New Ally (Pharmacist) & IV Costs

[Guest guest]

Hi Guys,

Seems we have a wonderful new ally...the pharmacist that I chewed out last

month! He called last night to see if everything worked out okay. Was a question

about whether the IV connectors would work okay, but knew he could rig it

up and they'd be okay.

didn't ask him how the " books juggling " worked out and he didn't say

anything. The cost for the IV meds is $1500.31 and we still don't know if the

insurance will pay since the drugs aren't in the pharmacy computer and the

pharmacist got the drugs from the hospital rep. We'll see, so keep your fingers

crossed. Since our employer-sponsored insurance hates us, we may have to eat it.

I mentioned earlier that this particular pharmacist has been a real jerk over

the years. Last month, I chewed him out royally after refilling pain meds. Well,

pain medication is a big issue in Texas since we are a border state and the DEA

and the Medical boards track patients who take pain meds and the doctors who

prescribe them. It's a sticky issue. Some pain meds (called " triplicates " for

controlled substances) are even tracked by the State of Texas. (A copy of the

prescription goes to Austin.) We have a signed contract with our pain doc, which

must be honored to the letter. The pharmacist put us in jeapardy by violating

" the contract " and I let the pharmacist have it. He didn't understand then, but

did by the time I explained it.

Basically, I called to refill pain meds, and asked about another med that I

wasn't sure whether or not I had a refill available. Picked up my meds that

evening, everything okay. Four days later, the tech calls and leaves a message

saying the doctor denied one of my refills. Since I didn't have any more meds to

pick up, I called and asked about it. It was the one I had initially inquired

about.

Well, our contract with the doctor is very specific. You don't call in for

refills if refills aren't available. You wait until the next appointment. This

looks like I'm trying to sneak something in. (We also contract to get our meds

from only ONE pharmacy (of our choice) so he can track refills. Also, refills

are only to be called in on a specific day. This wasn't on that day. So, the

pharmacy violated my contract with the doctor, which jeopardized our

patient/doctor relationship.

The pharmacist said that is standard policy with them, to call if refills aren't

available. I said, you're talking about pain meds here, and I didn't ask them to

do that, and they never have done that before. I simply asked if I had an

available refill. She should have said " No " and that would have been the end of

it. If I had urgently needed that particular medication, I would have made an

appointment with the doctor. Then I found out that the doctor was going to be

out of pocket (moving offices) for two weeks, so if I had been urgently in need

of this medication, I would really have been out of luck.

We have had so many screwups with this pharmacy since dear Alice left, that I

was so frustrated. This pharmacist really got an ear chewing. But we had a good

talk, and he said he would try to make sure things went better. I guess he meant

what he said!

Love ya, Rose

T.O.I.L. for Lyme!

T=Teach tolerance; O=Overcome ignorance; I=Initiate insurance reform; L=Labor

for Lyme literacy

*Websites*

http://www.angelfire.com/tx3/RoseWriter or

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/romarkaraoke/james.html

---------------------------------