Hate Mail Wednesday

Well, this is awkward. We were all pumped up and ready to go for Hate Mail Wednesday but we didn't receive any hate mail over the past week! We did receive many supportive emails and tips and we appreciate each and every one of them. Keep the information flowing guys. As always, if you have the inside scoop on anything within the Walgreens Medicare Part B Support Center for diabetic supplies, send us an e-mail at exwalgreens@yahoo.com. Also, we received plenty of responses to our search of people with film experience or equipment. We have found some great people who will work well for this project and should be fine with what we have for now, but if you have another way you could lend your support or creativity don't hesitate to let us know.

Documentary

Hey folks, we hope everyone had a great weekend. We've had some really positive feedback flowing in lately and we greatly appreciate it. You know, when we first started this project we really weren't sure where it would take us. Would we quickly get bored of it? Would anyone even notice? Were we even qualified to take on such a task? But thanks to all of the kind words of encouragement by our supporters we just keep trucking along and I really feel this is the beginning of something very powerful and inspiring, and inspiration sure seems hard to find these days. But as one Somalian refugee once said, when God gives you lemons, make lemonade. It's in these trying moments where we really witness the true core of the human spirit in all its beauty; we rise above and triumph despite all that stands before us.

We received an interesting suggestion by a friend (we'll call her "Kim") of the Walgreens Medicare Part B Center Watch who suggested we make a documentary on Walgreens similar to film maker Michael Moore's "Downsize This!", where Moore goes after corporations engaging in unethical behavior. Kim, I have to say that is a wonderful idea and we've been thinking about it all weekend. We envision a series of interviews with employees, ex-employees and maybe even customers. Perhaps even some elected representatives as well.

The only problem is we really don't have too much film-making experience or film equipment, so we're asking that if any of you out there do have film making experience or could help us out with any aspect of producing a documentary, please let us know. Have you produced a film before? Worked on a set? Send us an e-mail at exwalgreens@yahoo.com. Also we want to hear what everyone else thinks and if they have any other ideas or something to contribute. Is it a good idea? Bad idea? Let us know.

Whistleblower Protection

When one finds themselves in the difficult position of working for a company that is partaking in either unethical or illegal activity, eventually they'll have to make a choice of either going along and pretending everything is fine, or doing the right thing and speaking out against it. With the economy being the way it is right now, job security takes top priority among workers and many aren't exactly jumping at the chance to rock the boat and put their employment in jeopardy if they do find themselves in this position. Fortunately the government has safeguards in place which protect workers who speak out against wrongdoings at their place of employment. These safeguards protect everything from speaking out about product safety issues to alerting the authorities of HIPAA violations. Click here to view a partial list of these statutes and protections.

Sometimes it even pays to be a whistleblower. We mentioned a settlement the other day from back in 2008 where Walgreens was caught dispensing the wrong form of medication because one had a much higher profit margin than the other (ex: dispensing fluoxetine tablets when the prescription was written for capsules). Walgreens ended up shelling out $35 million after a probe by the justice department. The investigation was sparked by whistleblower pharmacist Bernard Lisitza who filed the initial suit. The good news? As part of the settlement, whistleblower Bernard Lisitza received $5 million from Walgreens. Not bad at all.


When Bernard Lisitza first became aware of the policy to "upsell" to the form of medication that paid the most, he very likely felt torn and it was no doubt a tough decision to make to do the right thing. Pharmacists typically make a good $100,000+ a year and it's not easy for someone in that position to risk his income and career to take a stand for what's right. But that's the moral of the story here: there's actually very little risk at all because of the protection whistleblowers have. In fact in his case and many other cases, he was rewarded quite generously for his guts to take a stand and say "I'm not going to sit by and let this happen anymore".


If you find yourself sitting there in a similar dilemma, if you're having to make that conscious decision, always remember that you'll always get further in life by doing the right thing and being honest. It will all work out in the end and your community will thank you. Go with your gut instinct and don't ever feel like someone has you by the throat just because they sign your checks. Because as we've seen in Benard Lisitza's case, sometimes there's a much larger check right around the corner.

Walgreens sued for selling patient data to data mining companies

From kevinmd.com:

Walgreens is being sued by customers who are not happy that their prescription information – even though it has been de-identified – is being sold by Walgreens to data-mining companies.

The plaintiff group of customers is suing to share in the profits realized by Walgreens from trading in the de-identified data.

And healthcareitnews.com:

The suit cites Walgreen's 2010 annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which lists "purchased prescription files" as intangible assets worth $749 million.

