u/SinisterChef

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

I have seizures, I have been on Lacosamide (200mg twice a day) for close to 13 years I believe. Its always a pain in the ass to get at how regulated it is, it is Schedule V controlled substance. I need this drug to be able drive and live my life normally. This drug is insanely expensive without insurance, my normal 30 day purchase is like $2100 dollars last I checked. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. Often times, I just use goodRx instead of my actual insurance as they seem to have a better price on this drug specifically at Wal-Mart. I have finally been able to get a 90 day supply of the drug which has been wonderful, compared to every month having to manually call in an order 3-5 days in advanced and ensure the drug does indeed make it the pharmacy. I can't setup auto ordering due to its classification and I only get an order of 3 or so per-script so often times the pharmacy has to go back and forth with my neurologist. I only began receiving the 90 day supply this year.

On June 29th, I received my 90 day supply, 180 200mg pills, twice a day. I thought the bottle was a bit small compared to my previous 90 day supply (still much bigger than normal however), but this is only my second time receiving this amount and I didn't think much of it.

Long story short, I realized I only had enough for a 3 days of doses this morning, my last refill for a 90 day supply was June 29th. I'm always on such autopilot now when I take it, I should have realized this earlier but I didn't notice the dwindling amount. I call Wal-Mart to setup a refill, my fear is confirmed, I can not get a refill until September 21th. I tell them I am almost out from my previous 90 day refill. They argued with me that is not possible, I must of lost them, how this drug is regulated, how they have to double count this drug before they can hand it to me. They finally tell me to bring in the bottle and they will review their security footage on June 29th. I came in, they told me to wait, and sure enough a pharmacist came over and apologized, that they did indeed short me 80 pills. I'm not totally sure how they figured it out either logs or indeed through video footage somehow, 80 pills at 200mg of this drug is like 3k retail.

She handed me my refill, she skedaddle away before I even stood up. I was just in kind of shock. This is a serious issue, one that I feel needs to be brought and escalated to Wal-Mart somehow. This could've turned into a real legal issue for me if they didn't figure it out and I would've simply been out of the drug that lets me stay alive pretty much.

I'm not a litigious person, but this feels wrong. What else are they messing up?

Should I simply reach out to Wal-Mart corporate somehow or should I seek some additional assistance.

Thanks for reading all of this if you did, its good to type this out.

Edit: Schedule 5 is the lowest level of regulation. It’s still strictly tracked, but not to the same extent as Schedule 1 drugs, such as heroin.