Bureaucracy!

Having spent the better part of the past few days working on making sure “The Artist” would be able to get the prescription filled that he needs, I have once again come to realize that bureaucracy exists for the sole purpose of making our lives miserable.

“The Artist” is listed on my husband’s insurance, and we are required to do mail order prescriptions, so we get a three month supply. If we fill at a local pharmacy, we pay quite a bit more, for quite a bit less medication. Well, that’s what ended up happening yesterday, once we finally got it all fixed.

The prescription provider wanted a pre-authorization from the doctor, but we were never notified ahead of time. for the record, they never have given us a heads up, either. So the doctor himself spent time on the phone trying to get through to the correct person at the subscription provider, only to be routed from place to place. Our doctor had never received a request for a pre-auth, either, by the way.

Finally, my husband called the place where our prescriptions are filled, and got through to someone. She gave him a good phone number to get right through to the correct department. Then, she faxed a request to the doctor, and they faxed the information back yesterday afternoon.

However, yesterday morning, our local pharmacy still couldn’t get the short term 30 day prescription to go through, so i called. Again. I spent some time explaining (again!) what was happening, and the lady put me on hold for a while. I don’t know what she did, but when she came back she had gotten the pre-auth accepted and gave me a number for it just in case. I was finally able to go to the local pharmacy for the 30 day supply, which he will need to hold him until the 3 month supply is received through the mail, processed and sent to us. BTW, that 3 month supply? $20.00. The 30 day supply purchased locally? $35.00, because that’s how our plan works.

Don’t misunderstand, I am very thankful that we have insurance through my husband’s job, and I still disagree with socialized health care. But really, couldn’t there be a better way to let a patient know they will need a doctor’s pre-authorization? In this day and age, a simple computer generated message via email, text, or phone to say “before your next fill, you will need a pre-authorization from the doctor.” That would be so much better than, say, going to fill your kid’s prescription, and finding out right then that it is needed. What this causes is worry over the patient being jerked off a needed medication, when that is not safe. This needs to change.