CVS has apologized to a transgender woman named Hilde Hall after a pharmacist refused to fill her prescription. (Photo: ACLU of Arizona) A CVS pharmacist is no longer employed at the company after he refused to fill a prescription for a transgender woman, leaving her “embarrassed and distressed.” Hilde Hall described the incident in a Thursday blog post for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “On a recent day in April, I left my doctor’s office elated,” she wrote. “I was carrying my first prescriptions for hormone therapy. I was finally going to start seeing my body reflect my gender identity and the woman I’ve always known myself to be.” She then headed to a CVS store in Fountain Hills, Ariz., with three prescriptions for hormone therapy. “That’s when my day took a turn,” she wrote. “After years of working to affirm my identity in a world where transgender people are questioned constantly about how well they know themselves, the pharmacist refused to fill one of the prescriptions needed to affirm my identity.” Hall says the pharmacist didn’t clarify why he wouldn’t administer her medication. “He just kept asking, loudly and in front of other CVS staff and customers, why I was given the prescriptions. Embarrassed and distressed, I nearly started crying in the middle of the store. I didn’t want to answer why I had been prescribed this hormone therapy combination by my doctor. I felt like the pharmacist was trying to out me as transgender in front of strangers. I just froze and worked on holding back the tears. When I asked for my doctor’s prescription note, the pharmacist refused to give it back, so I was not even able to take it to another pharmacy to have my prescription filled. I left the store feeling mortified.” Hilde Hall outside the CVS pharmacy in Fountain Hills, Ariz. (Photo: ACLU of Arizona) The woman’s doctor even called the pharmacy to advocate for the patient, but the pharmacist refused to comply. “My doctor ended up having to call the prescription into the local Walgreens, where the medication was filled without question,” wrote Hall. “I transferred all of my prescriptions there so that I never again have to see the pharmacist who discriminated against me.” Story continues Hall says the overall issue is more significant than her personal experience. “My family supports me, fortunately, and helped me work through the anger and humiliation this experience caused,” she wrote. “But many other transgender people are not as fortunate as I am. I don’t want to think about what might happen if this pharmacist mistreats a transgender person who does not have a good social support system.” She added, “Through training and written policies, the company needs to make it clear to their employees — especially their pharmacists — that transgender customers deserve respect. No healthcare worker should rely on personal beliefs to reject decisions made by doctors and their transgender patients about medically necessary care.” Hall filed a complaint with the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy, which oversees the industry, and her ACLU blog post has elicited strong reactions on Twitter. At one point, a petition created by the ACLU and signed by nearly 25,000 people demanded an apology from the brand. This is your regular reminder that this is completely shitty but also totally legal. A pharmacist loudly refused to fill a prescription for a trans woman. (A few weeks ago in same state, a woman at another pharmacy denied prescription for her miscarriage.) https://t.co/TdHmyDFbcx — Dr. Rebecca Kreitzer (@rebeccakreitzer) July 20, 2018 Really? How about you just do your job? What is it to you that the person PAYING you is transgender. Good for CVS for firing this person, maybe they should have some training before hiring so this kind of thing doesn't happen again. — Angelina 👼 (@Angel_Of_Vanity) July 20, 2018 I just told CVS to protect transgender customers from discrimination. Will you join me? https://t.co/Y9ooKQ42B4 — diana (@yeahgirlie) July 20, 2018 Why is this still happening? It's almost like… Ok crazy thought. It's almost like people feel like they can get away with this awful behaviour. But why… CVS pharmacist fired after refusing to fill transgender woman's hormone prescription https://t.co/c57YJgM7no — Christian Plante 🇨🇦 🏳️‍🌈 (@ChristianPlante) July 20, 2018 CVS sent the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle: “CVS Health extends its sincere apologies to Ms. Hall for her experience at our pharmacy in Fountain Hills, Arizona, last spring. The conduct of the pharmacist, who is no longer employed by CVS, violated company policies and does not reflect our values or our commitment to inclusion, nondiscrimination and the delivery of outstanding patient care.” The statement added, “We are very proud to have earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index for the past four consecutive years for our policies and practices related to LGBTQ equality. In fact, CVS pharmacists were directly involved in the development of the HRC’s resource guide for providing pharmacy care and services to LGBTQ patients. We also apologize for not appropriately following up on Ms. Hall’s original complaint to CVS, which was due to an unintentional oversight. We pride ourselves in addressing customer concerns in a timely manner and we are taking steps to prevent this isolated occurrence from happening again.” When asked by Yahoo Lifestyle whether the pharmacist was explicitly fired, a CVS spokesperson said, “We cannot comment on the details of employment matters.” Hall has declined to give interviews, but a spokesperson for the ACLU of Arizona tells Yahoo Lifestyle that after her initial complaints were “blown off” by CVS, she received a phone apology from its corporate offices, and she is happy with the outcome. “This pharmacist violated federal law under the Affordable Care Act with respect to the nondiscrimination protections,” says the spokesperson. “If people have similar complaints, they should file complaints with state regulatory agencies and communicate with corporations so this type of behavior can be tracked.” According to AZ Central, Arizona and five other states allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on religious or moral beliefs. In June, a woman who visited an Arizona Walgreens to fill a prescription to treat her miscarriage was denied by a pharmacist. “I stood at the mercy of this pharmacist explaining my situation in front of my 7-year-old and five customers standing behind only to be denied because of his ethical beliefs,” mom Nicole Arteaga wrote in a viral Facebook post. Walgreens told AZ Central that its pharmacists could decline to fill a prescription on moral grounds, but they’re required to allow a co-worker to complete the transaction, something Arteaga says was not an option in her case. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.