Kudos to the Star-Advertiser for highlighting the problems of seniors, cancer patients and other chronically ill people in obtaining prescriptions for opioids (“Crackdown on opioids takes toll on Hawaii patients,” Star-Advertiser, Nov. 26).

Ever since last year’s legislation restricting opioids was passed, pharmacies and insurance companies have been making decisions they are not medically qualified to be making. According to the article, before a prescription is filled, a pharmacy first has to contact the patient’s prescribing physician to review the treatment plan and “verify the prescription was for a legitimate problem.”

Excuse me? Who is verifying what? And who is determining what is a “legitimate problem”?

These pharmacies and insurance companies have no business inserting themselves into what is supposed to be a private consultation between a patient and his or her doctor. Let’s hope that those who would deny pain-relieving medications do not one day find themselves a victim of this overreach.

Paul Gutekanst

Kealakekua, Hawaii island

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