The Pharmacy Chick

There are several constants in the world. The earth spins on its axis at a certain rate, the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and Pharmacy Chick has to call some pissed off customer after every vacation. This time it was two…

Over the years I am less and less inclined to make apologies for things not my fault. Call it callousness if you will, but I spend enough time apologizing for stuff that my staff IS responsible for, that I am not going to make ammends for stuff that is NOT our fault.

Person #1- brought in a prescription for Anotherazepam #90 for 1/2 q 6 hours. This plan limits to 30 days so the pharmacist “took it upon herself” (quote of customer) to adjust the quantity to 60. It was completely appropriate given 1) insurance audits are unpleasant and 2) the last time the patient got the med was 4 months ago. She took some exception to this adjustment made a bit of a stink. I didn’t fall for it and I didn’t make apologies. If the doctor writes a certain sig, then we are obligated to submit a days supply that is consistent with it. Bite me. (ok, I left that out of the conversation). He had his dr change the sig so he would get the other 30 and had the pharmacist rebill. (So what are you whining about again?–YOUR dr screws up and its my fault? Bite me again!)

Person #2 ordered a refill that needed Dr’s auth. He came in later and Dr hadn’t called back. In fact, this is ongoing with his Dr, and he knows it. This time, with relief pharmacist around, he decided to bring out his bad behavior. It was “unacceptable” to have to wait 2 days for a refill .A couple of days later he told my partner that he is transferring his prescriptions elsewhere.

Personally, I agree– it IS unacceptable to wait that long, but until somebody elects Pharmacy Chick as dictator-for-life then that’s how it goes.

So here’s the deal–Don’t threaten to transfer prescriptions–it is not gonna work with me. I don’t care. I will make the same amount of money whether or not I have to put up with you. I am not going to grovel–its not my nature. Its a free country, you can go wherever you want, and I am ok with that. For every one I lose, I’ll just bring one in that’s pissed at their previous pharmacy. I call it the revolving door: In and Out. See ya around sometime.

Tags: customers, insurance, pharmacy life, ranting | |

I had to laugh today. If you read blogs, The Angry Pharmacist www.theangrypharmacist.com wrote a blog about doing other people’s work, specifically regarding people who bring issues to HIM that really belong to the mail order pharmacy (read: competitor) from whence it came. Its rather colorful, if you know what I mean.

She approached me with a paper bag that she emptied on my counter. It contained a lancing device and a box of lancets. I knew her as the chauffeur for a family member who filled prescriptions at my store regularly. In fact, I believed that the stuff she deposited on my counter was for this family member. She didn’t know how to remove the lance from this device. It had been the lancing device for her brother and he had used the same lancet (!?!?) for years. Oh gag, I really didnt’ need to know that. He gifted it to her for some reason and she wanted to remove the old lancet and replace it with her own. She presented me the box of lancets. I flipped it over. It had a pharmacy label from Big Box Pharmacy up the street. All I said was “You got this at Big Box??”. I immediately thought of TAP’s blog. Her pregnant pause said it all. “yes”, she said.

I pulled the old lancet cartridge out, showed her how to put the new one in and sent her on her way. She was happy and I knew I had fodder for another blog post. Here’s hoping she replaces that lancet more than once per decade.

TAP, I tip my cap to you. Pharmacy Chick understands.

Tags: competitors, customers, ranting | |

Ok, I am working hard when I hear “ahem” at the window. (Its always ahem or cough-cough isn’t it?). So this brilliant mind is waving this bottle of cough syrup at me and asks–and I quote:

“Will this hurt me?” I am tempted to respond “Only if you plan on beating yourself over the head with it I suppose?”, but I restrained and decided to play devoted druggist:

“Are you diabetic?” (contains sugar) Nope.

“Are you allergic to any medications that you know of?” Nope.

“Have you taken this medication before?” I’ve taken X before (same stuff inside)

“Well, I believe that medication will not hurt you in any way”.

And then he asked me this……drumroll please…….

“What is this for?”.

Give ME the bottle so I can beat myself over the head with it.

Tags: customers, pharmacy life, ranting | |

Today Pharmacy Chick got to have a bit of fun doing EXACTLY what the customer wanted.

We got this new customer, a transfer really, from some competitor. She had several drugs, one of which is P. She had some insurance, and when I was getting all her information, she pointed to her P bottle and said “I dont want generic for P–it doesn’t work”. I noted the last date on the bottle–November…before the generic came out…I am seriously doubting she even tried the generic yet, but I wasn’t going to argue. I learned a long time ago that arguing with customers who have their minds made up about generic medication is akin to beating my head against a wall–it feels good only when you stop.

