I’ve written before about some of my travails with Express Scripts.
The latest dealings with them is simply too annoying for me to let pass without comment.
Two weeks ago, I noticed it was time for me to order the single medication that I use daily.
I went to the Express Scripts web site, placed an order , got a confirmation number and then heard nothing else.
I didn’t get their usual string of annoying emails;
“We’re processing your order”
“We’re really processing your order”
“We’re putting your order in a box”
,“We’ve put the stamp on your order”
“Do you want to schedule automatic home delivery?”
“We put your order on the shelf”
“Are you really sure you don’t want to schedule automatic home delivery?”
“We’ve moved the box containing your order to another shelf”
“Why don’t you want to schedule automatic delivery?
“The post man picked up your order”
“Your tracking number is…”
Normally, I’d get the tracking number a couple of days after I had the package in hand.
I didn’t think too much of their new terseness, I actually thought, “Great, I’m not being spammed to death with irrelevant B.S.”
Then I forgot about it… It’s not uncommon for them to take as long as 10 day to get my stuff to me. That’s rare but it’s happened in the past.
On the 10th day I log into the Express Scripts website, to see where my order is. I find that it shipped on September 11. I check the supplied tracking number and discover that the order was apparently delivered via a post office in Calimesa, CA. Apparently someone received the order… it’s listed as delivered by the Calimesa Post Office.
Whoa!, First, Calimesa is about 65 miles from me. Second I didn’t pick up the order.
I call Express Scripts and get this really snotty little bitch.
I wasn’t particularly upset when I started the call, I just needed to know what was going on.
But after speaking with little miss bitch I was angry!
Turns out Express Script policy is not to worry about it until 12 days after a package has gone missing.
OK fine what then? According to Ms. Bitch then they’ll send me another order but in the mean time I’m the one that has to follow up with the Postal Service.
WHAT? I’m not the one that shipped something only to have it go missing.
Every other vendor who ships something will initiate a trace in the event that a package goes missing. But not Express Scripts.
Which caused me to ask the question “What would have happened if this prescription was an opiate? Vicodin, Darvon, Demerol, Percodan? Those are heavy duty controlled substances, would Express Scripts be so cavalier about a package of that going missing?”
Little Ms Bitch interrupted me 5 times while I was asking that question, then bitched at me for talking over HER!
Her response was “my hands are tied, our policy is clear” which I thought was a pretty defensive and pat answer.
I asked another question and little Ms bitch talked over me AGAIN. “What happens if I run out of my RX?”
“If the patient runs out of their medication,
The patient has to contact their physician to get an new RX to have filled at a local pharmacy. “
Which is seriously annoying because Express Scripts has the RX and could easily arrange with the local pharmacy to provide a small supply while the shipping issue is being sorted out.
Needless to say a stronger letter will follow to the fine dumb asses at Express Scripts.
Saturday I couldn’t do anything, since I needed normal business hours to speak with supervisors.
I will be sending a letter to the FDA, the DEA (Both of whom are involved with the regulation of online pharmacies) Another letter sent to the California “Board of Pharmacy”. All of which will be CCd to Express Scripts Corporate offices.
Oh, By the way, you have to Google for Express Scripts corporate office address because it’s not on their damn web site!
It’s not just that I’m missing a single package.
I can’t be the first or only person to have a package go missing.
As a customer it shouldn’t be MY responsibility to track down that package.
There is the whole can of worms about what happens if the drugs being shipped are Schedule 1 drugs (Highly addictive or subject to abuse) and those go missing?
There’s the issue that if I’m out of the drug I need now I have to take my Doctors time un-necessarily to clean up Express Scripts mess.
Then there’s the problem that what my Doctor prescribes and what Express Scripts actually sends are two different things. Express Scripts has no problem taking a patient off a perfectly good medication that works effectively and predictably to put the patient on a “Generic” medication.
I don’t care what the hype says… A generic medication has a slightly different chemical makeup therefore It’s NOT the same as the prescribed drug. (I can produce proof that Generics aren’t as effective as the “real” drug I was prescribed. That proof is of course strictly about my own body and your milage will vary. But the ineffectiveness isn’t pronounced enough to FORCE Express Scripts to give me the “REAL” drug again.)
What the hell is Express Scripts doing prescribing medications without having ever personally seen the patient in question?
If I have the RX filled at the local pharmacy, I’m going to get what the Doctor prescribed, which means I get to go through an uncomfortable re-adjustment to the “REAL” drug, and guess what? I get to go through that painful re-adjustment AGAIN when Express Scripts gets their shit together and sends me my damn order.
Express Scripts is Evil… They’re the Wal-Mart of the pharmacy world.
Most shopping plazas have a grocery store and a pharmacy. There’s a reason that became the norm, we all buy groceries and it’s no big deal to drop by the pharmacy when we’re picking up the weekly supplies.
That is, by the way exactly what I used to do. I’d call the pharmacy, place the order and schedule to pick it up on whatever evening after work when I was getting groceries. Simple, efficient, and it was good for the economy.
Yeah, think about that…
How often have you gone into the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and realized you’d forgotten vitamins, or shampoo, condoms or whatever?
Now, because of Express Scripts and companies like them, you don’t go into the pharmacy nearly as often.
This translates to a loss of sales on all those little incidental items, or seasonal items that you’d have purchased in the past. Now, you’re not likely to even see them.
Guess what? That means that local jobs in your community are at risk. Stockers, cashiers, and the staff of your local drug store won’t be as necessary because the drug store loses business.
Highly trained individuals like Pharmacists will not be in demand so their jobs are at risk too. Overall that degrades the quality of the local community.
I miss going to the pharmacy and picking up my prescription. I miss talking with the pharmacist and the human touch. I miss the confidence I had in my local pharmacist. They not only had my prescription records, but that they checked them for drug interactions.
I get NONE of that using Express Scripts. What I get from Express Scripts is inconvenience, and a snotty little Bitch that has no courtesy, and reads a script instead of being actually helpful.
I’ve said it before, RESIST! REBEL!
It’s your health and your body that these people are arbitrarily playing with. You don’t have to accept the B.S. they’re peddling.
Don’t agree to an insurance plan that includes Express Scripts, choose other insurance options if at all possible.
If your company has already bought into the Express Scripts kool-aid, You can try to force your company insurance programs to stop using Express Scripts.
Complain to your HR people every single time Express Scripts screws up, or swaps your working prescriptions for a generic without bothering to tell you.
Eventually, your company insurance administrators will get tired of hearing the complaints and fielding phone calls. When they do… you can be sure they’ll drop Express Scripts… because dealing with Express Scripts is too much trouble.
Check your prescriptions carefully
When Express Scripts substitutes a generic for the drug you were taking make sure they spoke with your physician.
Even though they claim in their letters that they speak with your Doctor about sending you the generics… They apparently don’t. My doctor has no record of them ever speaking with him.
Stop buying into this concept of cheaper is always better!
Sometimes cheaper is just another word for shitty.