Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Congratulations Ma'am, You Are Now The Biggest Idiot Of The New Year. Would You Like A Barf Bag?

An actual conversation with an actual customer on the first business day after New Year's, traditionally the busiest day of the year in the pharmacy business. A day when many people switch insurance coverage, resulting in up to hour long waits to get through to insurance plan help desks. The gravy on the mashed potatoes this day being that the computers at the store crashed as well:


Me: Ma'am. we went to bill your insurance and they rejected the claim saying your coverage was terminated. Did they send you a new card by chance?

Customer: Well, yes they did, but I know it's the same insurance so I threw the card away.

At that moment I could not even begin to tell this woman how screwed she was. The prescription was for Zofran, an anti-nausea med. Retail price, $460. Someone was totally gonna be doing some pukin'.........

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

pacificare was being a complete bitch. for some reason they split up our BCBS groups into two different group ids, but when you called they couldn't see the transaction to tell you what the exact problem was

Anonymous said...

OMG, best line every "Someone was totally gonna be doing some pukin'" Laughed SOOO hard!

I was kindly on the phone yesterday trying to figure out what the hell was going to be a patient's copay since Rx Solutions (new processor for AARP and United Medicare...they comprise a good portion of those on Medicare Part D for those not in the loop) and finally got thru to someone because our patient could not just take the damn medication and come back a bit later! I was talking with the lady and I asked how backed up they were (I only waited a half hour). Prescription solutions had over 1,200 calls in their phone que.

Poor suckers on the other end of the insurance claims. Simple fixes all someone had to do was think ahead and send us a simple letter saying that three hundred of my patients would be switching plan and group numbers please update them to 9999 and PDPIND respectively if they reject from coverage terminated thru AARP or UnitedHealthcare, but hey that would be WAY too easy.

I hate insurance...anyone want to open a cash only pharmacy with me?

DrivingMissMolly said...

God you are an insensitive asshat. Where's your sympathy?

Couldn't you give her a couple of "loaners" until you could get it run through on insurance?

Dayum. Do you have to take any ulcer meds?

Your hate makes me happy!

Lily

PS I wanna give a shout-out to my pharmacist Brice at Target. You are nice and easy on the eyes as well. I am sure you don't hate me!

ariel said...

Lily, you are an idiot. Who "loans" out prescriptions that are $40 a pill? Easy way to lose a lot of money.

A customer came in today and dropped off a new Rx, and then walked directly to the pick up window and tried to convince me that it was obviously already finished because she was "in a hurry." Does this happen to anyone else? Or is it just me that the stupid customers pick on?

I had to spend 15 minutes with another customer who insisted that his co-pay was wrong by 15 cents. 15 cents!!! I finally convinced him to buy the medication anyway and call UHC in the morning.

DrivingMissMolly said...

Ariel,

I guess you don't get sarcasm...

Lily

PS my old pharmacy used to really give out loaners, but obviously doing it on such an expensive med would be stupid, duh.

DrivingMissMolly said...

Drugmonkey, I hope you're happy. Now we are turning on ourselves. Your rage is contagious!

I think I'll try to find out if the Carebears have a blog.

Lily

PS Ariel. I am sorry. I know sarcasm doesn't translate well in this medium. Truly, however, I am not an idiot. I am actually quite bright!

DrivingMissMolly said...

One more thing, DM...sorry for all the posts, I need a refill on my Paxil....but, why the comment moderation? Are you, I daresay, *chicken*?

BwaaakBwaaakBwaaaaaaaaaaak.

Lily

Anonymous said...

Lily,

Your sarcasm sucks. You should have put a smiley at the end of your sentence or used some italics.

Andrew

Anonymous said...

Has to be fun when AARP sends a letter in November to let me know they would be issuing new prescription cards for 2007 & to 'watch for them in the mail', but I didn't receive the cards until January 6.

Anonymous said...

Has any one else noticed that the genius' at prescription solutions have left pt's active in both the united healthcare and prs groups? We have pts who had subsudized coverage through UHC and are still active but at nonsubsidized rates. Change the processor and the group and voila the $28 copay goes to $3.15. Effin' morons. I hope when the terrorists nuke us these bastages are headquartered there.