A nurse practitioner in Arizona who is the only licensed prescriber at a busy pain clinic received a letter from Walmart’s corporate headquarters stating that Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies would no longer fill her prescriptions for opioids. Carolyn Eastin writes about 500 prescriptions for chronic pain patients at the Absolute Rehabilitation Pain Medicine clinic and said that the unsigned letter, which appeared to be a form letter, makes no mention of complaints against the nurse practitioner. While it isn’t illegal for Walmart to take the measure based on dangerous dosages or inappropriate drugs, according to Dr. Lynn Webster, doing so without understanding the circumstances could be harmful to the patient. This isn’t the first time Absolute faced problems – last year the clinic’s owner, Dr. Steve Fanto signed an agreement with the Arizona Medical Board to stop practicing medicine after he was accused of overprescribing a potent fentanyl spray.
