please help

[greatwhitegrizzly]

i lost my job 6 months ago due to the economy and i lost my health insurance along with it. my doctor had me taking 6 norco 10/325 a day for the last 3 years. i will run out of my meds by next week. i went to my doctors office willing to pay cash for the visit so that i could get it refilled. they told me my doctor was on maternity leave for the next 4 months and none of the other doctors would refill it. they told me to go find another doctor somewhere else in order to get it refilled. i called everywhere and they all told me no because they have never seen me before. my question is, can a doctors office legally completely cut you off and force you to quit cold turkey like this? i personally believe they should at least help by tapering off their patients. any advise would be most helpful.

[sandee1818]

I sent you a PM.
I wanted to add that when you do call these clinics and doctor's offices do not go into detail as to why your needing to see them. Or ask right out for a refill as this will get you nowhere fast:)
As I said in my PM to you , you need to get into see a PM doctor. They have many nore options they can offer you. The medication your on now has tylenol in it and it is really not good to take this for an extended period of time when there are many other options available.

[greatwhitegrizzly]

i have read both responses and i really apreciate the feedback. i live in california and my insurance was through kaiser. i am a single father of a 6 year old child. i take the norco for back pain. before i was on the meds, i was in a lot of pain constantly. i could not even get on the floor of my home to play hot wheels with my son. since i have been takinh the norco, i'm able to sleep, take my son to the park, and even play on the floor with my son and his toys for short amounts of time. the meds never fully take the pain away, but it does allow me to function somewhat normal. kaiser told me to call a few different clinics and those clinics told me to call somewhere else. i am getting the run around. i do not want my son to see me go through the withdrawls and to be honest, i dont think i can do it alone cold turkey. i have run out of the meds for a couple days before and its not something i want to go through again. any advise would be greatly apreciated. thank you.

[Tuckamore]

Hello and Welcome to the Pain Management Forum. Sandee is correct, some states, indeed most states have patient abandonment laws. Before I went that route I would contact the clinic again. If I understand your post correctly they are refusing to refill your prescription at this time but not refusing to see you.

I understand why a partner in the clinic would not refill your prescription without an appointment first. They really don't know you. Someone must be taking over your physicians patient load. Call and ask who that is and request an appointment. Your records are there. If you had a good relationship with your PCP, as I assume you did, it will be reflected in your records. The fill-in physician should be willing to continue with your care until your physician returns.

Please let us know how you are doing. I will look forward to your updates. Best of luck and take care.
Tuck

[sandee1818]

I am sorry you were put in this position. I would call your local health department and they can usually help. They do have clinics for those who have no insurance or just can not pay.
Patient abandonment, It depends on what your state laws are and if you signed a contract. Most doctors will taper you off to avoid having legal trouble. I would call the doctors office and ask them if they are aware of the patient abandonment laws and ask if they will help you taper off and ease w/d symptoms or refer you to a doctor who can. Now before you do this check with your state law to see if you in fact have laws regarding this. if you will send me a PM or post your location I will try and help.
If you were in Fl where there are such laws I would say call the doctors office and ask them for help or a referral and then make sure this is noted and then contact your local legal services to help you from that point.
It is really disgusting to me that these doctors take so little regard for those they have been treating for years! I would not let this go. If everyone stood up and said no more then this non sense would stop. Let me know your location:)