If you are a licensed pharmacist working in Denver or the metropolitan area nearby, you know first-hand how much time, effort, and expense has gone in to you earning your pharmacist license. On top of your years of education and training, you've studied for and passed both the NAPLEX and MPJE, and to maintain your license you've kept up with the continuing education requirements set by Colorado's Board of Pharmacy. Your pharmacist license is one of your most valuable personal assets as a result.
This is why if you receive a notice that a misconduct complaint has been filed against you, you need to take it seriously and take effective steps to protect your license and your future. No matter where in the Denver metropolitan area you're working – whether it's in Denver itself, a suburb such as Lakewood, Brighton, or Westminster, or a nearby city like Aurora, Boulder, Fort Collins, or Colorado Springs – your pharmacist license is the key to your livelihood. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team is here to help you protect your license if you're under investigation for misconduct. Call us at 888.535.3686 or fill out our contact form, and we'll schedule a confidential consultation to discuss your situation and explain how we can help.
Pharmacists in the Denver Metropolitan Area
According to the Colorado Pharmacists Society, the state has some 7000 active pharmacists working in more than 1900 pharmacies across the state. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that in 2023 there were nearly 3000 pharmacists active in and around Denver, with almost 600 more in Colorado Springs, 350 in Fort Collins, and just under 300 in Boulder. Working as a pharmacist is, according to the BLS, quite rewarding, with the “annual mean wage” exceeding $140,000 in all of these areas of the state, roughly double the average for all professions tracked by the BLS.
In addition to chain pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens, as well as pharmacies located in chain stores like Safeway, Walmart, and Kroger, there are many smaller pharmacy chains as well as independent pharmacies located across the Denver metropolitan area. This means that consumers have many choices when it comes to filling their prescriptions, and that if you are a pharmacist facing discipline because you've been accused of misconduct, the consequences if you are publicly disciplined could hurt your business, even if your license is not affected.
The most important thing you can do to protect yourself, your license, and your future is to take immediate steps to defend yourself if you receive a notice that someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you. Ignoring the matter won't make it go away, and is very likely to lead to more serious disciplinary action than if you take active steps to defend yourself, action that could very well be reflected in your public license record even if it doesn't result in a suspension or revocation of your pharmacist license.
In addition, because pharmacists are relatively well-paid in Colorado, the personal consequences of a suspension or revocation can be severe. It will be very difficult to find a job that pays as much as what you've been earning as a pharmacist, particularly if you do not have the benefit of an active license.
If you are a pharmacist working in the Denver metropolitan area, including towns like Loveland, Centennial, or Greeley, the best thing you can do as soon as you receive a notice that a misconduct complaint has been filed against you is to contact the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team. We will review your situation with you in detail, and an experienced professional license defense attorney will explain how we can help. The sooner we are involved with your case, the better we will be able to help during the investigation, as well as any proceedings that may follow.
Disciplinary Actions Against Pharmacists in the Denver Metropolitan Area
Colorado's laws, regulations, and rules for pharmacists are enforced by the state's Board of Pharmacy, in many cases working together with the Colorado Office of Investigations. Pharmacists across Colorado, including in the Denver metropolitan area, can be disciplined for any number of reasons, including:
- Incompetent practice, particularly when it involves making mistakes in dispensing medication to patients
- Failure to properly keep patient and pharmacy records
- Engaging in fraud – overcharging patients, substituting drugs without disclosure, and falsely billing insurers for drugs that were not dispensed
- Overprescribing certain drugs, particularly opioids
- Working while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Being convicted of certain types of crimes, particularly those related to the practice of pharmacy
- Failing to keep patient information confidential as required by law
- Delegating pharmacist duties to someone who is not licensed to perform them
- Engaging in other types of unprofessional conduct
That said, there is nothing that prevents anybody from making a complaint about a pharmacist to the Board for any reason at all. Customers may complain because of billing disputes, for example, that have nothing to do with pharmacist misconduct, or they may complain because of a personality conflict. While the Board may elect not to investigate most complaints of this type, if there is a possibility that the pharmacist named in the complaint committed misconduct, it may also decide to pass it along to the Office of Investigations. In other cases, the Board may decide to dismiss the matter because it doesn't have jurisdiction over the issues raised in the complaint, though it still may send a confidential letter of concern to the pharmacist about the issues in the complaint.
Where the Board believes there is reasonable cause to believe that the pharmacist may have committed misconduct, it may simply issue a letter of admonition to the pharmacist, or it may refer the complaint to the Office of Investigations for a formal investigation. When that happens, the Office of Investigations will assign an investigator whose job it will be to review the allegations in the complaint and to gather information, including witness statements and documents, that may relate to the issues raised in the complaint.
It is during these early stages that the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can often be very helpful. Depending on the situation, our experienced attorneys may be able to anticipate the kinds of questions that investigators will raise and supply information to them that can help resolve matters quickly and in a way that protects the pharmacist's license. While that doesn't happen in every case, if you are working with one of our Professional License Defense attorneys from day one, you will know that your rights are being protected at every stage of the disciplinary process, and that someone is there for you working on your behalf to protect and defend your pharmacist license.
