The CVS Caremark Saga part 1, so far.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away….
Wait, wait, wrong story, too soon, that doesn’t start for 17 more days.
Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment, only the second visit with this primary care doctor and she sent off the pile of prescriptions to the pharmacy for me.
As I’m sitting there watching them ring them up, the total comes up. Nearly 2.5 times what I normally spend a month on prescriptions. Now, yes, I had a new one, however, there was no way that could be correct.
The lovely(really amazing) cashier handed me the pile of papers and I began to look at them. Every single copay was incorrect. Between 50% to 200% higher than it should’ve been.
I questioned them, they looked it up, it had definitely been run through the insurance, and yes they were all much higher than previously.
Now, I just didn’t have that kind of money for one month’s prescriptions. I’m on a bunch of medications and being chronically ill (for those who might be new here, I’m a cancer survivor with diabetes, chronic pain, lymphedema, and a bunch of other things) it’s understandable that they cost a bit.
However, I was just stunned at the amount.
I pulled over to the one corner, in the store, and started to call my insurance. The first five times as I was waiting for an actual human being they disconnected from me.
Finally, a human being. Now at this point I’m pissed at the entire situation, I’m tired, in pain, and I’m out of two of the meds.
She starts to look at it and says that it is because they’re trying to force me onto mail order for all my scripts. Wrong, I actually read all the paperwork for our insurance, every time they are updated, and that isn’t correct. Our policy does not allow for that.
On top of that, two of the medications cannot be mail ordered and they are 50% higher than normal.
So, the round of holds, and her talking to others, and this and that continues. By now, I’m in tears, I’m done, I’m 3 hours late for picking up my husband who works an hour from where I was.
Then, she comes onto the phone to tell me that something is wrong with their system. A lot of profiles are showing things incorrectly. They’ll call me tomorrow with the information.
Today they called. They are working to fix it. Yay, right? Except, I’m still without the rest of my meds. Also, it is a big screw up with a lot of people. They are going to be auditing people and sending refunds to people who were screwed over.
Wait, this is happening to a lot of people yet no one has called that their meds were much more expensive? How do you not notice that?
Tony’s one med was correct, exactly to the penny, so my profile was screwed up, but not his. I do not get it.
They are supposed to call again tomorrow. Then, I can call the pharmacy and make them reverse and rerun all of the medications. I’m sure that is going to go over well with the overworked pharmacy employees.
We’ll see. I’m still out of luck on my meds, I have to drive another two hours, round trip, to pick them up, and I’m out the extra money I paid for the two I did pick up.
I wasn’t happy when Blue Cross changed to CVS Caremark as our prescription policy management and I’m even less happy now.
Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Oh, and Welcome to Holidailes!