Yesterday, I was sent to the drug store to pick up a prescription (don’t worry, everyone is healthy) and I was a little upset by what I saw.
I had to go twice, each time there were about four people ahead of me. I was able to witness some interesting things while I was there. So much so, I want Rite Aid or another pharmacy to create a show like SouthWest airlines has with the show Airline. Obviously, this is a bit harder to do in a pharmacy setting.
What did I observe?
Instead of taking care of patients and sick people, the pharmacist is standing there defending himself on why the prescription ordered is either a certain price, or needs pre-approval, or is not covered by insurance.
- One person’s debit card wasn’t working.
- Another person was picking up for his mother and her government insurance card was not renewed and thus cannot get the medicine she needs.
- Another person didn’t have insurance at all, and had to pay a fortune.
- Another person needed a pre-approval to get the drug they needed.
By 8pm, the pharmacist has been dealing with insurance and doctor issues all day that he is fed up. He doesn’t blame the insurance company nor the doctor, he blames the individual who walks into the pharmacy before checking with the insurance company or doctor if it is okay.
This is the world we live in. Sick? Don’t go to a doctor. Go to the insurance company first to make sure you are allowed to get better.
The pharmacist is spending most of his time defending himself when he is not allowed to give someone the drugs they need because of the insurance company. He should be filling prescriptions, instead, he is fighting with patients.
Sad world – I wish I would have recorded some of it.
I can’t really blame the pharmacist or the doctors. Hard to blame the patients. There are just so many rules and complications with insurance companies that no one knows the rules and rights.
Completely agree. the whole health care system is so esoteric that no average person could really figure it out.
I had a recent issue where I was bounced between my insurance company and doctor multiple times, both making contradictory claims. The sad part is that I HAD to spend a huge amount of time going through that craziness to figure it out because if I hadn’t I could have been on the hook for thousands of dollars. And to be honest I’m still not confident in the outcome – Part of me is waiting for a huge bill in the mail with a letter saying why it wasn’t covered by insurance.
They really need to make this stuff easier to understand!