‘Blatant cash grab’

Dear Editor:

RE: More trips, more risk, April 9.

I’m writing a follow-up to the letter regarding the recent change to pharmacy prescriptions.

I too was shocked to hear that our local pharmacy was reducing our three-month prescriptions to one month. I called our pharmacy to inquire about the change and I was told that it was a measure to prevent customers from hoarding.

I then asked if there would be a dispensing fee for the other two months. I was told “yes”. In addition to the extra health risks associated with two more unnecessary trips to pick up our prescriptions, the pharmacy is charging their customers three times what was normally one time. This is nothing more than a blatant cash grab mostly directed at the senior population.

For those non-senior customers who are currently employed with a company that has a health care plan, those customers are already restricted by their group insurance provider as to how often they can renew their prescriptions. They can’t possibly hoard; their plan won’t let them.

For a senior on a fixed income, like myself, those additional fees represent the difference between a couple extra cans of soup and a loaf of bread each month.  It’s not much but I’ll miss them.

Brian Cameron,
Salem