CVS prescription annoyance

[redbird]

My doctor sent in a prescription for a steroid inhaler ten days ago. CVS said it was in process, then just...didn't do anything.

On Friday, a week after they said they were processing it, their automatic system had no record of that, but said they could fill it as a "refill," and that it would be ready yesterday morning. Yesterday that had changed to 6 pm. today. So I called again this morning. After at least an hour total on-hold time in the last few days, I got to talk to an actual human, who said that they don't have it, and are unable to order it, but the system thinks there might be a couple of boxes at a store in Dorchester. Or he could contact my doctor about prescribing a higher-dose inhaler. The store in Dorchester doesn't have it either, but at least connected me to a human in the pharmacy quickly.

So I walked around the corner to an unrelated pharmacy, and asked if they could get it for me. They said yes, so I took a business card, went home, and called my doctor's office again. If this pharmacy can't supply it either, I will ask Carmen what she thinks we should do. I've been sending my prescriptions to CVS because that pharmacy is open seven days a week, rather than six, but that only works if they actually do their job of filling prescriptions.

Also, by the time I got off the phone with CVS, the medication had vanished from my MyChart records, completely. I wanted to confirm the prescription name and dosage I'd written down earlier, and there was nothing there. Fortunately, my doctor's office is well organized, and sent the prescription within fifteen minutes, even though my regular nurse practitioner doesn't work on Mondays.

Comments

[otter]

I know that Walgreens employees are striking and I imagine CVS isn't far behind. I still use CVS, too, because they are easy walking distance from my house. But the turnover in employees is frequent and I don't feel like there is any attempt to get to know customers anymore.

[redbird]

They wouldn't even need to get to know me to have done better on this. The problem there is some combination of a system that is badly designed on a large scale, and can't handle things being out of stock with no information on when they'll be available, and smaller-scale bad design where it didn't know what to do with a new prescription it couldn't fill.

This feels like it's the same pattern as my previous difficulties with the Ritalin prescription, when the insurance company said they wouldn't cover the prescription for another three weeks and the drugstore automated system kept saying "did we say Monday, we meant Thursday," and when I finally got through to a human he (a) told me that the insurance wouldn't cover it for another two weeks, and (b) was willing and able to put the prescription through after I asked him to check what it would cost without insurance.

It's Sirius Cybernetics level of surface-level problems disguising structural problems.

[princessofgeeks]

I'm so sorry. This is what mom has gone through for the last six months with her anxiety meds. I can't figure out why it's suddenly gotten so hard to get. It's a generic for heavens sake.

Glad you finally got it!!!

[redbird]

I don't know either, but I discovered a couple of years ago that this kind of problem is ongoing and widespread enough that the FDA keeps and publishes a list of drugs that there is a shortage of at any given time. If I had to guess, it would be that there are probably a lot of people whose lungs or breathing didn't entirely recover to baseline after covid. So it might be increased demand rather than, or along with, decreased supply.

That doesn't explain why CVS doesn't want to tell me when they can't fill a prescription. When I finally got to talk to someone there yesterday, he suggested asking my doctor to prescribe a higher dose, which they could get. I see no reason why it took ten days for me to reach someone who could tell me that they couldn't get this drug, I should talk to my doctor about trying a different one.

[princessofgeeks]

Incredible.

[readerjane]

CVS has recently closed a bunch of retail stores and is attempting to consolidate between the remaining ones. My closest store was shuttered; the next-closest one (not far at all) is struggling mightily to absorb the other volume. A bad call.

[azurelunatic]

Wow, that sounds terrible all around!