Your Rights & What to Ask
Can you ask the pharmacy to complete the sale and record it manually?
Yes, you can ask. Kentucky’s current KEMPT regulation explicitly contemplates a transaction occurring while a pharmacy’s request for an extension because of a mechanical or electronic failure is pending. In that situation, the pharmacy is required to keep a written log or approved electronic record of the transaction and later enter the information into KEMPT when the system is operational.
But this is not the same as a consumer’s right to compel the sale. The regulation tells the pharmacy what recordkeeping procedure applies if a transaction occurs; it does not say that a consumer can require a pharmacy to sell a product. So the safest approach is to ask whether the pharmacy can process the purchase under its system-failure procedure, rather than telling the pharmacist that the law requires the sale.
“Are you having a statewide system outage, or is this pharmacy unable to connect? If you are operating under the Kentucky system-failure procedure, can you process my purchase using the written or approved electronic record and enter it into KEMPT when the system comes back?”
If they agree to process it
- Follow the normal identification and purchase-limit requirements.
- If the pharmacy uses a written log, you may ask what transaction number is being assigned. Kentucky’s regulation expressly permits a hardcopy signature logbook containing the purchaser’s signature and transaction number.
- Keep your receipt, if one is provided.
If they decline
Ask calmly: “Is the reason that the pharmacy cannot legally process the sale while the system is unavailable, or is the pharmacy choosing not to process it?” You do not have to argue the point at the counter. Document what you were told and the approximate time.
Important: The regulation requires the pharmacy/dispenser to maintain the required record when a qualifying transaction occurs during a pending extension. It does not establish that the consumer is entitled to receive a copy of the pharmacy’s internal log on demand.
Read the current Kentucky regulation (906 KAR 1:160) · Read KRS 218A.1446
Kentucky system check
What this does — and does not — mean
A lack of a public outage notice does not prove that a pharmacy's connection is working. A problem can be local to the pharmacy, its network, its software, or the tracking service.
Official resources
Report what happened
This prototype records a report only in your browser. Production reports will be handled by a privacy-conscious server-side system.
How PSE Verify will work
- Check official state/vendor status information where a public source exists.
- Distinguish documented statewide outages from possible pharmacy-specific connectivity problems.
- Timestamp status findings and preserve the source behind them.
- Explain each state's actual rules rather than making unsupported claims about what a pharmacist “must” do.
- Aggregate consumer reports without publishing allegations as established facts.
Privacy principle: the public service will not ask for Social Security numbers, driver's-license numbers, dates of birth, medical information, or NPLEx credentials. Anonymous reporting will be the default.