More issues than Sports Illustrated.
Some days run as fast and as smooth as a Ferrari. Other days run like a used Yugo. Friday was Yugo day….broken down YUGO day…for example:
For starters, I am so sick of transfers I could just puke. Walgreens made a real statement by dumping Express Scripts, a decision I admire. Its rare that a pharmacy stands up to a PBM. In their eyes Express Scripts is a bucket of crap. If thats the case, why are the rest of us all fighting over who gets to pick up this bucket of crap? We have received all kinds of communication from suits at corporate encouraging us to welcome this bucket of crap insurance and offering the holder of this crappy insurance transfer coupons, gift cards, welcome gifts, etc. Let me share 2 problems with this: 1) lots of extra work and no extra labor. I’m piling up 25-30 transfers a day. 2) a lot of these offers aren’t valid for the majority of these customers who get frickin pissed when they dont get the gift card/welcome gifts/coupons. Tricare is express scripts…one of our major welfare plans is express scripts and several Medicare D plans are Express scripts…none of which are eligible for the incentives….and none of which bother to read the fine print on the offer…leaving us to deliver the dirty news. So fun.
Friday was also ” brainless customer day”. I dont need much from a customer to process their prescriptions. Really, I dont. All I need is information…information that THEY alone possess, and they either have stored in their heads or on one small plastic card. I’ve written about this before, but a good rant is in order. Because we have had a huge influx of new customers, I’ve endured the frustration of their uncanny inability to process even the simplest requests: Tell me specifically what you want transferred ” all of them” ( bang head on counter) and bring me your current insurance information.” Cant you get it from walgreens?”. No, I am using their online tool and that doesnt’ come with the prescription and Wag’s is pretty busy right now. Cant you get it off their computer? seriously? do you think that PC pharmacy can “dial in” to a competitor’s data base and garnish data? How painful is it to bring out a small piece of plastic and hand it over ? you’d think I was asking for a pound of flesh.
Jon Doe came to the counter Friday also. I just knew this was going to be a painful process when he announced ” I am from out of town and I need these workman’s comp rx’s filled”. I was right…in spades. For starters he had insufficient INFORMATION. Handing me only a data sheet from the doctor’s office I asked him for the prescription billing info and he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. Knowing THIS was going nowhere I asked him where ELSE he got his WC rx’s filled and he told me Joe’s drugs in ShadyNook. I looked them up and they hadn’t seen him in 3 years. Calling him back I relayed this info…and he said ( get this) ” OMG did I say SHADY NOOK? wow I must have had a brain fart..I moved from there a few years ago..I live in Sunnynook now and go to Sam’s drug there. “So I call Sunnynook and get the billing info..( one hour later and I still have no progress on these 3 rx’s) I finally process all three…and all 3 reject ” please call 866-123-3333 for confirmation” Since NOTHING has gone right from 9 am on today, its not surprising to me that THIS isn’t going well either. I call the number and the lady ” logs into the payors website” and agrees to pay for the 2 morphine rx’s and denies the concerta rx..claiming that drug is not consistent with his diagnosis. I guess I can’t argue with that, since I have NO history on this gentleman, and NO idea what his injury was.
I got the pleasure to relay THAT information back to Jon Doe who went about as ballistic as one human go to..I was grateful it was a PHONE conversation and not one at my counter. I was also grateful that his anger was directed at his comp and not at me. Suffice to say that a 3 hour investment of my time paid off with exactly nothing, other than he paid cash for a 3 day supply of his Concerta and he would “address this issue with my attorney on Monday because my injury is catastrophic and everything should be paid for”. I typed up some notes of what I had attempted and left it wrapped up in the rx..one copy for file and one copy for him. I decided I dont want to be on the receiving end of any angry calls from Mr. Doe….or his attorney.
Then I got Mr Chavez. Nice man actually..and another out of town transfer with NO refills. Faxing Dr ABC’s office from the info on the transfer slip I get a fax back saying ” wrong doc”..call Dr XYZ. Well XYZ was in the same clinic at the same fax number ( ?!?!) so I crossed out ABC, wrote in XYZ and faxed it back…to which I got a return note 3 hours later: ” patient not at this clinic”. Getting Mr Chavez on the phone I relayed this series of events and he said ” Dr ABC covered for Dr DEF..DEF is my current dr..Ive never seen Dr XYZ……”. Well Dr. DEF practices out of a satellite office…and different fax number. Fax number 3 goes out to DEF… and it is returned just after 5 pm signed by none other than Dr GHI covering for DEF, that Mr Chavez has never heard of…again. I filled the prescription with the caveat for Mr Chavez ” you might just expect this to happen next month..since Dr GHI is on the rx and you haven’t seen him..God only knows where he normally practices…”.
Mrs Browbeat transfers 2 Rx’s to my pharmacy. Written for 90 days, her plan only covers 30 days at the retail setting. She wants 90. She claims she got a letter saying she can get 90. ( and I agree..but probably only mail order). I show her the rejection that she disses immediately. I want to see this letter she has so I can read it myself, but she wont provide it, insisting she KNOWS she can get 90 days. wash, rinse, repeat…here we go again. I show her the rejection..she leaves mad and its ALL MY FAULT.
Ms OnaleeBrandWillDo is ticked because her Medicare D plan made her take generic Lipitor last month. She is convinced it doesn’t work despite the fact I show her that its the very same tablets…from the same manufacturer…only tons of $$ less to her… As far as she is concerned, I filled the bottle with dirty gravel I guess…and its ALL MY FAULT
Dr. Picky writes a renewal script for sertraline for a newer patient of mine who has been getting it filled here for 2 months. We carry Northstar Sertraline. He wants Greenstone..of course I know why..its same as Zoloft.. Problem is that I can’t get that one. We purchase on contract..we get whatever vendor our company has agreed to purchase from. I tried to order Greenstone..they shipped the contracted item. I really dont care to deviate from the company policy. If they remain competitive in the marketplace by purchasing by contract, I will support that. The special request process is slow and results in higher drug costs because its NOT a contracted item. The customer didn’t care what she took…but HE did so he made her find a pharmacy that could buy Greenstone and fill it there. Whatever…
One after another..issue after issue…It was painful to get a simple prescription from hard copy to the cash register without going thru some kind of suffering. Loyalty cards that didn’t work. Medicare D patients insisting they had NO changes in 2012 ( they did). I even had to listen to squabbling among patients who were arguing who got to the counter first…really? must I listen to this? by the time you fight this out BOTH of you could have been gone..in restrospect I should have offered to flip a coin..
I was so ready to go home. I had to make one delivery to a disabled guy on my way home. Hoping to just drop it off and fly, he wanted to engage in a conversation about his favorite new tv show…for 45 minutes. My phone was buzzing non stop..Mr chick was freaking out..it was nearly 10 oclock before I hit the garage door.
I’m ready for a Ferrari kind of day.
Tags: customer interactions, doctors, insurance, pharmacy life