So anyway, as I am currently aware, there are two companies who make generic P, and one of them is the Innovator themselves, infact when you open the bottle, the darn tablets still say P, which I think is the biggest corporate cop out on the planet. If you are going to put a med in one bottle and charge $400 for it and put the same med (not even changing the paint on the tab) and charge $100 less, then somebody ought to fine your butt a bazillion dollars. You’d think they would at least take the name off the stupid tablet before putting in the bottle!

We happen to have that one at the moment, tho it could change at any time due to the fact that we have a corporate buying deal–I get whatever they have on their list of approved products.

So anyway, I collect the transfers and start the filling process. In my infinite wisdom, I obtained what she paid in November..something in the $40 range, a percentage of the brand price. I filled the prescription today with a DAW-2 (remember, its EXACTLY what she wanted) and the price now is $143 ish. Now, not having ALL the history of this woman, she may have a deductible, but I wasn’t finding out, and I didn’t do a test claim of the generic either…I don’t want to know what her copay would be because 90 days from now I will likely not have the same “brand” of generic.

The thought of trying to explain to this lady that “this tablet that SAYS p is actually the generic of p” then changing it later does not appeal to me. And remember THE GENERIC DOESN’T WORK according to her. Pharmacy chick suspects she already had this filled generic at her old pharmacy and wouldn’t accept it so she transferred to me…but thats only a suspicion.

She will get exactly what she wants. I’ll let you know what she decides when she actually has to open the pocketbook. I think I better get a bottle of the other generic, cuz I’m not sure what I would say if the identical pills were in the bottle if she decided to go generic. I think it would be a good idea if the tabs looked different–call it a hunch.

Tags: customers, pharmacy life, prices, ranting | |

Ok, The pharmacy Chick was hoping for a quiet Friday. It was not to be. A coughing gagging person comes in with 3 prescriptions with card from Biggest-PBM-on-Planet (BPOP for short). It came back Coverage terminated. No, not non-match ID, (which leaves open a minute possibility that we had something inputted wrong), but Coverage Terminated. I broke the news to one defiant female. “NO its not!”. Uh, yes it is. She whips out her blackberry and calls BPOP customer service who tells her her coverage is valid, and she smugly tells me that I am wrong. She hands me the phone that she has coughed on to talk to BPOP customer rep. I tell Mr. Rep: “Have YOU checked with your processing division to check her eligibilty?” Uh, no he hadn’t. He gives me a run around to try this (nope), try that (nope, again)and then he says “well, I don’t know what to tell you”

ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME? I am transmitting the correct BIN, ID, GROUP, and PCN number. It comes back Coverage terminated. CALL YOUR PROCESSING DEPT AND UPDATE HER ELIGIBILITY, THATS WHAT YOU CAN TELL ME. Because until I get a paid claim, she has to pay for these.

Coughing lady disappears for a while, and I assume she is calling her HR and trashing me to everybody she knows. She shows up about 4 hours later and says she wants me to transfer her RX to my competitor up the street (Things are looking up, I think) BUT she wants to make one more phone call (darn). While she was on the phone I called that pharmacy to see if we had the same insurance (we did) and asked them to run ANYTHING thru to check if it worked: Coverage terminated (oh yea, things are REALLY looking up, as I hope she is about to become somebody else’s problem).

I make a visit to the wait room and she is on the phone, on hold. I tell her that I am ready to transfer her rx, but I called her other pharmacy to check on her coverage and they also said she is terminated. The look on her face was priceless. I wasn’t deaf, I could hear what she was saying to her PBM: the pharmacy won’t give me my drugs(I offered her all 3 if she paid cash), the pharmacy computer says I am terminated (correction, My computer has no mouth, it doesn’t say anything–your insurance “says” you are terminated).

Finally she hands me that blackberry (where’s the sanitizer?) again and same Mr. Rep is on phone, and we go round and round again. I tell him under no uncertain terms that I have no more time for this. Either get a conference call with himself, me and the processor or hang up, because I have wasted enough time with his suggestions. BPOP is so big that one part is failing to confer with another and the customer is confused into thinking that if one person at BPOP says she is eligible that every part of the “system” is up to snuff. Sadly it is not.

Finally they take MY advice and the two parts of BPOP confer. AND they call me back. Other than the same BIN number, I have to change the PCN, the ID and the group number. It finally works. I do a print-screen and give it to Coughing lady. I tell her “KEEP THIS, because nothing on your card works, and THIS does. ”

I ask BPOP rep, if this will work from now on–she says yes.

I don’t believe her.

And I didn’t get even so much as a Thank-you.

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest her bed.

Tags: customers, insurance, rambling, ranting | |