vent:mail order pharmacies

[ninjanursek]

I am so fed up with these mail order pharmacies that many insurance companies practically force patients to use. My phone call volume relating to finding out why patients meds have not arrived are driving me crazy! I am am charge nurse in busy office, so I handle patients complaints, problem solve, etc. For example today I had patient whose meds were e-scripted to pharm Oct 11. He called me today and said mail order company did not receive rx.I call and after being on hold for TEN minutes I am informed "yes, we have rx it arrived on oct 18. I am no computer whiz, but 7 days difference? Maybe we should use carrier pigeon next time!!! So I ask to speak to manager, am put on hold for 20 minutes! When the manager gets on phone she is rude tells me she needs to put me on hold! I ask if she can take my complaint, look into it and get back with me via fax or follow up phone call because I have already spent 30 minutes longer than I could on phone. She says no she is not allowed to do that! I am beyond upset (putting it mildly) at that point I hang up. I call patient tell him situation, I get him temp supply of meds at local pharm because the mail order folks said his rx were set to ship on oct 25th!!!!! Unbelievable!!!! If our office did business like that we would not be open long! Also what about patient sasafety? Sorry for the long post. Any advice greatly appreciated.

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

My husband & I get all of our meds from a mail order pharmacy. If our doctor prescribes something new, he gives us 2 prescriptions: 1 to take to our local pharmacy for a 2 week supply & 1 to send to the mail order pharmacy. It's a pretty simple solution & the mail order pharmacy never takes more than the 2 weeks to get a new med to us.

Maybe the docs where you work could try something like this. It would save you a lot of time on the phone.

[ninjanursek]

How about your regular meds. For example:the doc sends 90 days with three refills when it is time for new rx you get extra two week rx every time? Don't mean to sound dense, just trying to figure this out.

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

When I get down to about a 3 week supply I call a refill to the mail order pharmacy. If I receive a refill & there are no refills left after that one, the mail order pharmacy sends a fax form for my doctor with the med info on it. All he has to do is sign it & fax it back to them. By using the mail order pharmacy, we don't have to pay any copay for our meds. That saves us about $800 every year.

[systoly]

my experience with mail order pharmacies stems from LTC

in that environment there are no savings, while the price

for the RX maybe less, the cost of managing it more than

absorbs those savings

many facilities in my area have instituted strict rules

when dealing with mail order pharmacies

no phone calls, fax only communication

limits on number of units sent (so you don't end up with 500 scheduled rx

for one resident)

we tried the double scripts as mentioned above, but neither the docs nor the

house pharmacies will go along with this

if there's no response to a second fax, the issue is turned over to the POA

it still costs about 2 to 3 times as much to manage rx from mail order

but the burden is less

mail order probably works well for independent people on maintenance doses

it doesn't work well for higher acuity

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Personally as a user of mail order pharmacies for "certain meds"...I think some of my meds aren't as effective and they are a pain in the behind to deal with.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Aetna is the worst! I have spent days/weeks/ hours trying to get my new yearly RX filled for my BP med. They say it has auth, then it doesn't, then it does, then it doesn't.

Then they say they mailed back the RX, but even though they recorded it in the system they can't fill it. RX never shows up. Multiple calls to multiple people at every level and a zillion faxes from my MD office later they finally shipped.

And I know the system from all angles. I cannot imagine someone who doesn't know the system dealing with it or gawd fobid someone sick.

I apologized over and over to my MD office and intervened in every way i could.

Just beyond ridiculous!

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

My husband & I have Aetna and we've never had any trouble with the mail order pharmacy.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

this Is one of those times I say,"yippy me" no meds!