CommonHealth: Policy, Pharmacies And Patients In Pain

One hundred million Americans live with chronic pain — and that's the subject of this week's CommonHealth segment.

Specifically at issue is a new policy at Walgreens, the nation's largest pharmacy chain, that might add an extra step to the process of procuring a prescription for pain medicine.

Walgreens is now requiring pharmacists to verify prescriptions for certain controlled substances, which means they might contact doctors and make sure they were correct in prescribing pain relievers and other controlled drugs before giving patients their medication.

Many patients and physicians call this a bad idea.

Judy Foreman, health columnist and author of the forthcoming book, "A Nation In Pain: Healing Our Biggest Health Problem." Read Judy's Commonhealth post here.

Carey Goldberg, co-host of WBUR's CommonHealth blog.