[Greater-Baltimore] James Pharmacy

Thu Aug 22 19:26:19 UTC 2024

Hi again Ellana and all,

Ellana, thanks for sharing your story. It is such a great example of why it is morally wrong for James Pharmacy to charge for this accommodation. Until recently, I would have totally agreed with you about their customer service as well. When they first began offering scripTalk, they were very proud of  it, and indeed many of us learned about it because they reached out to the NFB and wanted to make a presentation about it at our chapter meeting. They were very emphatic about it being free to us as customers. It is my understanding that although the name has not changed, the business has actually changed hands at least once since then, although I know this only by hearsay and don't actually have evidence of it beyond turnover in personnel. Lately, I have noticed a deterioration in service. More than once I have had to call after a delivery after it should have arrived, and received bottles without the ScripTalk labels. They have also sometimes lost track of the number of refills I had, requiring me to go back to my physician and get them restarted. It's possible that what we have here is new management who, while they continue to offer the service because it's there, do not have the same commitment to providing it that was evident years ago. The folks back then that we met with seemed to fully understand the importance of the service and why it was critical that it be free to the end user. As I said earlier, it looks like now someone is simply making a bean-counting calculation that because the service is perhaps costing them more and is not used by everyone, it is reasonable to charge the users of it, just as some businesses charge extra for perceived conveniences like delivery. I know it can't be easy to run a profitable neighborhood pharmacy in the era of big chains; indeed, those big chains seem to be struggling as well. Like Melissa, I would theoretically be open to paying an extra service charge, if applied across the board, to help them defray their costs. But their attitude, at least for now and on the admittedly limited evidence of my brief conversation this morning, seems to be that this is a reasonable measure on their part, and if some of us leave them because we are unwilling to pay extra, they are perfectly fine with losing our business. Sad indeed. If either legal or moral persuasion, or whatever else the affiliate can do, convinces them to reverse this decision, I'm happy to still do business with them, but I probably won't ever feel as warm and fuzzy about them as I did in the beginning.   

Warmly,

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Greater-Baltimore <greater-baltimore-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ellana Crew via Greater-Baltimore
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2024 3:01 PM
To: NFB of Maryland Baltimore Chapter Discussion List <greater-baltimore at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ellana Crew <eemcrew at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Greater-Baltimore] James Pharmacy

Hi everyone,

This is very sad to hear. They have been my go to pharmacy for almost the entire time I have lived in Baltimore. I always felt like the customer service I received from them was so much better than any of the chain pharmacies in the area that I had used before, And they are one of the only pharmacies around that still does completely free home delivery.  Or at least they were a little less than a year ago when I was last living in the city still. As somebody with quite a few other disabilities on top of my blindness, they had been the perfect place for me, since I do not always have the capacity to leave the house, so home delivery is an important accommodation for me, not just a luxury service. Those extra disabilities have also come with at least 5 regular medication’s, many of those pills being entirely identical by touch and packaged in the same generic bottles, so without accessible labeling, they are kind of a nightmare to tell apart from each other and I have to be very diligent about making sure I put the right label on the right identical bottle when I put Braille  labels on them myself. I am no longer living in the area and therefore no longer using James pharmacy, and the current option I use does not offer any kind of accessible labeling, and this process is definitely quite a headache. Lots of relying on Seeing AI and taking multiple scans of each bottle to be absolutely certain I got the right one. I was planning on switching back to James pharmacy once I returned home from LCB and move back into Baltimore, but if that is going to be something they start charging for, that would cost me at least an extra $20 a month which is just not reasonable.  I also believe that we should not need to pay extra for accessibility, especially access to information as vinyl as our medication information. I will be interested to hear what Ronza and the affiliate are able to do.

> On Aug 22, 2024, at 11:58 AM, Bernadette Jacobs via Greater-Baltimore <greater-baltimore at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> No! No! No!!! This is totally and completely unacceptable!!! I have had some issues with them in the past so I have taken my families pharmaceuticals elsewhere. However, this is off the deep end. Just recently, I heard of somebody in my area who has had to switch pharmacies as James pharmacy no longer delivers to the Catonsville/Woodlawn area. so, this is not the only issue. Now, if anyone would like to contact me and get the number for Northern Pharmacy, yes they do have ScripTalk and they do have a delivery service, I would be happy to  oblige.
> 
> 
> 
> If if anyone needs the contact card. Just let me know and I will share it with you. Can't seem to figure out how to insert the contact card into this email. So, just give me a shout and I will send it along.
> Bernadette Jacobs
> May today be your best one yet!!! ☺️
> 
>> On Aug 22, 2024, at 11:36 AM, Ellen Ringlein via Greater-Baltimore <greater-baltimore at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Melissa and Others,
>> 
>> I have been using James pharmacy as well, since they were the first 
>> pharmacy that provided the script talk labels and they are an 
>> independent business, even though they are not the closest pharmacy 
>> to my house. But I won't be patronizing that business anymore, if I am charged for accessible labels.
>> 
>> Ellen
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Greater-Baltimore [mailto:greater-baltimore-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>> On Behalf Of Melissa Riccobono via Greater-Baltimore
>> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2024 10:36 AM
>> To: greater-baltimore at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: melissaariccobono at gmail.com
>> Subject: [Greater-Baltimore] James Pharmacy
>> 
>> Hello everyone,
>> 
>> I'm wondering who uses James Pharmacy. My family and I use them, and 
>> I just received a text saying on September first they will begin 
>> charging $3.99 for each Script Talk label requested. They say this is 
>> necessary due to increased cost of maintenance and materials. They 
>> are calling this a service charge.
>> 
>> I know that in January, 2025, the bill we helped advocate for stating 
>> all pharmacies will need to provide accessible prescription labels 
>> will go into effect. So I'm guessing that in January this charge will not be legal.
>> Something tells me it may not even be legal in September. Seems as if 
>> just because we happen not to be able to read a medication bottle 
>> does not mean we should be charged in order to receive the 
>> information in a way we can access it when everyone else gets that information for free.
>> 
>> So, I wanted to bring this to the attention of others who might use 
>> James Pharmacy, and also try to figure out what we can do to educate 
>> them about the law. Also, a part of me does feel for them if costs 
>> are truly increasing that much. They are a community pharmacy, which is why I like to use them.
>> They were offering Script Talk before many other pharmacies in this 
>> area were. It's not as if they have a large parent company who can 
>> come in and help absorb increased cost. It does seem though, that if 
>> they had a service charge of 25 or 50 cents on each prescription they 
>> sold, even just for a little while, they could raise the money they 
>> would need without putting the burden on only the blind customers. If 
>> they stated that money would be used for general pharmacy and 
>> technology upkeep, I would pay it gladly, and not bat an eye, and I 
>> think others would as well. I'm sure there are other things they 
>> could do, or maybe even other resources such as grants available to 
>> them as a small business that could pay for these increased costs. I 
>> don't want to run them out of business by any means. On the other 
>> hand, I would be tempted to take my business elsewhere instead of paying $3.99 for each label I request. That seems quite high to me.
>> 
>> What are other's thoughts. How can we work together to educate and 
>> give feedback as customers? Please let me know. You can reply to this 
>> message if you want to keep your comments on the list for all to see, 
>> or you can contact me directly.
>> 
>> MelissaARiccobono at gmail.com <mailto:MelissaARiccobono at gmail.com>
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Melissa
>> 
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