Yet another example of the type of "ethical business practices" you can expect from Walgreens. One would think you could trust a pharmacy to protect your data and only hold on to it for the purposes of serving you as a customer / patient, not profiting off it by selling it to data mining companies. Oh hell, who are we kidding... this is Walgreens we're talking about.

Walgreens Medicare Part B Center: From the rumorville

We've just received a tip from a friend of Walgreens Medicare Part B Center Watch via e-mail. It hasn't been confirmed yet but we're told that Walgreens management is working with Fraley & Company, L.L.C. in trying to stop information from being published on this site. Fraley & Company is an accounting and business consulting firm located in Cincinnati run by Don Brauning. At this time we're not quite sure if this is related to speculation that they're getting government incentive money for training new hires or if it's more of a public relations effort. Either way it makes things more fun around here. Anyone with more information can send us an e-mail at exwalgreens@yahoo.com. Stay tuned...

Walgreens Medicare Part B Support Center: Hate Mail Wednesday

Due to some of the irate comments and e-mails we've gotten over the past couple days, we thought it would be fun to start a weekly segment called Hate Mail Wednesday. It appears that we've ruffled a few feathers out there and a couple people seem upset that we dared to publish information about Walgreens. Though we do value these outbursts for their comedic potential, I think a few of you have gotten the wrong idea about what we're about here. Have you ever had to read a book in school and then wrote a book report based on what you've read? That's pretty much what this is. We had some interesting experiences at Walgreens and learned some interesting things. It would be a shame to just forget everything without using it as a learning experience for everyone involved. And we thought it would be interesting for others to share as well so we can get a plethora of information from different perspectives. Who knows, maybe we'll end up writing a book together that you'll be reading to your grandchildren. The possibilities are endless. Now, I can understand if not everyone shares our enthusiasm but the hate is simply uncalled for. Take a deep breath and step away from the computer for a few minutes if you have to. If you're going to write us hate mail though, please keep in mind to make it creative and entertaining. This will increase your chances of it appearing on Hate Mail Wednesday.

Now on to the hate mail, this one comes from Walgreens employee Donyel Warden:

They did this to slow down sales ? The SALES center .. Slowing down sales.. Hmmm Nope u both are pathetic and wrong I've read some of your other bs post and again u are wrong grasping at straws.. Not even good straws, more like straws that were used in a cheap drink at a sleaze bar chewed on by a drunk w/his good tooth n thrown away ite useless but worse than that u r spewing outlies about a co. That u have a personal issue with. Inspector dipshit detective dunbass u should prob find something better to do with your time better than making up lies against a co. Ur mad at bc u simply just couldn't cut it put on your big boy pants and get over it

Donyel you owe us a new spellcheck because ours just exploded after pasting that! All kidding aside, you gotta respect an employee who goes out of her way to defend her company like that. You can tell she is very loyal to the company and is trying to do the right thing by defending it. So your heart's in the right place Ms. Warden. We are going to have to knock off a few points for calling us "dunbasses" though. But all in all it's a great start which is why we chose it for our first Hate Mail Wednesday.

A couple points here to address a few things you mentioned. The Sales Center...slowing down sales. Yes, that was our thought as well. WTF? Sales managers slowing down sales on purpose? No way. Unfortunately that is the truth as witnessed by everyone there, and the ridiculousness of it is why we thought it was worth mentioning. We wish we were kidding but I really think it's a symptom of a very small division within a gigantic corporation. If the Walgreens support center for diabetic supplies was a small business and all it did was sales, like how Liberty probably was when it first started, you can guarantee that things like that wouldn't happen, because everyone in small sales companies is focused on sales and the bottom line. With this small division within the huge company that Walgreens is, it no doubt ends up a bit off the radar of corporate executives who aren't even in the same building but are in another state.

Blast from the past: Walgreens forced to pay $35 million for improper dispensing practices

In 2008, from Forbes.com:

Walgreens Co. said Wednesday it will pay $35 million to the federal government, 42 states and Puerto Rico to resolve investigations related to Medicaid reimbursements for three drugs the company dispensed at its pharmacies.

The Justice Department said that from 2001 through 2005 the pharmacy chain improperly switched patients to different versions of the prescriptions drugs Ranitidine, Fluoxetine and Eldepryl in order to increase its reimbursement from Medicaid.

Tisk tisk tisk. It makes you wonder what they're up to now that we'll be hearing about in a few years. Got any information about any current wrongdoings at Walgreens, either at the retail stores, the Medicare Part B Support Center, or at the corporate level? Send us an e-mail at exwalgreens@yahoo.com. Nothing's too big or small to report on.