<doc-sep>A CVS pharmacist who refused to provide a transgender woman her hormone prescription is no longer employed by the pharmacy chain, the company said Friday. Hilde Hall said in a statement to the American Civil Liberties Union that she was excited to fill her first hormone therapy prescription after leaving her doctor's office in April, as it would allow her "to start seeing my body reflect my gender identity and the woman I've always known myself to be." But Hall hit a roadblock when she visited the CVS in Fountain HIlls, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, and gave the attending pharmacist the three prescriptions prescribed by her doctor, according to her statement. She said that he "refused to fill one of the prescriptions needed to affirm my identity" and "kept asking, loudly and in front of other CVS staff and customers, why I was given the prescriptions." "Embarrassed and distressed, I nearly started crying in the middle of the store," she said in the statement. "I didn’t want to answer why I had been prescribed this hormone therapy combination by my doctor. I felt like the pharmacist was trying to out me as transgender in front of strangers." After departing the store, Hall called the CVS customer service line twice to no avail, she said. Feeling as though she had no other options, she then filed a complaint with the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy on Thursday, according to the ACLU. CVS responded to the situation in a statement on Friday, stating that the pharmacist was no longer employed by the chain because he had violated its company policies. "His actions did not reflect the company's values or commitment to "inclusion, nondiscrimination and the delivery of outstanding patient care," CVS said in its statement. CVS Statement on Arizona Store Incident pic.twitter.com/OzZP84tLec — CVS Health (@CVSHealth) July 20, 2018 "We also apologize for not appropriately following up on Ms. Hall's original complaint to CVS, which was due to an unintentional oversight, " the company added in its statement. "We pride ourselves in addressing customer concerns in a timely manner and we are taking steps to prevent this isolated occurrence from happening again." According to the ACLU, Hall said Friday that she had spoken with a CVS representative, who also apologized on behalf of the company, and appreciated the company for taking "her experience seriously." CVS received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index for the past four consecutive years. The index ranks companies based on their policies regarding LGBTQ equality.<doc-sep>
Hilde Hall filed a complaint against a CVS in Arizona after she tried to fill her hormone prescription. (CNN) — Hilde Hall says she went straight from her doctor’s office in April to a CVS pharmacy in her Phoenix suburb, eager to fill her first hormone therapy prescription. The treatment would spur physical changes in Hall’s body that would reflect her identity as a transgender woman, she said. “I was finally going to start seeing my body reflect my gender identity and the woman I’ve always known myself to be,” she said. Her elation quickly turned to anxiety when the pharmacist refused to fill her prescription and humiliated her in front of other customers, she said. Hall said she called the CVS customer service line twice. When no one addressed her concerns, she decided to file a complaint with the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy on Thursday. In a statement to CNN, CVS Health said the pharmacist violated its policies and is no longer employed by the company. “We also apologize for not appropriately following up on Ms. Hall’s original complaint to CVS, which was due to an unintentional oversight,” the statement added. “We pride ourselves in addressing customer concerns in a timely manner and we are taking steps to prevent this isolated occurrence from happening again.” The statement pointed out that CVS has a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index, which ranks businesses based on their support for LGBTQ equality. What Hall says happened The pharmacist did not give Hall a clear reason for the refusal, she said in a blog post describing the encounter published on the American Civil Liberties Union’s website. “He just kept asking, loudly and in front of other CVS staff and customers, why I was given the prescriptions,” she said. “Embarrassed and distressed, I nearly started crying in the middle of the store,” she wrote. “I didn’t want to answer why I had been prescribed this hormone therapy combination by my doctor. I felt like the pharmacist was trying to out me as transgender in front of strangers. I just froze and worked on holding back the tears.” The pharmacist refused to give her back the written prescription, she said, forcing her doctor to call it in to another pharmacy. She was able to fill the prescription at Walgreen’s with no problem, she said. But she wanted an apology from CVS and an assurance that the drugstore chain does not condone discrimination against transgender customers or anyone else, she said. “My family supports me, fortunately, and helped me work through the anger and humiliation this experience caused,” she wrote. “But many other transgender people are not as fortunate as I am. I don’t want to think about what might happen if this pharmacist mistreats a transgender person who does not have a good social support system.” CVS apologizes CVS, for its part, made good on both requests. The chain said the pharmacist’s action “does not reflect our values or our commitment to inclusion, nondiscrimination and the delivery of outstanding patient care. “CVS Health extends its sincere apologies to Ms. Hall for her experience at our pharmacy in Fountain Hills, Arizona last spring,” the company said. The pharmacist violated company policies against denying patients access to medication prescribed by a physician based on a pharmacist’s individual religious or moral beliefs, CVS Health spokesman Mike DeAngelis said Sunday. “Under federal law and some state laws, we must accommodate a religious conviction that may prevent a pharmacist from filling specific medications. In such instances, the pharmacist is required to notify us in advance about such a religious conviction, so that we can ensure there are other arrangements in place to ensure the patient’s medication needs are promptly satisfied,” he said in an email. ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Joshua Block said the assurances from the pharmacy chain are important at a moment in time when the Trump administration has signaled its intent to roll back health care protections for transgender and non-binary individuals. After Hall filed the complaint, a CVS representative contacted her and apologized for the pharmacist’s behavior, Steve Kilar with the ACLU of Arizona said Friday. “Hilde hopes that CVS will make its nondiscrimination policies public, so that transgender and non-binary customers have some assurance the corporation will take appropriate action if similar discrimination occurs in the future,” Kilar said.