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Does your mail order pharmacy have their act together?

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Posted 10/14/2007 3:09 AM (GMT 0)
This is the 3rd time I've had issues with mine. I use Medco, well, their speciality pharmacy which I think is called Accredo? For Humira now (used to be Remicade).

I have a past due balance. I know this, but have to wait until payday to pay it off. My fault. I called on Monday to order my refill since I have to inject it this coming Tuesday. Give them plenty of time to get it to me. Tell the girl that I am carrying a balance and can I order it or how much do I need to pay. She puts me on hold and then tells me I can order it and it'll be delivered Friday. They will invoice the new balance.

On THURSDAY afternoon, while I'm at work, they leave a msg at home stating they won't send it out without half the copay. If I don't pay by 3pm, I won't get it Friday. I get home after 3 obviously and it's too late.

I call Friday morning to pay my half of the copay (it's only $20 so we can skimp that together) but am put on hold by the guy so long it disconnects. I call back. Go through the whole spiel again and she puts me on hold and then tells me I have to pay my entire past due balance, which is $80. Not half the copay. She has no idea why the msg said that.

I call DH, we decide that we have to find this $80 because I have to have the medication. I call back 2 hours later to pay it but ask that they invoice the new $40 copay and I'll pay it on payday. They are fine with that BUT they can't deliver until Wed now. 

I go through the whole 'I have to inject it Tues, Wed is too late, I was supposed to get it Fri until someone screwed up, blah blah' until they "arranged" for me to get it Tuesday afterall. At this point I know they are making notes about me in the system!!

40 mins later I check my acct online and guess what? They've charged $120 - the past due and new charge, even though I asked for it to be invoiced and only verbally agreed to the $80 charge. We already can't afford the $80 and $120 will throw us under a bus.

Call back again to get it charged back.

ARGH! I wish I wasn't tied to them. They screw up constantly but this was the biggest hassle to date. I know I had a balance, but I asked before even placing the refill what I needed to do. Don't wait until the day before it's shipped to change your mind. This is MEDICATION - not a new pair of shoes. Some of us rely on these to stay alive and functioning and a few days DOES make a difference. Do they not get that? I called over a week out just so I could arrange to borrow the $ if I needed it.

*rant over*

Do you use a mail order place? Have you had issues like this?

Posted 10/14/2007 4:03 AM (GMT 0)
I have Medco also. I have yet to actually utilize their mail order services and if they are going to go and charge things like that with out permission.. maybe I wont use it. I work in customer service and I know that it takes just one moron representative taking the call to royally mess up an account. I don't trust customer service reps with my money too often since they tend to be pretty disgruntled workers... haha.
How long have you been using the mailing services through them and what else have the screwed up? If you don't mind my asking.
Posted 10/14/2007 4:16 AM (GMT 0)
I switched to mail order about 6 months ago for my regular scripts and have been using the specialty arm since Feb for my Humira. I've heard lots of people tell tales of problems with Express scripts but so far, they have been great. I've had no problems or delays with my orders and they invoice me for the copays. Then I send a check.

There was a delay in applying a payment through the specialty pharmacy, Curascript, but it was only a little behind and I was still able to get my next month supply even with the outstanding balance.

