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Iowa healthcare workers struggle with unused drug laws

Case Management Weekly, February 26, 2004

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The law that bans the "recycling" of unused drugs, no matter the intention is frustrating many health care providers who work daily with the uninsured and the underinsured. They see lives that can be saved by these drugs, but the law ties the hands that want to help.

Every day, the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic fills prescription drug orders and the supply comes from donated samples either from pharmaceutical reps or from doctor's offices. Legally, the clinic cannot re-dispense medications that have already been prescribed to someone else. So instead, the drugs get dumped in a box and are incinerated at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC). The same goes for expired meds that may still have some shelf life. Case managers at the free medical clinic say they can empathize with the nurses at UIHC, but the clinic cannot break the rules.

Source: TV-9 news in Cedar Rapids, IA

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