Patient safety is jeopardized by incentivizing prescription transfers.  Patients end up with multiple pharmacies, each with a partial list of medications, and without a complete list, pharmacies can miss drug interactions and duplications of therapy.  Although every attempt is made to ensure accurate transfer of information, each transfer does introduce an opportunity for transcription error.  In addition, transfers done solely for the sake of a coupon add a significant and unnecessary burden to an already heavy workload. 

We know that the best practice is to have coordinated care where all the players (doctors, pharmacists, nurses, patients, etc) have complete and accurate information, and the practice of encouraging prescription transfers through coupons and other incentives completely undermines this ideal.