poor treatment while trying to obtain script

As a pharmacy tech, allow me to break this down....

"12/12/08: Walgreens failed to give me a script for antibiotics which
was called in by my dr in the am.
It was actually filled at 1pm according to their printout."

Just because you called a doctor in the morning does not mean he's
going to call in your script right away. Some of them actually wait
until they have time to look up charts to make sure that they're not
calling in anything that might interact with any health conditions or
other medications you're on. Some of them also wait until they are
done seeing patients. Then there's the very real possibility that the
doctor forgets to call in the script and instead of admitting to his
error, he'll lie to you by saying he did call in the script and once
he gets off the phone with you, he'll then call the pharmacy to
correct his error.


"I worked all day very sick, running a fever,etc. Could not leave
until 5:25pm. drove 25 mi from work to pharmacy to pick up script that
had been confirmed via phone earlier. after waiting in drive-thru &
giving my debit card & ins card, was told to move & not hold up line
while they called ins co. I went in & waited (there were 2 other
customers in pharmacy the whole time I was inside)."

Just because you only see 2 other patients at the pharmacy does not
mean there aren't other people who dropped off prescriptions and are
shopping, dropped off prescriptions at the drive thru, were called in
via the automated system or called in by a doctor. At my pharmacy, we
can fill over 400 prescriptions a day but that does not mean you'll
see over 400 people hanging around.


"I asked what problem was & was told they could not issue script
without talking to ins. They left my debit card in the drive-thru
drawer & found it & I claimed it while I waited.I explained how sick I
was & tired from working all day, running a fever. Clerk said smartly
that she was tired too. Finally she said my ins co was closed & I
would have to wait until Mon. I said I would be in hospital with
neumonia without medicine. She said she could do nothing. I angrily
said I hated ins. cos, pharmacies & everyone & left. It was about 7:40
by then.I called the 800# on ins card.Got thru to person who informed
me that the script was authorized, but not like my dr had written. it
was for 2days with refills instead of 7 days. I requested him to stay
on line while I went back inside. Finally I got my script at 8pm. I
appologized for being rude earlier & stated it was only because I was
so sick. Turns out I had the flu."

I just love insurance companies. Insurance companies often have two
different numbers... one for pharmacy and one for patients.
Considering that this was not taken care of right away makes me wonder
if the pharmacy even had the correct insurance information on file.
You'd be surprised at how many people change insurance companies or
get new cards with new information and do not inform the pharmacy
until a situation like this happens.

It also seems that your insurance is rather screwy. Sometimes
insurance companies send through rejections that can be hard to figure
out hence the need to call them in order to get it straightened out.

"Appologize."

I believe you are owed an apology if the pharmacy dropped the ball.

"Get competent workers in pharmacy."

Just because they had trouble filling your script, and it seems it was
due to an insurance problem, does not mean they're incompetent.

"Remember customers pay staff salaries."

Yeah, ok.

"Be polite to customers."

I agree that folks should be polite but remember, that's a two way
street.

to apologize to the staff for being "rude" and then demand they:

Appologize.
Get competent workers in pharmacy.
Remember customers pay staff salaries.
Be polite to customers.

Most of this issue was between your physician and your insurance
company, not the pharmacy. The pharmacy's hands are tied without that
approval. I agree that the pharmacy tech should have been a little
more compassionate, but I can also imagine that based on your own
recounting of the events that you probably didn't give her a lot of
reason to be pleasant.

It's good that you took things into your own hands and got it
resolved, but as others pointed out, if you were that ill, why on
Earth did you spend the whole day at work? And on a Friday no less!
We BEG people to go home when they're sick at my job. They do no one
any good in that state and no one wants to share the germs!

And just FYI, regardless of whether you think that your consumer
dollars "pay their salary," that doesn't give you carte blanche to
make a bunch of demands and behave belligerently. Indentured
servitude went out centuries ago!

Why are you at work when sick. This action can lead to the spreading
of your illness to other people. Don't be a hero! Stay home when sick.
Saying that,I totally understand your plight and hope you are feeling
better and appreciate your apology given.

Kudos to you for going back and apologizing for being rude - I can
understand how being sick and having worked all day it'd be hard to
remain composed when you're being jerked around and all you want is
your meds.

It is strange that the pharmacy was unable to contact your insurance
company when you were easily able to get them on the phone. In your
shoes, I might have called the insurance company on my cell phone
while still in the pharmacy, just to be sure and save time.

Also, they way that you wrote it I was a bit confused about the debit
card situation, but it sounded like they kept / left your debit card
in the drive-thru drawer, which is incredibly irresponsible on their
part (and yours, to be honest).

Sounds like the pharmacy never got the confirmation from the insurance
company to pay the Rx.

Glad you got your meds and hope you are feeling better.

Many MDs will prescribe an antibiotic when there are flu symptoms to
try and ward off secondary infections -- like bronchitis -- especially
if the patient has a history of complications. I suspect that's the
case, as most antibiotics go through they authorization without
problems (because they're generic), and a 2-day antibiotic treatment
is probably a pretty powerful dose.

As odd as it sounds, some plans have a different number for their plan
members and a different number for the local pharmacies to call if the
authorization isn't going through. If the Rx isn't authorizing, it's
pretty hard for the pharmacy to find out what's going on and what
alternatives there are. Usually that has to be worked out between the
insurance carrier, the patient and the MD.

If this isn't your normal Walgreens who had your insurance card on
file, they wouldn't have been able to know that there was an
authorization problem until you gave them the card and they tried to
run it electronically. If there are problems, that always causes
pretty significant delays.

Sounds like the failure was in the pharmacy not being real
communicative about what was going on and why. They definitely should
have offered the out-of-pocket option when the authorization wasn't
going through.

Hope you feel better. The flu stinks.

with me, my doctor won't prescribe antibiotics unless he is absolutely
convinced I have an infection. I am allergic to so many of them that
he doesn't want me to become immune to the few I can take.

Many doctors are getting away from prescribing prophylatic antibiotics
because so many strains of things are becoming drug resistant.

I hear you on that, Harley...I am allergic to penicillin and sulfa
based antibiotics, as well as a few other mainstream ones. I do well
on cipro now, but cant help but wonder how long it will be before my
boy gets annoyed with it, also.

Unfortuantly, for several reasons, it is best that I take antibiotics
when I have a really nasty cold or teh flu. Yes, I agree we would not
take them without actually having an infection, however, my medical
history means I need o take that risk,

This sounds like the fault of your insurance company, not the
pharmacy.

You could have paid cash for the medication the first time you were
there if you felt you needed it.

And I wonder why the doctor had prescribed antibiotics if he/she knew
it was the flu.