I was "off" yesterday for Jury Duty, which I have literally waited over 7 years to be called for. Of course, I was excused and never even got into the court room, but that left me an entire day to do some errands, work off the last .6 lbs I have to lose and so on and so forth. One of those errands was refilling my birth control prescription. Mom, you can stop reading now if you don't want to hear about your daughter and birth control, however, I've been on it for 10 years and I'm almost 26, so I think just maybe you'll appreciate the good rant.
Let me give you the back story: In January, my company changed prescription insurance and we went from a company that ONLY did mail orders, to CVS Caremark which sent us a letter in the beginning of the year saying that mail order was optional and that we could have the prescriptions filled at a convenient pharmacy of our choice (for me, that's the pharmacy in my hometown, because the CVS is in a not so great area). So in March, when I got the annual prescription from my doctor, I brought it to the pharmacy a half mile down the road. The prescription the doctor wrote was for 4 3-month supplies of pills (which is standard) and the pharmacy said they aren't authorized to distribute three month supplies and I had to do it month by month. Since I needed to start the new pack the next day, I agreed to do it month by month at my local pharmacy.
Let's cut to May when I mistakenly threw out a new pack of pills, instead of the old pack and had to call the pharmacy and explain that I was an idiot. They issued me a new pack, but it was 2 days off (for those of you who don't understand how birth control works, you take one pill a day and they vary in strength, you take the highest dose first and work your way down to the lower dose). I decided to be proactive and call for a refill when it was ALMOST time for a new pack (we're talking 48 hours early) and the pharmacy couldn't refill my prescription because it hadn't been 28 days since my last refill. This gives me ONE day to call in the prescription, pick up the prescription and do it all from Manhattan, because that's where I work and with my commute my hours are 6:30a - 6:30p, so there's clearly plenty of time for me to make a pit stop at the pharmacy. And do people overdose on birth control? I didn't realize it was a controlled substance.
And now we have August 9, 2012. It was the perfect amount of days after my last refill and I was ready for the easy refill process to begin, I called the night before and put in the prescription number by phone and waited for the text confirmation from the small town pharmacy to let me know my prescription was ready. I was walking through target buying workout socks when I got the text, but it said "Please call the pharmacy regarding your prescription". The thought process in my head went something like this "Oh. My. God. What on earth could've possibly happened now?! I waited and followed PERFECT birth control protocol in refilling this prescription AND I have to start taking a new pack tomorrow so WTF is going on...." I collected myself and called the pharmacy. The pharmacist informed me that Caremark (CVS) placed a block on my prescription and she couldn't fill it unless I called Caremark to remove the block for this months refill. I was livid, but took the number from the pharmacist and called Caremark ready to battle. When a guy answered the phone I almost lost my mind....it's bad enough I'm arguing in the car accessory aisle at my local Target about birth control now I have to argue with an insurance man over my contraceptive methods, perfect. The conversation went something like this:
"Hello ma'am, how can I help you today?"
"Well, I hope you can help me, it's been extremely difficult to get my prescription filled for the last 3 months or so and I don't understand why there have been so many problems, most recently, the block Caremark put on my prescription at the local pharmacy"
"Well ma'am, I'd be happy to look into that for you, can I have your name, date of birth and the prescription number?"
"My name is ______, my DOB is ______ and I don't have the prescription number with me because I wasn't planning on having to talk to you about it today and I don't typically carry my birth control pills around in my purse"
"Okay ma'am, I see here that you've been refilling this prescription since March at your local pharmacy"
"Yes...I received a letter from CVS in January explaining that for my convenience, mail order was no longer required...which is kind of ironic because I can assure you this is NOT more convenient than any other refill method I've ever used"
"Ma'am, I'm trying to work with you here...my system says you have a CVS within 5 miles from your home address, is that right?"
"Yes, I do, but it's in the ghetto, so I try not to go there. I value my life, kind of like I value my reproductive rights and my right to birth control. I understand that it's cheaper for you as an insurance company if I use the 'preferred' pharmacy because of the deals you've cut with said pharmacy, however, I am almost positive the extra $0.79/month I'm paying at my pharmacy is a hell of a lot cheaper than the thousands you'll be shelling out for my prenatal care of an unintended pregnancy"
"Ma'am, let's not get carried away...."
"Oh it's too late for that, I'm already playing my next argument in my head...but so I don't have to use my next argument, please tell me what I need to do to refill this f ing prescription....I'm sorry, the f word was uncalled for"
"Ma'am, what I suggest you do is bring the physical prescription to your nearest CVS and tell them you would like the prescription transferred from your local pharmacy and they will give you a three months supply for $14.02"
"So I have to drive home, get the prescription, drive into the ghetto, explain this saga to another pharmacist, then go about my business and go BACK to the ghetto to pick up the prescription?"
"Yes ma'am"
"Please stop calling me ma'am, you have my DOB in front of you, I'm not that old."
"Have a good day miss"
I drove home, got the prescription and went to the gosh darn CVS, explained the story to the girl at the counter who informed me they don't transfer prescriptions, I have to call the doctor and have them call it in. I
Three hours later, I went to the CVS drive through (the ONLY convenient part of this entire day) and gave the guy at the window my name....it took him a while but when he came back he informed me MY PRESCRIPTION WASN'T READY!!!!! WTF?! He told me it would be 5 minutes, so I should park and come inside. Of course I have to park and go inside, of course.
I went inside and waited for my name to be called. The guy then asked me if I had any questions regarding my prescription to which I replied, "Actually I do, have people ever complained about the incompetence of CVS Caremark before?" and he said "Not to my knowledge, ma'am" and I tried not to laugh at the word 'ma'am' and responded "That's amazing..." and the supervisor from earlier came out and apologized for my "inconvenience".
The worst part about this entire saga, is that thanks to Obamacare, EVERYONE even non-U.S. citizens are 'awarded' health insurance. Which means if I was an illegal alien and decided I wanted birth control, I could walk into a planned parenthood clinic, or hell after this bill was passed any doctors office and demand a birth control prescription and get it in the same god damn day. Why do I work? I don't need health insurance, they've extended unemployment benefits and I bet if I quit my job, I'd get more financial aid to go back to school. Don't even get me started about that girl crying over $2,800 to finish her art degree at Drew University. She was awarded a $50,000 grant for EACH year of her college education and has the audacity to post a video on YouTube asking for $2,800 because she can't afford to finish her degree. I worked three jobs in college so I could go to school AND took out over $100,000 in loans...Do NOT plead your case to me.
End venting session.
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