Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Mandatory e-Scripts for C2 Prescriptions


A fellow pharmacist friend of mine in Arizona tells me that their Board of Pharmacy made it mandatory for prescribers to use the e-Script system for C2 controlled substance prescriptions as of January 1, 2019.

He also tells me that prescribers can avoid having to use the system by filing a "waiver" with the Arizona Board of Pharmacy. In fact, many physicians now just print "waiver filed with board of pharmacy" when printing C2 prescriptions.

Pharmacy chains are also telling their pharmacists that they're not the sheriff in policing the mandatory requirement and to just accept all prescriptions that are written or printed.

So, this begs the question.

What the HELL was the point?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The POINT is that it makes the AZ legislature and governor “feel good” about doing something about the narcotic prescription “crisis”. Kinda like rubbing yourself...everybody was on board until the cost of the monthly software for a practice that maybe writes one prescription a month was made a reality... then the legislatures rub off didn’t feel so good.

Anonymous said...

Ditto to 6:32
Sometimes it is the act of acting, rather than the outcome, that matters

Anonymous said...

Here Crazy are stats from the Arizona Board of Pharmacy web site

46, 142 physicians have applied for a wavier though prescribers working at more than 1 practice site have more than 1 listing. In addition 2,029 Veterinarians have applied for a waver and 48 pharmacies. The pharmacies are mostly VA or Indian Health Service sites. My little independent pharmacy was trying to follow the rule until we learned the CVS and the Walgreens in my town weren't. The BOP web site has posted that Pharmacists are not responsible for checking for waivers. What is the point indeed!

Supposedly the wavier is just a grace period to allow for upgrading of computer systems and other technologic problems. Maybe in a year this all goes away. Or maybe after the grace period we poor Pharmacists will have to check the data base.

MartiRecklessSimmons said...

I’m just glad that my doctor can send in my Vyvanse prescription. Do you have any idea how much anxiety* I have about losing those things? *The buspirone is already on file, so I’m good on that end.
That was an anxiety joke.