Dear supporters, I can't believe this happened!
Last month, I travelled to Tennessee State Board of Pharmacy to try to persuade the Board to do more to protect patients forced to mail order pharmacy and forced to risk their lives with delays and improper temperature control.
Between work and multiple doctor appointments for one of my children, I was exhausted so much that my legs shook as I walked to the podium. My exhaustion was worth it for the hope of change and for this surprising moment from this State Board of Pharmacy regulator.
Me to the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy: I just ask the board to start ensuring that medications are stored properly appropriately throughout the supply chain and just do more to protect us and our children. Thank you.
Board of Pharmacy Member: Thank you for appearing today and I want to tell you from my standpoint, you're preaching to the choir here. I have long thought. And have spoken numerous times on this. And it really started when a gentleman walked into my pharmacy and asked could he get his medication filled there. It was a considered specialty.
I don't know who defines that. (The same pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs that force us to their mail order pharmacies - Optum Rx, CVS Caremark, & Express Scripts.) But it's a specialty drug. And I said no your, your insurer makes you get it from their specialty pharmacy. And he said well, he, he had it. He said I found this in my tobacco barn. In the box, in the tobacco barn where the carrier had left it, he said, I don't even know how many days it's been in there.
And it was in July. And he said, I'm not comfortable administering this. This happens over and over and over. And in my area, and I don't want to disparage any town, but if you use the U. S. Postal Service, there's a place called Hebron, Kentucky. And in Hebron, Kentucky, every mail order is stalled there for some unknown reason.
When they call, they tell them, I don't know where it is, but they say it's in, it's sitting in Hebron, Kentucky. I just had it last week during the snow. I'm needing a refrigerated item. It's stalled in Hebron, Kentucky. I now need to get it from you. We do all this phone calling and getting all this override and so forth.
Now, I don't know what the conditions are there. But I know that if we do not believe that this plays a role, then everybody needs to go back and unplug the refrigerators in your pharmacy, turn your air and heat off, and forget about it. It is absolutely ludicrous. To say that we need to control all these factors until somebody dumps it in a mail container, and then it's anybody's game.
And I always say, would you let me call Arizona, get a half gallon of milk, put it in a container with an ice pack, in the middle of the summer, in hundreds of degree weather, let it be ten days shipped across the country, when you get it, the milk jug is warm, are you going to drink that milk? If you won't drink that milk, then you don't need to put that medication in your body either.
And, my big pet peeve, if you want that risk and you choose it, it's fine. But if that's the only way you're an option of getting milk, then somebody needs to take some steps to make sure that milk is drinkable. And, that is my, my big pet peeve.
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I haven't been able to follow up yet to see what next steps the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy will take to ensure safety and accountablity. From what we have seen across the nation, most Boards of Pharmacy will start to take action. Then, they are quickly overpowered by the pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs that force to their own mail order pharmacies.
That's why your voice & support are critical.
Thank you,
Loretta Boesing
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