Former Johnson County pharmacy worker accuses company of retaliation in wrongful firing suit
A pharmacist has sued her former employer claiming she was fired in retaliation after she expressed concerns the Lenexa mail-order pharmacy was breaking Kansas law by using unlicensed and unregistered workers to fill prescriptions, according to a lawsuit.
Deborah Ling filed the lawsuit against Pharmacy Alternatives LLC of Louisville, Kentucky, in Johnson County District Court last month, but it was moved last week to the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas.
Ling is seeking more than $75,000 for wrongful termination.
A company spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
Ling claims that from April 2014 to February 2020, she was employed as a licensed pharmacist at Pharmacy Alternatives mail order pharmacy in Lenexa. The company specializes in providing high-volume mail order prescription services to individuals with mental disabilities who live in intermediate care facilities, group homes, assisted living facilities and foster care.
Workers at the mail order pharmacy are responsible for dispensing medication into bubble packs that look like large cards with several rows of plastic bubbles.
Ling contends that while she worked for Pharmacy Alternatives, the company experienced staffing shortages at its Lenexa mail order pharmacy. Those shortages worsened in January 2019, becoming more extreme and consistent.
As a result, Pharmacy Alternatives would have pharmacists and pharmacy technicians based out of its other locations fly in to fill medications at the Lenexa location. None of the workers had a Kansas license or registration to dispense prescription medications, Ling claims
Ling contends that she raised concerns about having unlicensed and unregistered workers dispensing the medicines., but her concerns were “ignored and brushed aside.”
Several times, she was told “that the company needed to do whatever was necessary to meet customer’s needs, and that her concerns were overblown.” She was told that the company would defend its workers from any action by the Kansas Board of Pharmacy.
At one point, she asked a co-worker about his registration to dispense medicine in Kansas. He laughed in response, Ling claims.
Ling called the Kansas Board of Pharmacy in April 2019 and was told not only was it against Kansas law for unlicensed and unregistered workers to be dispensing prescription medications, it was against Kansas law for the workers to be in the area of the pharmacy with access to yet-to-be dispensed drugs, according to the lawsuit.
Upon learning about the severity of the violations, Ling stood in the doorway to the drug access area of the pharmacy and told the out-of-town workers that if they didn’t have a Kansas license or registration, it was unlawful to dispense the medication. Her concerns again were ignored.
An investigator from the Kansas Board of Pharmacy visited the Lenexa pharmacy visited on April 25, 2019. One of the out-of-town pharmacy technician who was dispensing prescription medicine at the time fled and hid in a restroom to avoid detection, the suit contends.
The investigator interviewed three pharmacy technicians. The company’s director of operations who was present when they were interviewed allegedly had them assert that the job of the employee who had fled did not include filling the bubble cards with medicine.
When the pharmacy technicians expressed their hesitancy to lying to the investigator, the director allegedly told them it would be okay and the company would protect them in court.
Despite inquiry by the board of pharmacy, “the merry-go-round of out-of-state unlicensed and unregistered personnel dispensing prescription medications continued unabated,” the lawsuit contends.
Ling, who received repeated commendations during her first five and a half years as a pharmacist for Pharmacy Alternatives, claims that after the incident with the investigator, the company’s attitude toward her changed. She said it was obvious that senior management suspected that she was the one who had contact state regarding the company’s alleged unlawful activity.
Ling claims that on Feb. 20, 2020, she was fired without explanation. When she asked for reasons for the termination, she received no response.
Ling claims that her firing was in retaliation for her protests about using unlicensed and unregistered workers and the belief by management that she had informed the Kansas Board of Pharmacy of the company’s non-compliance with state law.
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 1:02 PM.
