“Uhh, I don’t want that on insurance”

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Stupid People, True Story, Work Sucks

We’ve all heard it. It’s a red flag in my book. If you don’t want your meds on your insurance, most of the time it means you are using your insurance card at another pharmacy and “doubling up.” It’s a mega no-no to say those words if you’re filling a controlled or narcotic medication…no doubt.

Yesterday, I got in a pissing match with some jackass because of this. He threw a flipping fit because we billed them. He yelled at my tech. He yelled at me. He went on to say that he never gave us our insurance card. I responded by saying that it obviously did not input itself into our system. He told me his insurance was trying to get him on some “emergency care” plan, and if he used his prescription insurance, they would screw him over. I did not believe him for a second. He had one vicodin script. The rest were normal, CHEAP, maintenance meds. At most, we billed his insurance for 100 bucks or less on 3-4 scripts total.

He went on to tell me that he only wants his insurance billed when he presents his insurance card at the register. Sorry, dude, but that’s just not how the workflow goes in a pharmacy. He told me that that’s how he always does it at Walgreens. Wrong. Walgreens would laugh his ass out of the place for this petty bullshit. So, I told him that I would simply delete his insurance card completely…and we’d never bill anything for him. That wasn’t the write answer either. I even told him he could bill them via paper bill as he saw fit. WHAT? Him do the leg work? Fuck that…

He told me my pharmacy was broken. “Well, sir, let me present you with this scenario. Mrs. Jones brings in 15 scripts. She gives us her insurance card at the drop off window as one normally does. We bill them, fill them, and send her on her marry way. Now, going by what you suggest is normal, next month when Mrs. Jones comes in to pick up her refills, she has to once again present her insurance card. Several things could happen from here. She could forget it. She could lose it. She could not realize that’s necessary and pay cash. Each of these cases is worse than the prior. Then, 85 year old Mrs Jones is pretty much screwed. Let me tell you something. Mrs. Jones’ scenario is the one that 95% of our insurance having patients follow. You are the one-person in the thousands we serve monthly that wants to do it differently.”

I got through that schpeal…barely. He interuptted me 10 times. Then he told me that we weren’t communicating, and ‘he was done talking to me’ and that ‘he didn’t want me to have anything to do with filling his prescriptions.’

He got rang out after we reversed everything out (which costs me about a quarter for each script for transmission fees). At the register I told him I was deleting his insurance card so this didn’t happen again inadvertantly, and if he wanted a different scenario, my suggestion was to find another pharmacy.

Boy was I pissed. I know it’s a petty scenario, and it’s pretty easily fixed. But, I hate being challenged in my domain. Pharmacy is my life, and it has been since I was 16 years old. No one tells me I’m wrong. No one tells me I’m doing something wrong or illegal. I’m paid to be right. Each time I fill a script, the dispensing fee pays me to be right. My salary pays me to be perfect…flawless. Mistakes are not an option. Incorrect is not an acceptable outcome. Some things in pharmacy may be a little gray, but what I do is black and white…

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