I worked with a nuerosurgeon once who got Percocet by the thousand in the mail. Guess what he had problems with? My dad’s cousin was a doctor in the 40s-60s, addicted to Morphine, shot himself with a shotgun.
Personally, I think it’s a good idea to keep the pharmacy and the prescription pad in two different buildings.
The real reason Pharma wants this is if they can get your doctor to prescribe their drug at $200 per month which can conveniently be taken once a day saving you 5 minutes a month instead of the drug that has been around for 30 years and has a proven record but only costs $10 a month they win! Especially if all it costs is a hoagie and a bag of chips. (And you should see the girls they hire to deliver the chips!)
If you believe in liberty and that free people should be in control of every aspect of their lives, then all government restrictions on access to medical care should be removed. Let people live with the consequences of their personal decisions, both good and bad.
And abortion is not health care.
Considering the way they prescribing Statins like candy these days, with virtually ZERO evidence that they help anyone (and far more evidence that they hurt people), perhaps the best option to prohibit both doctors and pharmacies from dispensing drugs.
I think the doctor should diagnose and the pharmacist should prescribe. Pharmacists have so much more knowledge of pharmaceuticals than physicians. In this age of digital data, the physician could transmit the diagnosis and the patient chart to the pharmacy and the pharmacist would then prescribe the medication and fill it and call the patient when it’s ready. Or have a drone deliver it - lol.
I find it fascinating that the powers that be decide that doctors not be allowed to dispense the drugs, but meanwhile are the people that determine their use and write scripts for them so pharmacies can fill them for profit.
I had a pharmacy tell me they wouldn’t fill a prescription for me when the doctor said I should have it. I told them they should have told me that in advance as I sure wasted my time going to the doc when they had the final say on the drug. It was not a narcotic, it was too expensive in their inventory so they wouldn’t carry it to dispense it and there’s nothing less expensive to use instead. So I could, at least, save gas if I get it at the doctor’s office. No difference.
rwood
It's also a way to get a lot of doctors hooked on various substances. Just dip into the medicine closet.
A much better way to save patient’s money is to create a “perpetual prescription”, so that patients taking non-schedule drugs, who are otherwise stable, are no longer required to have an doctor visit to renew those prescriptions.
Even an annual physical is an expensive proposition, especially when the patient has no other complaints.
Conversely, many such drugs should only require a one time prescription. If the doctor thinks their approval is necessary after a brief check, it could be performed by a Nurse.
Follow the money and you’ll find the motivation. This has nothing to do with the patient and saving him money or making things better for him. It is about adding a profit center to the doctor’s office.
Not a pharmacist but I worked in a pharmacy. I saw the pharmacist gently handle enough doctor mistakes to convince me that I want that additional step of quality control in issuing a prescription that the pharmacist brings.