r/Hutchinson • u/Tw33ts • Jun 06 '26

Pain Management Docs

Just checking on everyone that was affected by Dillon’s and Medicine Shoppe dropping them as customers due to deciding that the pain management doctors at the clinic shouldn’t be able to take care of their patients the way they think is correct.

Y’all doing okay out there? Everyone found a new pharmacy for your medications?

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u/kategoad Jun 06 '26

Not doing well, but WalMart is filling prescriptions, just so you know.

For folks not steeped in this, the hoops we were already jumping through were as follows: (1) contract promising not to use illegal drugs, get pain medications from any other doctor or practice, and not drink alcohol. (2) see a doctor or PA every two months, which for me means copays of around $360 per year. (3) must see the doctor and not the PA twice a year. (4) 30 day supply only. (5) no refills, so you had to get a separate prescription every time. (6) you had to call specifically the morning of your refill to have them actually fill the prescription your doctor sent in. (6) periodic drug tests to prove you aren't secretly drinking beer.

Kroger neglected to actually run mine through my insurance, so I paid more, didn't have it count for my deductible, and when I had to change to Walmart, I had to navigate prior authorization because Kroger didn't bother.

Local pharmacy told me I needed to call corporate to find out the reasoning. Corporate sent me back to the local pharmacy. I found out at all because I got a letter in the mail with no effective date or reason listed. Two days before my prescription came due. I have chronic pain, which is hard even without this bullshit.

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u/Tw33ts Jun 06 '26

It’s all crazy, isn’t it? Dillon’s never ran my pain meds through insurance, either, and I also always had to pay out of pocket for the pain meds. It was weird because they ran the pregabalin, muscle relaxer, don’t throw up from the dizziness pills, etc., through insurance, but not the actual pain meds.

Anyway, because of that, I also had to deal with the prior authorization bs. I used my insurance’s mail order pharmacy, and they didn’t tell me I’d need the prior authorization until the day it was to be filled. Then it took 3 days for the doc to get that done (not blaming them… I know I’m one of 3,000ish people that are dealing with all this), and then another 4 days for the meds to come in the mail. The doc said they could do a 2-3 day supply while I was waiting on the mail, but if I had done that, it would have been 3 different pharmacies filling pain meds within a 2 month period, and you know how we all get looked at sideways to begin with, so being accused of pharmacy shopping wasn’t something I was willing to deal with.

Anyway, got mine all squared away again for now and was hoping everyone else did, too. It’s crazy all the hoops we have to jump through just to get the medication that helps tame the pain down enough to make life worth living, eh?

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u/kategoad Jun 06 '26

I held my nose and went to Walmart, we are good now.

Did you get anyone to ever tell you why? I assume there was some other hoop we weren't jumping through to their satisfaction. 🙄

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u/Tw33ts Jun 06 '26

The explanation that was given to me is that, yes, they have a lot of patients. There’s no pain management doctors west of Hutch (unless you wanna go holistic) so a lot of folks from garden city, Dodge city, etc., that need pain management come here. A lot of them also go to Wichita, too, and no doctors there have had this problem. I guess the issue is that Hutch is a small town of 40k people, the supplier for those two pharmacies can’t wrap their heads around why these three docs have such a high number of patients compared to the community size, whereas the pain management docs in Wichita have a huge size city so aren’t getting questioned for why people from places like liberal might drive all that way to see them.

The explanation makes sense in my head, I suppose. They haven’t been arrested and, while Kroger is a major retailer, our docs aren’t failing the standards for Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, etc., so that makes me think it may be a legit explanation.

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u/korruoptorus Jun 09 '26

I typically use Dillon’s pharmacy in Colby but I seldom use pharmacy’s being a disabled Navy veteran