The purpose of this blog is to vent my frustration with the medical community and its support group, pharmacies.
Since late March, I have been trying to get a prescription for the Freestyle Libre 3 filled by the pharmacy required to be used by my insurance company, ExpressScripts. As you know from the lead to this blog, I am a retired Naval Officer and ExpressScripts (ES) is our “pharmacy.”
In good faith, my GP honored my request and sent a script in to ES. ES acknowledged receipt of the script, and within a day or so, my tracking app on my phone informed me that something called prior authorization was required, and they had contacted my prescribing MD. A couple of days later, the app informed me that all was good and they were “Working” on filling the script. Then I was informed that everything was canceled. I called ES and was informed that everything was on track and shipping would occur by 4/14/23. Then my app informed me that everything had been canceled. On 4/11/23, I again called ES and was informed that my GP had been faxed a “Critical Criteria” form to fill out and submit, and had not done so in the few days ES allocated, so the script had been unilaterally canceled by ES. Called the GP’s office, and of course, they had not received and/or were unaware of this Critical Criteria form.
The Libre3 lasts for but 14 days. Usually, a script for a year is prescribed for pills, with three months’ worth, or in this case, 6 Libre3 is delivered once every three months. Instead, my out-of-pocket would be every two weeks instead of the same cost for a three-month supply. Another screwup.
Another unsatisfactory situation with ES is their two-factor authentication process. They require a username and password to log in, then send back a six-digit number via email for the second authentication. Sounds good in theory, except the 15-minute timer on completing the second step often times out before receipt of the code. Regardless, who has time to stare at a screen waiting seemingly forever for a stupid code?
Yet another hindrance to goodwill is having to talk to a stupid computer when you call ES. Trying to bust out of the Ai’s scripting is daunting. I’m certain management is patting themselves for all the money they’re saving on CS calls, but they should get on the other end of the phone call and experience how frustrating it is when your call does not meet their canned expectations. Bummer!
As I write this, I await a call from the GP to resolve this dilemma.
Update. No callback. Called the GP script person again, and we agreed that she would send in a new script to ES for a year’s supply of Libre 3 every three months. That’s the latest. Stand by as the saga continues.
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