after a pharmacy refused to fill one of his patient’s...
www.kwqc.com www.kwqc.com
Click to expand...
of course!
half of the country thinks the other guy won the Election too.. in 2023
I guess, it really depends on where you get/watch your news
everyone is in their own echo chambers.
 
storyhill2 said:
I am not even considering insurance. That is an agreement that you make with your insurance company as far as I understand. For example your pharmacy doesn't want you to dispense gabapentin if it's being used for restless legs. Is that actually something that can required for pharmacists to follow? I have close to zero retail experience.
Click to expand...
I don't work retail either, but I believe CVS or Wags had (has?) a policy where pharmacists could not dispense opioids beyond a certain MME/day to new patients (?)
 
I got a story to share. I used to work as an intern as CVS back in 2019. That is when COVID slowly become a concern. I got a scrip from a doctor for 6 different people. It is all for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Those rx litterally clean out our entire supply of those two medications. I double check later and found out that the doctor prescribed those medications for his FAMILY members and STAFF at his practice as a prevention for COVID. At that point, there were no regulartion to stop dispensing it for COVID so we cant do anything. I can see why CVS and other big pharmacy implement those rules. There are doctors out there that are very greedy and without these regulations, they can get all the med for themselves.
 
khoanguyen1512 said:
I got a story to share. I used to work as an intern as CVS back in 2019. That is when COVID slowly become a concern. I got a scrip from a doctor for 6 different people. It is all for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Those rx litterally clean out our entire supply of those two medications. I double check later and found out that the doctor prescribed those medications for his FAMILY members and STAFF at his practice as a prevention for COVID. At that point, there were no regulartion to stop dispensing it for COVID so we cant do anything. I can see why CVS and other big pharmacy implement those rules. There are doctors out there that are very greedy and without these regulations, they can get all the med for themselves.
Click to expand...

what was the diagnosis/ ICD 10 code associated with these prescriptions?
 
VA Hopeful Dr said:
Which is weird because Epic requires us to have a diagnosis attached to every single prescription we send.
Click to expand...
Your Epic does, ours doesn't. Our version of Epic only requires it for narcotics because it is a requirement in our state. Epic is certainly dominant, but I would also bet that a large majority of prescriptions come to a community pharmacy from something other than Epic.
 
VA Hopeful Dr said:
Which is weird because Epic requires us to have a diagnosis attached to every single prescription we send.
Click to expand...
"a diagnosis"
Believe me. It'll be an Rx for like, capecitabine, and they'll put K21.9. LOL

Our system is in epic too, and it's often just randomly missing. I'll secure chat them and they say it was added. I believe em, it's just the way it is
 
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