Is It Legal?

[carlie]

Have you talked to one of the pharmacists. at your VAMC. They have the ability to change your medications!

hawkfire,

I have seen where a pharmacist can change something like (example) the brand of RX for GERD from Prevacid to Prilosec

BUT I do not think (at all) that a pharmacist can change something like Lora-tabs to Oxycodone.

jmho,

carlie

[Hurting]

It wasn't the pharmacy that changed my meds. it was my Primary Service Provider. Primary Care Dr. in other words.

[john999]

You could ask your pcp to change you to methadone. The VA pain clinics usually have the cheapest and oldest type pain drugs. Oxycodone, morhpine, and methadone are old and cheap drugs. If you don't fit into VA's cookie cutter treatment picture you better find a private pain clinic. Do you have good private insurance that pays for drugs? If the pain clinic or your pcp decides you need to be taken off pain meds you need to show them you should not be taken off the pills. My VA pain clinic guys are trying to take me off percoset after years. They are feeling the heat from scandals in the local community. I am going to ask my PCP to stop my trips to the VA pain clinic. They do nothing but make trouble for me.

[SLEDGE]

Anything that the VA wants to do is legal.

Just ask them.

31 years on appeal.

I don't fit into their cookie-cutter medical scheme of things and

it costs me about 600 bucks a month.

Except for last year when I fell into the donut-hole.

That cost me an extra 45 hundred bucks over 3 months.

I'm glad I finally got to 100 percent so I can afford VA care.

And their travel pay games.

And the VA dart-board system of assigning doctors to patients.

(4 in the last 6 months and they are still telling me that I belong

in another facility.)

"The "Patients Rights"they have hanging up all around the VAMC's

state the patient has a right to have their pain controlled."

Good luck with that one.

sledge

[Vync]

Here's another tip which might help...

My VAMC has the PCP clinics broken down into several different groups. For about 13 years, I was always stuck with the residents who were very inexperienced and blindly follow orders without much regard for patients who are legitimately in pain. I constantly had problems with them and my Patient Advocate was able to get me switched over to a full-time Staff Physician who has 20+ yrs experience. This doc knows me and knows how to treat my problems. You might want to look into this, but I don't know how your VAMC is setup.

[carlie]

"The "Patients Rights"they have hanging up all around the VAMC's

state the patient has a right to have their pain controlled."

Good luck with that one.

sledge

sledge,

I'm not saying that's all it takes - it's just another small piece of ammunition at our disposal.

carlie