What was your Monday like
yesterday? Mine was spent trying not to go postal dealing with the US (well,
Metro DC) health system.
First of all, I had my third
conversation in a week with CVS Caremark over authorizing payment for a
medication which carries a co-pay of more than $300.
My PCP faxed the prescription
to Caremark on 26 May, and in response to one of their robocalls I
authorized payment on the 31st. Then I did it again on the 4th
and got a confirmation email.
But yesterday I got another
robocall, in which the automated system makes you jump through a bunch of verification
hoops before it intones, “There is a problem
with your payment. We cannot process your prescription until you call us.”
Because their time is so much more valuable than yours and they couldn’t
possibly waste one of their humanoid’s time on calling you—or even connect you
with one of their humanoids since you’ve already verified your credentials.
Leaving aside the issue that
only about half the time does Caremark seem to recognize my member ID number
(the one on my insurance card), so I have to run through extraordinary measures
just to keep them on the line, for the third time I once again went through the
rigmarole about authorizing the obscene amount of money they demand as a
co-pay. (In fairness, it is three months’ worth of the meds.)
I pointed out to their agent
Michelle that I was told a week ago
that everything was set and asked when I could expect to have my medication
actually, you know, ship. (As far as I know, they don’t have to go out and grow
anything; they can get supplies from one of several rapacious pharmaceutical
companies and add on their own extortionate markup.) She assured me that it’s
now settled, and I’ll get a confirmation email. I needed to get to a meeting,
so I didn’t point out that their confirmation emails don’t seem to be worth the
pixels they’re written on.
Then I got home and had to
deal with my primary care provider’s “patient portal”, which of course is their
preferred method of keeping their customers at a distance.
But I’ve had enough tsuris for
one day. I’ll write about that tomorrow.
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