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Jan. 20th, 2012 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichExpresscripts has the contract to handle all the pharmacy administration for those on Military health insurance. They also run their own mail-order pharmacy service. When Walgreen's opted out of being in the military program, we had to switch pharmacies, and against the advice of my GP's nurse I thought that it may be better to use Expresscript's services. Streamline things.
Was that a mistake.
I have never been subjected to so many phone calls and emails as we have to endure - daily, sometimes more often than that. And that with only three prescriptions currently in their care. But the kicker, and the thing that put me over the edge, is this: Gleevec (you know, the drug that is trying to keep my cancer from reestablishing) has to be stored at 25°C (77°F); with excursions permitted to 15-30°C (59-86°F) while being protected from moisture. You may remember the hoops I was jumping through this spring while I tried to figure out how to safely take it camping.
Expresscripts has two delivery methods: standard and refrigerated (in a cooler with ice packs). If one's medication isn't listed as needing refrigeration, it will be delivered in a bottle inside a standard shipping envelope. No matter the temperature range. They have no way to guarentee that the drug will be in a stable temperature environment. Not even if it does cost $400 a pill and loses its effectiveness outside of its temperature range. You know, as in "this won't work to stop your cancer anymore".
I shall have to crawl to my Oncologist and ask him to re-prescribe the drug via our new pharmacy, CVS. Because going with Expresscripts? That's just nuts.
Was that a mistake.
I have never been subjected to so many phone calls and emails as we have to endure - daily, sometimes more often than that. And that with only three prescriptions currently in their care. But the kicker, and the thing that put me over the edge, is this: Gleevec (you know, the drug that is trying to keep my cancer from reestablishing) has to be stored at 25°C (77°F); with excursions permitted to 15-30°C (59-86°F) while being protected from moisture. You may remember the hoops I was jumping through this spring while I tried to figure out how to safely take it camping.
Expresscripts has two delivery methods: standard and refrigerated (in a cooler with ice packs). If one's medication isn't listed as needing refrigeration, it will be delivered in a bottle inside a standard shipping envelope. No matter the temperature range. They have no way to guarentee that the drug will be in a stable temperature environment. Not even if it does cost $400 a pill and loses its effectiveness outside of its temperature range. You know, as in "this won't work to stop your cancer anymore".
I shall have to crawl to my Oncologist and ask him to re-prescribe the drug via our new pharmacy, CVS. Because going with Expresscripts? That's just nuts.
