Insurance, anyone?
Tuesday was the insurance night from hell. Seems that everyone who came in to see up had some sort of issues with their insurance. First off, it was just myself and one pharmacist. Like I think I have said before, we are a fairly new pharmacy and generally not very busy. Occasionally, we will have a good rush, enough to get our blood pumping and remind us what it’s like to be in a busy pharmacy and make us appreciate our ease of life (for now). I had just grabbed the newest edition of the Pharmasystems catalogue, and pharmacy practice magazine and was settling in for the evening when all hell broke loose.
A lady approaches the counter and is asking us for the medication we owed her. One package of Fosamax. At least that was what was in the bag. She was under the impression that we were filling for an entire year for her, but of course her insurance will only allow us to fill 3 months worth. So, if that is the case.. why did we only bill for 2 packs? I don’t know. I went to pull the original, and left the matter with the pharmacist (we’ll call her M, for blogging’s sake), to figure out what went o, as there is a line up forming at the pick up window.
I move on to the next person in line, who is picking up her 5 refills… easy as pie, right? She asks if there are bonus points today.. I say “yes, with a coupon, which are at the front of the store” So, she strolls off to get a coupon for her bonus points, holding up the entire line up. The lady next in line is looking very peeved, and I am looking sheepishly at her. Eventually, lady number 1 returns, and I ring the coupon through,take off the insurance as it appears on the receipt. “That will be 99.87, please.” I say.
She is indignant!! “I never pay anything! We have two plans!!” Of course I offer to check, and find that one of the plans has been deactivated, at which point I reactivate and try again, just to appease her. Nope, still doesn’t work “Coverage terminated” The line up is getting longer. This lady basically is staring at me and muttering as if it’s MY fault her insurance isn’t working. Then it clicks to her that …oh yeah.. her husband’s company has been taken over and whooops… his plan has probably changed. Void Total and move on to the next person after about 20 minutes of hold up.
By this time M has figured out what is going on with the Fosamax lady and she rings it through and gives the lady her medication.
The next guy in line is going to pay and tells us.. I have a new card.. can you add this to my file? But of course.. Except for the card has absolutely no resemblance to any other card I have ever seen, but I KNOW we have billed to that company before, so I fuss with it. No luck at all, but he is nice about it and willing to come back the next day. M says she will phone the company about it in the morning, because the office is already closed ( what insurance office is open at 8:30pm??). Anyways, it turns out that the plan he gave us, isn’t even a drug card, and the one he really meant to give us was his wife’s plan. What a waste of time.
Meanwhile, takeover lady’s husband has arrived at the pharmacy with his new card, and we rebill the 5 rx’s and hand them out. As I am ringing hims through he says “I hope my wife wasn’t rude to you earlier.” at which point I have to embellish the truth a bit by saying no. I think he knows just exactly how she behaved.
These people need to learn that they need to give us insurance cards before we process their transactions. And give us BOTH of your plans at the same time. It might also help if you let us know if things have changed beforhand.
We aren’t psychic.. we don’t know what it’s going to cost 4 seconds after you hand us your prescription, either. And remember….I’m just a tech.. I can enter your prescription into the computer, but I can’t override the stuff on the screen. If you have had it before, I will likely have multiple overrides for the pharmacists to do. I am not going to interrupt them checking or counselling just so you can find out that your ongoing medication is going to cost you the same as it cost you last tim. I am pretty sure if you paid 25 bucks for your Lipitor last time you were in, it will be 25 bucks today, too.
Best bet is if you also don’t come in at 8:55 with problems like this.. we close at 9…always have… always will.
If I have to live through another day like this, you will likely be seeing one technician with a lot less hair.