Friday, May 08, 2009

If it's this bad now, what's gonna happen when the government takes over health care?

Grrrrrrrrr.

I am so irritated/angry/pissed off at my mail-in prescription service. If I didn't save money by sending them our 90-day prescriptions, I'd never use them again.

Back in March, before we went to Florida, I mailed in a page of refills with six or seven new prescriptions stapled to it. The week after we got home, the refills arrived. Not one of the new prescriptions had been filled. I called the service and was told they hadn't received the new prescriptions. I told them that if they got the refill authorization, then they had to have received the new ones. They were all stapled to that one stinking page. No, they didn't have them. And we were out of a couple of meds.

Ron, or Rod, whoever he was, offered to call the doctor and ask her to fax the prescriptions to him. I thought that was the end of that.

A few days later, two of the new prescriptions arrived. Two. 2. Dos. I called the service again. They'd not received the others. Called my doctor. Yes, they'd faxed all of them. Once again, my prescription service screwed up.

I had a doctor's appointment last Wednesday. She told me she'd faxed the prescriptions the week before, but she'd do them again.

A few minutes ago, I called the stupid prescription service again. Only one prescription had been received, they'd filled it, and I have to allow 7 or fewer (I love that distinction) days to get them. Ooookay. I called my doctor's office yet again. They'd faxed in three prescriptions for me at the same time they'd faxed that one for Tom. But the damn service had not received my prescriptions.

My doctor's office is once again faxing the prescriptions. I am almost out of two of them.

If things are this damn f^cked up when insurance is run by private companies, what the hell is going to happen when the government takes over our health care? Will we end up like Canada and not be able to get surgery that we need because they're too busy? Like Great Britain where women with breast cancer are left to die because the drugs to fight it are too expensive?

I do not have a good feeling about this.


P.S. I am feeling a little better each day. Just a tiny bit better, but at least it's moving in the right direction.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Betty said...

Good grief! I think that whoever is in charge of new prescriptions at that mail-in company is sampling a few too many of the medications that he/she is supposed to be filling. Is there a supervisor who you can talk to and find out just what is going on?

I'm glad you are starting to feel better and I hope you get all of your medications very soon.

Elaine said...

I had almost the same prescription situation. I needed a new prescription - there were no more refills. You can click a button to say that you want them to contact your doctor for a refill. I did that. I put in my credit card number to pay for it. It showed it in process. Then all of a sudden I get mail saying that it's been canceled. So I phone them. They say the doctor declined to renew it. Impossible I said. I asked did they contact the doctor and they said that they either phoned or faxed the doctor (aha - you can't remember?) and the doctor did not respond to repeated requests. So I phoned the doctor who I trust and they said they were never contacted but they'd be happy to fax in the prescription. OK. The next thing I know, it shows that they have 2 copies of the prescription and they are canceling them because I can't have them both. Like what? First they are canceling it because the doctor didn't fax in the prescription, then they are canceling them because it was faxed in twice. I started getting very agitated because I NEED this and finally I spoke to a supervisor who agreed that canceling them did not make sense but they could not just cancel one (why not?) and could not fill both (OK - I understand that). So they filled one (it finally arrived today) and put a 2 month hold on the second which they will fill then whether I want it filled or not. Sigh. Be grateful for what you get. And then my out-of-pocket for this one 90 day prescription is $990. But at least it goes towards my very large deductible for my medical. I had an MRI this week and that is all out-of-pocket, but then I should have enough so they will start paying something. My medical plan sucks.

Rachel O said...

Oh my.

I hope you're feeling perfect by now and the merry mailman has brought you your "goodies" :-)

rita said...

My God, Elaine, that's an expensive med! I hope that your MRI showed nothing but good results. These prescription mail order things are just nuts; obviously they're run by incompetents. I'm not sure that I'm going to use mine again. It just might be worth that extra $300 or more to get them from a local pharmacy.

Betty, there's an address where I can complain about "pharmacy" issues. You can bet I'll be contacting them!

Tom's "goodies" came yesterday, and today we had a call from NextRX that they'd received my prescriptions and I'll have them in "seven days or fewer". We'll see.

robkroese said...

God help us if the feds take over it all.

rita said...

It just can't be good.