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OT - So you hate Express Scripts/Medco

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 8/9/2013 9:48 PM (GMT 0)
The employees too.

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/07/19/americas-worst-companies-to-work-for-2/2/

No wonder, why we get crappy customer service because they are so much pressured.
Posted 8/9/2013 10:33 PM (GMT 0)
A couple years ago they decided to send me pentasa instead of lialda. When i tried to send it back they wouldnt take it back. I tried to explain how i didnt use it anymore and they ignored my comments and charged my credit card anyway. I called my credit card company and they disputed the charge for me and got back my $60. They never responded to the cc company either so i won...They still send me bills every month for it along with threatening letters. My local pharmacy is more than happy to fill my script for me correctly without all the corporate bs. Thats why I hate express scripts. Greed to make more money from my past illness.
Posted 8/10/2013 6:08 AM (GMT 0)
Yep, it seems they have 1 snail-mail Rx order form containing a box to check if you only want to receive the exact brandname drug-- w/o any substitutions by them. Of course this box is positioned in an obscure place-- the back of said form! / Old Hat (32 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 8/10/2013 10:14 AM (GMT 0)
I HATE them too but the problem with craptastic insurance is, if I buy locally, I get only one month and with them I get 3 month. Buying 3 months at a times saves me a good amount of money.

But as and when the costs are nearly the same, I buy locally.
Posted 8/11/2013 4:02 AM (GMT 0)
Delta, how do they ship meds to you? Just curious because they send mine by UPS, which then transfers it from their nearest warehouse to the local Post Office for delivery to my residence. / Old Hat (32 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 8/11/2013 11:45 AM (GMT 0)
I didn't have any bad experiences with them. Yet.
Posted 8/11/2013 12:12 PM (GMT 0)
With my lialda card i actually get my scripts for $10 a month at my pharmacy vs the $60 for three months they were charging me, so it was a no brainer. Plus even after checking the special hidden box, and several calls from my doctor and myself they decided they were going to send me pentasa anyway. They chose profit over care any chance they could. Thankfully my meds are minimal now and its nit really an issue anymore.
Posted 8/11/2013 2:09 PM (GMT 0)
I never had a problem with Medco for my gma when she was alive but my MIL has a heck of a time with them.
Posted 8/11/2013 3:11 PM (GMT 0)
I was with them at my last employer and even though they make it seem like you should do mail order, I never did.

I also had the $10 discount card for Lialda and the only way to make that work is to get local monthly refills.
Posted 8/12/2013 1:39 AM (GMT 0)

Old Hat said...
Delta, how do they ship meds to you? Just curious because they send mine by UPS, which then transfers it from their nearest warehouse to the local Post Office for delivery to my residence. / Old Hat (32 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)


Exactly as you mention. It takes 5 days to arrive from NJ (If I drive, it will take 30-40 minutes, including messed up traffic on the George Washington Bridge).

What is the trick for $10 Lialda card?
Posted 8/12/2013 1:40 AM (GMT 0)
Medco actually worked a-ok for me. My hubby's insurance switched to Catamarran this year. It has been a huge pain getting everything set up and shipped.
Posted 8/12/2013 2:10 AM (GMT 0)
I'm glad to hear they screw other people's orders up too. I take Lamictal and it MUST be brand name so everytime the dr sends it in that way. And every time they call the dr and get an approval for generic. And then they send me the generic and I have to send it back. And because I have done that, they now put that my RX can't be filled again for 6 months. So each time I need my script, I have to call in and explain. And each time they say they will fix it.
When I first got my script, it was for 300mg in the am and they were sending an order of 200mg ones and an order of 100mg ones.. And charging me for two orders! My dr wrote the script to get around that. I can't afford to not do that one on mail order, it's way too expensive.
Posted 8/12/2013 9:21 AM (GMT 0)
You can get the lialda card by going to the manufacters website. It brings your copay down to 10$ but it seems you can only use it at the local pharmacy because it wont work with mail order.
Posted 8/14/2013 5:57 AM (GMT 0)
Delta, so far my refills did not get stranded in NJ, but the last one waited an extra day in Ohio for transport eastward. Those delays must be related to UPS trucking schedule disruptions. / Old Hat (32 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 8/14/2013 12:04 PM (GMT 0)
They sent me a 3 month supply of enemas and Express-scripts sent it the Smart-Post FedEx (were FedEx partners with the USPS) and it took 3 weeks for the enemas to arrive (they sat at the Jersey City USPS sorting facility for over a week). I called up and gave Express scripts a piece of my mind, now they ship them 3-days for for free to me (rate on the package says it costs them about $170 now).

For the generic meds that I take on a regular basis then Express scripts is great, I just set it and forget it. They show up in mail and I don't have to worry about it or travel to the pharmacy.

If you need Biological meds through Express scripts then you need to use their Sister company (Kira scripts) and they are even worse then Express scripts, their billing system is always down and they can never get their bills right. I think my insurance company (BCBS) just fired them, I got a letter last month telling me that they are no longer using Kira scripts and patients with new biological scripts will need to use a different specialty pharmacy for Biologicals and January 1st I'd need to switch.
Posted 8/14/2013 12:42 PM (GMT 0)
I used to have express scripts. My 3 month supply of lialda came with about 1 in 4 pills being chipped. It took forever for me to get to speak to someone there who knew anything. This one girl was telling me "Well if the pill is only slightly chipped, I'm sure that most of the medicine is still in it and it would be close enough to your dosage."
Can you believe that? Wrong on so many levels, but naturally I informed her that what I was paying for was the coating.

Anyway, took like 2 weeks until i had someone tell me to ship back the damaged pills and they would exchange them. So they put the burden on me to go inspecting under a maganifying glass each pill looking for chips/cracks.
Posted 8/14/2013 2:31 PM (GMT 0)
I just had a bad experience with them. They took it upon themselves to take money OUT of my account without my authorization. Also, they just send the medication even if you don't need it. I called them and told them to put my money back in my account and to never just send medication to me without my authorization.

And so far, not too many of the customer service people speak clear english!
Posted 8/14/2013 2:53 PM (GMT 0)
I had a rep on the line who called me to authorize some meds but later I told him you know what let me go online and fill it myself. He was ok with that. He also spoke proper english. I also like that they send you 3 months worth of meds and it's a lot cheaper.
Posted 8/14/2013 5:02 PM (GMT 0)
I soooo hate Medco / Express scripts. It has gotten much worse over the past year since they merged (or whatever). The website is terrible - it doesn't show all of your history. They have randomly processed refills of meds I didn't need, they have changed the generic version of my BCPs like 3 times, and you just have to hope that you don't have an issue -- because customer service is terrible and no help at all. Drugs take forever to arrive, even if you expedite shipping.

It is much cheaper to get RX by mail, however, so my strategy is to try and anticipate what I will need long before I need it. What a pain.
Posted 8/14/2013 7:37 PM (GMT 0)
I wonder if we can complain about them to Better Business Bureau. Anybody tried? If I get experiences like jc1973 or Michelejc, I certainly would.

@jc1973,
Thats really annoying. I noticed that majority of phone reps do not understand a thing. As I always said, a lab trained monkey would probably do a better job. They must not be getting any training. I noticed that majority of them do not feel like well-versed with the medications (they ask me spelling of verapamil EVERY TIME.)

@Old Hat,
I think, they have a facility in NJ. My meds come from that place.
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