Customer Supports Identity Theft At The Pharmacy

[LillFilly]

So, waiting in line at the pharmacy today I overheard another customer complaining. They were a little behind the guy was moaning it had been two hours; well it was his choice to sit and wait rather than come back or do some shopping!

Anyway, I heard him complaining how the last time he came in was to pick up a prescription for his wife. He said he'd had her license and everything, but they refused to give him the medicine until she came in and signed for it herself! He went on about how she's handicap and she had to come allllll the way back with him to get her medication, and he didn't know WHY they couldn't just give it to him!

I wanted to say "Don't you realize that they were protecting your wife? Imagine if somebody got a hold of YOUR license and came in to get YOUR medication claiming to be your brother or son? Wouldn't you be pissed if they let some guy take your meds just because he SAID you said it was OK?"

Unfortunately, he was called up next before I could say that.

Do'h.

(PS. I know that I had to sign my signature acknowledging that I was receiving the medication, so I assume the patient has to be there to sign, unless someone else has power of attorney. I've heard you can give a pharmacy permission for predetermined people to get items on your behalf though.) I read that my pharmacy requires a written 'prescription confirmation' form to be signed by the actual medication owner if sending someone else to pick it up, so I'm assuming his wife didn't do that, though it seems simple enough and the information was easy enough to discover. I'll bet he was just too angry to ask.

[bainsidhe]

See now this is something I've wondered about with a pharmacy. When I had surgery, I was prescribed Vicodin. Yet my friend encountered no trouble getting my script for me. Which was good, because I was drugged up and in pain, waiting to be taken home.

So how/when does a pharmacy decide that only the patient can pick up a script?

[ThirdGenRetail]

Part of it may depend on the country the pharmacy is in, and/or the drug being picked up, OR a recent policy change. Of course, there's cases like ours where the drug my mother's picking up... Is for our dog(Phenobarbotol). Gets some chuckles when we shop at different Greenwalls, at least!

[MoonCat]

See now this is something I've wondered about with a pharmacy. When I had surgery, I was prescribed Vicodin. Yet my friend encountered no trouble getting my script for me. Which was good, because I was drugged up and in pain, waiting to be taken home.

So how/when does a pharmacy decide that only the patient can pick up a script?

Good question. When I had my gallbladder surgery, my sister went to the pharmacy near the hospital to get my Lortab prescription filled. She probably had to show her own ID but they didn't give her a hard time about picking up the meds for me.

[Bloodsoul]

I'm actually the one who has to pick up my grandmother's medications, 'cause she no longer drives and there's no way she's walking all the way down town (especially during winter).

Their forms of authorization appear to be little more than "what is her street address/date of birth" and "electronically sign here."

[EricKei]

Most any Controlled Substance probably has an issue like that -- The paperwork is as much a liability release (for the pharmacy) as a way to track down whoever picked the meds up in the case of people doctor-shopping or reselling the meds.

[AccountingDrone]

The navybase hospital we normally use will let either Rob or myself pick up meds for the other as long as we send along our military ID - his name and info is on mine and so there is confirmation that we are a pair. The CVS has a drive through so I don't have to go in as long as I am in the car and can be seen he can pass my ID in and sign for anything.

[Tama]

I have done this with Al's mother's Percocet...they just ask for an ID of SOMEONE, and to sign there.

[the lawsmeister]

In Aus you're supposed to get the prescription signed by the patient but in reality I've picked up medication for my wife and various friends and family with just their medicare card and the unsigned prescription.

[BrenDAnn]

I know I've picked up my Dad's ongoing scripts before. No questions asked, no ID required, just sign here, pay, and away I go. Of course, he's mostly on replacement hormones and things due to past surgeries, but I've still wondered if it shouldn't be harder for me to do that.

[Ophbalance]

I pick up my wife's meds all the time. And it's only really the pain meds (and anything with certain ingredients that can be used in meth production) that tend to require a license verification. I've never been given any grief over the fact that it's my license and not hers used for pickup. It seems to be more of requirement that they be able to track someone period, not necessarily the end recipient.

[Seshat]

In Aus you're supposed to get the prescription signed by the patient but in reality I've picked up medication for my wife and various friends and family with just their medicare card and the unsigned prescription.

Patient or 'patient's agent' - it's actually on the default prescription forms. And the fact that our Medicare* cards can be family cards helps: my Medicare card has Toth's name on it, and his has mine. That verifies that the govt considers us to be a legal family; so it's highly likely that we're legitimately each other's 'agent'.


* Australian Medicare, not US

[SongsOfDragons]

In the UK our prescriptions have two boxes: one to tick saying 'I am the patient' and the other 'on behalf of' or something like that. Housemate gets my repeat all the time since she passes the pharmacy next to our doctors on her way home - to drop off the request you just put it in thr box in the surgery, and to pick up all I need to do is give her is my free prescription award card and all's well.

[otakuneko]

Wally World doesn't do that at all, even for controlled substances, which one of my mom's prescriptions is.

Even so, first time I picked up her meds there, I had my power of attorney forms with me in case they objected.

[Automan Empire]

Drug-seeking behavior is a BIG problem in the medical and pharmacy businesses. Safeguards were necessarily put into place because of rampant abuses and harm that resulted.
Enforcement is very strict at the federal level. At the store level, some areas have more problems than others with bogus drug seekers, so they may be more or less vigilant about who is picking up a particular 'scrip.
Lots of stories about sucky drug seeking customers on sites like studentdoctor dot net forums.