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An-Angel_Sent-By-God t1_j1o5lpo wrote

No, I don't know a pharmacist who was willing to commit fraud for a small fee. Perhaps you should reconsider the company you keep.

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Refreshingpudding t1_j1o6ifw wrote

I don't know one but they busted a bunch. It is fair to assume there were a lot more that were not busted

Fun fact about the NYC vaccine database. When you log in it tells you it's illegal to use it for purposes of verifying employee vaccination status. The message was not there at the start of the pandemic.

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ccai t1_j1q5i8q wrote

You'd be surprised. When I graduated I worked a weekend job at a Tribeca pharmacy to help pay back my loans as quickly as possible. The owner and pharmacist were 100% pill mills dispensing ridiculous amounts of amphetamines to their patients.

I had a couple of people come in for refills of Adderall XR 20mg after already receiving 15-18 months worth in about an 8 month span, some people on Vyvanse 50mg, 60mg, 70mg at the same time every single month. All had ridiculous documentation like lost or damaged doses in the system. I always refused to refill for those individuals and had them come back on a weekday when the owner and other pharmacist were around. Some don't give a shit and do it for a quick buck. After I saw it wasn't some one time fluke aka 3 patients in a single day trying to pull that shit with the tech confirming it wasn't abnormal, I immediately quit. I didn't want to risk my license, but apparently the supervising pharmacist was willing to do it. If they're willing to fuck with the DEA in plain sight as that info is recorded upon dispensing via PMP reporting databases, I doubt they cared about actually dispensing the vaccine if it made them great money doing so. You'll more likely see it among small independents, rather than CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and the bunch.

And at my last pharmacist job before I made a career change, one of the silent partners at the independent heavily suggested I should start 'giving out the vaccine'. I readily refused and didn't hold a vaccination certification anyway so that ended the conversation real quick. While my friends and I wouldn't risk it I'm not too sure about every pharmacist as plenty have been caught fraudulently dispensing high dollar medications (4-5 figures/month) and not even bothering to order it nor inform the patients of the medication. At some point some Chinatown pharmacies were handing out HDTVs in exchange for a 3-6 month prescription of whatever high reimbursement cream was for the given months and other unethical highly illegal fraud.

It's a fucked up world out there right now with some of the shittiest reimbursement rates to date with PBMs working hard to steal the business themselves and keep a bigger share of the profits by switching people to in-house mail order. Keeping an independent pharmacy open with 100% legit business is ridiculously difficult without massive volumes, so a promising income stream with minimal work will attract the attention of the unscrupulous.

If you work in the field, you realize it's a small world... Even if you are in the company of decent people, word travels about shit like this.

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