‘How is that determined?’: Louisiana woman goes to CVS to pick up her prescription. Then she’s told they can’t because they’ve reached their limit
A CVS customer from a small town in Louisiana tries to pick up a new prescription. However, the pharmacist refuses to fill it, saying that she has to wait until the new year.
TikToker Charlie Plate (@charlieplate05) explains that she has only a few shopping and pharmacy options in her area.
“We’ve got a Walgreens, a CVS, and a Thrifty Way,” she explains. Plate says she asked her doctor to send her new medication to the CVS pharmacy.
“This is who I fill with usually because if I’m on the road and I need it transferred for me to be able to pick it up at my convenience, I can,” she says.
Then, she gets a call from CVS.
“They say, ‘Oh, we can’t fill your medication because we’ve reached our limit on that medication for the year,'” she says, appearing confused and frustrated. “For the year?! I’m just getting this medication.”
The pharmacy worker tries to explain that it isn’t a limit on Plate’s refills, but a limit on how much of the medication the pharmacy can carry.
The caption reads, “There’s literally only 36 hours left in this year, are there not exceptions?!”
Why does CVS Pharmacy have a limit for the medication?
While Plate doesn’t share which medication she couldn’t pick up, commenters suggest that some pharmacies have a limit on how many controlled substance prescriptions they can fill.
According to the Pharmacy Times, this Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) restriction is called a “procurement quota” and is intended to avoid distributing too many drugs that could be abused.
“I work in a pharmacy. We are small and are only allocated so many bottles of certain medications. so sometimes we can’t order more till our allocation,” one explains.
Another writes, “Can’t change DEA numbers. Sorry!”
In a comment, Plate acknowledges that DEA restrictions can’t be changed but worries that limits could create dangerous situations for some patients.
“The tech that called me gave me no choice and cancelled my prescription. His words not mine, and told me I had to have it filled elsewhere. I asked if it could just wait to be filled, and was told no,” she explains.
Plate continues, asking, “How is it the fault of the patient to go without medication because the DEA comes up with numbers out of thin air on what the main pharmacy in a small town is allowed to fill?”
@charlieplate05 @CVS Pharmacy care to explain because the pharmacy associate was terrible at it! There’s literally only 36 hours left in this year, are there not exceptions?! #fyp #cvspharmacy ♬ original sound – Charlie Plate
What happens if your pharmacy meets its quota?
Pharmacies can’t simply transfer a prescription to another once it hits its procurement quota, due to restrictions on controlled substances. So, patients share the hoops they had to jump through to access their medications.
“We had to leave messages, but we are trying to get the doc to send it to another pharmacist. It’s leaving my husband with no pain meds the first night. When the block wears off, he will be hurting. I had no idea this was even possible,” one user on the r/WalgreensStores subreddit shares.
“This month my oxy couldn’t be filled due to CVS and Walgreens in my area completely out of stock. They can’t get replenished. My pain management doctor was so p-ssed with this shortage and ridiculous rules for opioids,” a r/PainManagement subreddit member says. “I ended up calling small non-corporate pharmacies in my area and luckily found one that still had oxy in stock. But they too will be out next month.”
A third suggests moving refill dates to the beginning of the month. They write, “If your refill date is towards the end of the month, this will be an ongoing problem because quotas are usually met in the beginning of the month!”
The Mary Sue reached out to Plate via TikTok direct message and to CVS via email for further comment.
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