Forced to Use One Particular Online Vet Pharmacy

Question
The veterinary clinic I take my dogs to use an online pharmacy which charges significantly more for medicines than other pharmacies charge. This particular pharmacy also sends medications that expire two to three months from the fill date and gives kickbacks to the referring vets.  I have asked to have my prescription transferred but they refuse to do it.  Is this legal?  I'm in California.

Answer
I do not know the laws in California so I can not advise you.  My hospital's website has an online pharmacy attached to it (vetcentric) and we get $10 per prescription...this is not a huge amount of money considering we have to pay a DR to review the chart and then another staff member to call the script in.  Plus what clients often don't understand is that if veterinarians do not make any money on medications, they will be forced to increase the price of services (examinations, vaccines, fecals, blood tests, etc.) to cover the overhead, and again the clients will be complaining about that...there are always checks and balances.

As far as the expiration of the medication, most pills have a 1-2 year shelf life if not longer.  However, if the medication is compounded (flavored liquid, transdermal) it is not stable for very long and thus the short expiration date.