Medicare Part D – Day 2

Day two of the MediCare part D fiasco has come and gone.
I must say, that this is the biggest clusterfuck in the last 40 years of pharmacy.
For example: Argus Health Systems (a billion dollar company) had its servers taken down for some reason all day. Unfortunally Humara and HealthNet uses Argus’ servers to process their prescriptions.
This means that nobody who was signed up for HealthNet could get prescriptions today. Only 1/2 of Humara patients could get their prescriptions today.
Pharmacies are turning people away without medication because they dont know if the cards are good, and arent going to risk the 100 bucks worth of medication to find out.
Patient care has taken a back-seat to gun-shy pharmacies who are getting fucked over by cost+$2.00 reimbursement fees. Cant say I blame them, patient care doesnt put food on the table or pay for the power.. I tipped the pizza boy more than we get per Rx via MediCare part D.
So the pharmacies get fucked and the patient gets fucked.. Who comes out ahead? The insurance companies thats who (who are recording record high profits last quarter).
I’m amazed at the lack of preparedness that the insurance companies have shown. You would think that a good 6 month prep-time and “record high profits” could prepare them with the necessary hardware and personel to take the phone and transmission load that was expected on the first.
I’m waiting for the blame on Bush or the republicans to come out, even though its the private sector that totally fucked over everyone. Last I checked the government didnt have control of HealthNet, Argus, Blue Cross or any private third party. But I guess someone has to have the finger pointed at them. If the government would of just managed it itself like they did the state welfare program, everyone would be in the same boat, and we wouldnt have 50 companies with 50 standards and 50 formularies to deal with.
There is no excuse as to why Argus’ computers were down all day today. If this was a single man operation, then I could see. But this is a multi-billion dollar corporation. You would expect a bit of forethought and preparedness.
But it gets better! Who gets blamed for Argus’ systems being down, the copays where there was none, and all this chaos? ME! Thats right, your local neighborhood pharmacist who has nothing to do with this whole batshit gets blamed. People want to blame someone they have access to, so they blame us. As if I control argus’ systems (I could probably do a better job administrating them) or control their copays.
So fuck you Argus and fuck you Heath Net for dropping the ball during the time of need. People will die because of your fuckups, its the blood of the elderly (and the frustation of every pharmacy out there) will stain your ‘record high profit’ reports (as if you care).
Its a sad sad day for pharmacy today.

Comments #

Comment by Ian MacLeod on 2007-06-23 15:39:33 -0700 #

“Last I checked the government didnt have control of HealthNet, Argus, Blue Cross or any private third party. ”
Try reading “Hope of the Wicked”, by Tom Flynn. I say try because there’s some slogging there, but you’ll find checkable info that says you haven’t checked it all by a long shot.
Ian