Since you obviously paid with a credit card, you need to make sure that they won't decide to automatically charge this account for future orders unless that's what you want. DH worries a lot about fraudulent charges and has insisted that we get billed. Based on what I see through my account, if I use a credit card, they will just bill that for all future orders. So, I won't give them that info. They just have to bill me.
Posted 10/14/2007 4:32 AM (GMT 0)
I've got Medco too, and they screwed me up at the beginning too! Now they are shipping me "too" much Humira, 2 boxes instead of 2 injections each month. I think I've finally got them straightened out though. Took them about 3 months, and now they call me, when they think I need to have a shipment! Good luck- have you checked with Abbot about rx assistance? They may be able to help you with the copay's your struggling with!
Posted 10/14/2007 10:31 AM (GMT 0)
Hi I use a mail order pharmacy. I use Caremark drugs and have no problems. I call for my meds they
send them to me and I pay for them when I get payed.
TBW
Posted 10/14/2007 4:57 PM (GMT 0)
I use Caremark and have had no major problems. I always put the medication on my credit card so that I can pay it when I want to. However, when I renew it gives me the option of using the same card or a different card. My medication often comes when I am not home and it sits on my (dry) porch. However, even though it can't get wet I do worry about the heat or cold sometimes. They said I could have it sent to my work instead if I wanted to. The only problem I have had is the auto function didnt work once and I had to wait on hold forever to talk to a human and get it straightened out. I talked to three different humans and it was finally ok. The one thing I like is they say it can take up to three weeks to get the meds but I always get my whole box full in just 3 or 4 days. I like that Im never worrying it wont get here in time. I dragged my heals about doing it but I save a ton of money and love never having to go to the pharmacy anymore.
Posted 10/15/2007 3:39 AM (GMT 0)
I use Walgreen Online Service for my prescription. I don't really ever have a problem with them. Once and a while I will call to fill my prescription and for some reason it doesn't go through, but when I call back two weeks later they appologize and fed ex next day. I been very lucky! Everything is just charged to my credit card on file.
Posted 10/15/2007 5:24 AM (GMT 0)
I have Caremark, and I haven't had any serious problems, but when I first got approval for Humira, they told me that they would call me back on Monday (my injection was on Wednesday) to get everything set up. Well, I never got a call back. I called my GI's office to try and get it fixed. They called Caremark, and still nothing happened. Luckily, I could get my first fill locally, so I did that. Caremark then called me back three days after my injection and informed me that they couldn't help me get set up for the next month's fill until closer to the 24th, which I don't quite understand, and I haven't heard a thing yet.
Posted 10/15/2007 11:30 AM (GMT 0)
We have a GREAT local pharmacy and use Medco for a few things. My husband's doctor will NOT FAX scripts to Medco. He gives us the script which WE must send in. While I admire his loyalty to our local small town pharmacy this can be a REAL PITA. One of my husband's scripts was just doubled. He's due for a refill on his old single dose. Long story short, we've sent in the new doubled script and because it is new it is taking Medco longer and he's been a week w/o this medication AT ALL since he had doubled up on the single dose he had left assuming he would receive the new script in a timely manner.

I refuse to order two of my meds that require refrigeration from Medco so must pay "the long price" and I've had them take it upon themselves to tell my my gastro has approved switching me from Imuran DAW to the generic when she denies she did so. (I believe her but I wouldn't put it past her NP to do so). I get my Imuran DAW locally as well 'cause I'm not taking any chances.

I just ran into another "switch and bait" w/them. Several years ago I was on Prevacid for awhile and it didn't do much if anything so I was switched to Aciphex and it at least helped. Turned out the problem was bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine rather than GERD but the Aciphex definitely did help untl the antibiotics "cured" the problem. So when I started having some problems again a couple of weeks ago my family doctor scripted Aciphex and an antibiotic. Medco doesn't allow for Aciphex. My choices were Prilosec (which I've never taken) and Nexium (which I've also never taken). Now, I"m sure Nexium is newer than Aciphex meaning more expensive, right? To make a long story short, doctor's office couldn't reach me so I ended up w/a bottle of Prilosec. Its been sitting here, I haven't taken it. I'm letting the antibiotic handle the problem. I should have refused it when I picked it up but wasn't thinking.

I don't MIND taking generics if they work for me. BUT when we KNOW one drug worked and a sister drug didn't or even caused problems I don't like taking a sister generic so I am NOT happy about the Prilosec/Aciphex switch. And I will NOT take generic azathioprine! Everything else I'm taking the generics. Well, except for the Forteo for which there is no generic.

Add to this the fact that I am NOT a think ahead person. Its just so much easier and pleasant to just call my local pharmacist for a refill today and to have it tomorrow at the latest.

Posted 10/15/2007 1:52 PM (GMT 0)
C2- for your husband, the RX that goes to your mail order pharmacy is a new one and the refills should still be at the local pharmacy from his old script. In the interim he should pick up his old script at the pharmacy and take his new dose until the new script comes in from the mail order. Ive done that w/ my birth control before w/ no problem so that I don't have to gap it. So far the insurance has paid for both and not complained. I think two different departments deal w/ the local and the mail order so they dont even realize.
Posted 10/15/2007 2:25 PM (GMT 0)
I have MEDCO and have not had any issues, but I do not use the specialty items yet. I had Express scripts in the past and had a lot of problems with them. I think it is all in who you talk to when you call. I ask for a supervisor and get names whenever I call
Posted 10/15/2007 6:58 PM (GMT 0)
I've used express scripts in the past and had terrible problems with them. sat on hold for 2 hours trying to talk to a pharmacist to figure it out and then the claimed they never got the rx but my dr had record that it was faxed to the correct number, etc...long story short, i have been using curascript for my remicade and now my humira and the only problem that has come up was when my rx ran out, they failed to call me and let me know. i had to call them and find out why they hadn't called to authorize the shipment for my next appt(they usually did 3-4 weeks pryor) and by the time they got it figured out and got my doc to auth a refill, it would have been too late for my appt. but the place where i was getting my infusions worked with me and infused me with their stock and replaced it with my late shipment so all worked out. so far nothing else bad and they have been nice and respectful to me unlike the other company.
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