Insurance gripe

Since so many people post about problems they have getting their pain medication, I thought it might be interesting to hear from the other side of the coin.  My patient comes in for a refill of 100mcg/hour Fentanyl patch for chronic back pain.  Of course he is on the last day of his last patch, and of course he has a history of narcotic abuse.  He has been working full time and having trouble getting time off to come to the office, but it is a C-II so he must have an original script.  He doesn't have a car, so he has to bike to the pharmacy, office, and work.  I write the script.  He bikes to his pharmacy.  Pharmacist calls to tell me Duragesic now requires prior authorization.  So I ask them if they will substitute Kadian, I look up the conversion and decide to try 160mg bid.  The pharmacist agrees to an emergency 3 day phone order, and I have to get a script to them within the next three days.  Then I call up the insurance plan to get prior authorization.  The insurance plan representative tells me that indeed the Fentanyl patch (the generic) is not covered, but the Duragesic (brand name) is covered.   So I call back the pharmacy, hoping they haven't filled the Kadian yet.  I get lucky, they havent, so I ask them to check on Duragesic, and I will drop off a new script this evening, because they can switch from a brand name to the equivalent generic unless the script says DAW, but apparently cannot switch from the generic to the brand name without a new script.  AAAAUUUGGGHHH!  Well it could be worse.