Help During Disciplinary Investigations
When the investigator from the Office of Investigations begins working on your matter, it is almost a given that the investigator will want to interview you to hear what you have to say about the allegations made against you. This, of course, can be extremely stressful. Most of us are not used to being interviewed by someone about anything, let alone about misconduct allegations made against us.
That's why your attorney from the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team is likely to spend some time with you going over what you can expect during the interview. Knowing what types of questions to expect and how to answer them can make all the difference in how you respond when the interview happens. These kinds of interviews are not normal conversations. The goal is to listen closely to the question you're being asked, and then focus your answer on that question. That's not how most of us talk when we are participating in normal everyday conversations, but a misconduct interview is not a normal everyday conversation.
The other way your attorney can help during your interview is to be there by your side while the investigator is asking you questions. If we are there, we can make sure the questions are fair, that you understand them before you answer them, and that the investigator understands your responses.
In many cases, the investigator may also ask for records that relate to the issues raised in the complaint. When that happens, we can work with you to assemble the requested information and provide it to the investigator in a timely way. One other very important way we can help you through this difficult process is to be the point of contact for any communications with the Board and with the investigator. This helps you stay focused on your work and home life, while we handle any direct communications about your case.
After the Investigation
When the investigation is complete, the investigator will prepare a report for the Board of Pharmacy to review. That report will not make any recommendation one way or another about whether you should be disciplined, and in most cases, you will not see the report. That is why it's important to make sure that the investigator has any information that you believe may help your case. When you're working with one of the attorneys from the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team, you can be sure that we will have worked to identify any helpful information and supplied that information to the investigator on your behalf.
The Board will review the investigator's report and will decide what step to take next. If the Board finds that no misconduct occurred, or that it was so minor that no disciplinary action is warranted, it may dismiss the case at this point. In other cases, it may dismiss the case but may send you a confidential letter of concern, which will have no effect on your license and will not be made public.
In other cases, the Board may decide to discipline you. Discipline can include a public letter of admonition, putting you on probation with certain conditions attached to your continued work as a pharmacist, a suspension of your license, or revocation of your license. When discipline is recommended, the matter will be referred to the Office of Expedited Settlement for settlement discussions; where settlement is not possible, it will be referred to the Office of the Attorney General for a formal hearing.
If the Office of Expedited Settlement has your case, it will contact you with an offer to settle the matter on certain terms. These terms can often be negotiated. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team regularly negotiates settlements on behalf of pharmacists and other licensed professionals facing misconduct allegations. We understand the negotiation process and what issues are important to licensing bodies such as Colorado's Board of Pharmacy. Our goal in every negotiation is to arrive at an agreement that will protect our client's ability to practice pharmacy, with as little impact on their pharmacy license as possible.
The Formal Hearing
If the disciplinary case doesn't settle, it will proceed to a formal hearing before an administrative law judge. The Board of Pharmacy will be represented by an Assistant Attorney General from the state; you have a right to be represented by your attorney. At the hearing, both sides will be able to present witness testimony and introduce other types of evidence, and to cross-examine witnesses and challenge the other side's evidence. After the hearing is over, the administrative law judge will prepare findings of fact and conclusions of law and will recommend sanctions in cases where the judge finds that misconduct has occurred.
You will have a chance to file an “exception” to the judge's ruling with the Board. The Board will review the judge's written ruling and any exceptions that are filed, and will make a decision on what steps, if any, to take against you based on that information. Decisions of the Board can be appealed.
Potential Outcomes
In cases where the matter against you isn't dismissed, the Board has a number of options when it comes to ways it can discipline you. These include:
- Issuing a public Letter of Admonition
- Placing you on probation
- Requiring you to take one or more specified continuing education courses
- Fining you
- Suspending your license
- Revoking your license
In any disciplinary matter where the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team is representing a pharmacist, our goal is to resolve the matter with as little impact on their license as possible so that they can continue to work in their chosen profession.
The Lento Law Firm Can Defend Your Pharmacist License in the Denver Metropolitan Area
Whether you work as a pharmacist in Denver itself, in a suburb such as Lakewood, Centennial, or Westminster, or in Aurora, Colorado Springs, or Fort Collins, your pharmacist license is the key to your career and your livelihood. When your license is threatened by a misconduct complaint, it makes sense to defend what is probably your most valuable personal asset by contacting the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team for help. Our experienced attorneys understand the laws, rules, regulations, and procedures that apply in pharmacist misconduct cases in Colorado. We will bring our experience helping pharmacists all across Colorado – and all across the US – to your case.
If you've been notified that a misconduct complaint has been filed against you, don't hesitate to contact the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team now. We can be reached at 888.535.3686 or through our contact form. Tell us about your case, and let us tell you how we will use our knowledge and experience to help protect your license and your livelihood.
