Health

CVS fires pharmacist who wouldn't fill transgender customer's prescription

A CVS pharmacist in Arizona was sacked after he refused to fill the hormone prescription of a transgender woman.

Additionally, Hall also wrote that she is one of the lucky ones, explaining that, unlike some other transgender individuals, she has a great support system and left the encounter physically unscathed.in terms of her support system and how that encounter might have played out for someone else.

"Embarrassed and distressed, I almost started crying in the middle of the store", she said.

The pharmacist wouldn't give the prescriptions back to her, Hall wrote, so she had to ask her doctor to call them in to another pharmacy. Hall wrote, "I left the store feeling mortified".

Hall ended up getting her prescription at another pharmacy.

Hall filed a complaint on Thursday with the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy, asking CVS to publicly take action and apologize.

Despite Hall's repeated attempts to contact CVS customer service to resolve the problem and get satisfaction, she says the company ignored her entirely.

"CVS Health extends its honest apologies to Ms. Hall for her experience at our pharmacy in Fountain Hills, Arizona last spring", said Mike DeAngelis, senior director of corporate communications for CVS. The statement said he "violated company policies and does not reflect our values or our commitment to inclusion". The office called the CVS for Hall to get the prescription filled but again the pharmacist refused.

Arizona and five other states-including Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, and South Dakota-have laws on the books protecting pharmacists who refuse to fill certain prescriptions based on their religious beliefs.

"We also apologize for not appropriately following up on Ms. Hall's original complaint to CVS, which was due to an unintentional oversight, " the company said in its statement.

Hall gave the prescriptions to the pharmacist, but he refused to "fill one of the prescriptions needed to affirm my identity".

"I felt like the pharmacist was trying to out me as transgender in front of strangers", Hall wrote. "In such instances, the pharmacist is required to notify us in advance about such a religious conviction, so that we can ensure there are other arrangements in place to ensure the patient's medication needs are promptly satisfied", he said in an email.

It was the first time she received a prescription for the hormone therapy.

In her ACLU blog, Hill said she went to the Fountain Hills, Ariz.

According to The Arizona Republic, the employee in question is no longer employed by CVS. Hall told her doctor's office about the situation with CVS and the office staff reached out to the pharmacy. "If CVS does not take steps, like written policies and employee training, to protect its transgender customers from discrimination, we may explore litigation".

Hall's incident comes as the Trump Administration is moving to roll back protections for transgender people in healthcare. Hall chose to transfer all her prescriptions to Walgreens. "Is there a company policy that he refused to follow?" said Gibson.

stayontheblack.com

CVS fires pharmacist who wouldn't fill transgender customer's prescription