Area pharmacies refuse to fill embattled neurologist’s scripts

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/article/20150614/DM01/150619617

A local pharmacy chain has decided to stop filling prescriptions written by Dr. Iraj Derakhshan after it was revealed the neurologist is facing a disciplinary hearing before the West Virginia Board of Medicine that could result in a license revocation.

Jerry Leonard, vice president of pharmacy services for Drug Emporium, said his company, which has two locations in Charleston, changed its policy after the Daily Mail’s examination of Derakhshan’s history of writing opioid-based pain killer prescriptions by the thousands…

“We’re willing to fill a month’s worth of (Dr. Derakhshan’s) patient’s prescriptions one more time, if the pharmacist on duty feels it’s medically appropriate, for select patients who are already established with Drug Emporium,” he said. “But if they haven’t filled a prescription regularly over the last 6 months, we will refuse them.” …

“I didn’t have a real good feeling about cutting people off cold turkey, but in some cases it was warranted,” he said.

The local neurologist’s patients, Leonard said, have the choice of either staying with him or going to another practitioner.

He said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has put the onus on pharmacists for identifying whether a patient is in legitimate need of opioids rather than putting that burden entirely on the prescriber… According to the DEA’s pharmacist manual, “a pharmacist also needs to know there is a corresponding responsibility of the pharmacist who fills the prescription…

But Drug Emporium is not the only local pharmacy frequently refusing to fill prescriptions written by Derakhshan. Several of the doctor’s current patients contacted the Daily Mail to say they have been unsuccessful in filling his prescriptions for opioid-based pain medication.

Bernerd Slater, a West Side resident and a patient of Derakhshan’s, said he has tried going to every pharmacy in the Kanawha Valley region to get his prescriptions for oxycodone, Xanax and Topamax.

“Everywhere that I tried to get them filled said he was locked out when they looked on the system,” he said. The system, Slater believes, is the controlled substance monitoring database...