Lancet Devices, Free Copays, and Fatties on Ensure

Whats the issue with people and keeping a loaded lancet device in their diabetic meter case. I mean its bad enough that I get handed this meter that looks like its been used as a tampon, but when I look at the lancet device (dont get me started) it has a friggin loaded lancet ready to go.
Im sorry, but its bad enough that I need to touch your nasty ass meter, but leaving your lancet device loaded it just asking for trouble. What if I stick myself on it? Then what? Do you also keep loaded guns in your child’s bedroom? Do you drive drunk or under the influence of Soma or Vic-er.. never mind that part. The point is, when you bring in your meter to be looked at by me (who’s already swamped with work), PLEASE remove any uncapped lancets from your device. Whenever I get one (today I got 2), I always say “oh, thats nice, ready for me to stick myself on”. They don’t get it. Seriously, they just don’t fucking get it. Pisses me off to no end this does. What makes it even better? Is when they receive the meter from a mail order pharmacy and expect ME to show them how to use it. Fuckers, I wish i could kill them with my brainpower.
Another thing. For some reason, Medicaid and Medicare people always seem to think that ANY copay is too much. You got $150 bucks worth of Levaquin for $3.10? Too much. $2000 worth of Epogen for $3.10? No way. It has to be fucking free. Im sorry Medicare reciepients, but its not MY fault that you didnt save your money when you were young. Cricket and the ant man. All of us working people are the ants, and your sorry ass are the Crickets. Winter is a coming.
Also, Its not MY fault that i’m paying a good deal of my check into this ‘system’ for which I will never be able to draw a dime off of. Im sorry you’re poor and on a fixed income and forced to eat dog food. But yanno what? I gotta eat, I gotta pay my power bill too, and to hear you bitch about your $3.00 copay on your $2000 prescription really isn’t worth my time. In fact, its insulting, because 2 years ago you would of gotten NOTHING covered under MediCare part A and B. So QUIT FUCKING BITCHING and go watch Jag reruns.
Now, heres the best of them all. Why do MediCare/MediAid folk think they are entitled to Ensure? Why is it you NEVER see a private pay or someone with private insurance get an Rx for Ensure? For you at home, Ensure is one of those food replacement drinks that you take when you cant take solid food. Now I’ve gotten tons of prior auths for people with AIDS+HepC wasting, and throat cancer where they cant swallow, or people with GT Tubes. But when some fat son of a bitch waltz’s in with an Rx for Ensure because “I’m losing weight” I want to stab him and his doctor in the face with my pen. Does Medicare/aid pay for a loaf of bread? Can I bill /my/ lunches to /my/ insurance? NO! So why should Medicare/aid pay for your Ensure unless you have a good fucking reason to be on it?
Seriously, I had to do a Prior Auth from (where else) the County Hospital for this patient who “hasnt eaten in 2 weeks”. I thought she was a chemo patient, or had some serious problems. She was out in the car, so I asked her “caretaker” (don’t get me started) for her to come in so I could ask her some questions for the PA. Well, she didn’t walk in, she waddled in. She wasn’t eating food for 2 weeks, she was eating bacon fat soaked twinkies for 2 weeks. I seriously turned to the other pharmacist behind me (and the techs) and gave the “What the FUCK” look. Immediately they retreated to the back room to laugh. This chick was large. She started into this sob story how she needed this because she didn’t eat for 2 weeks, blah blah blah, brain turned off. I seriously had to make a conscious effort to remove the “you have got to be fucking me” or “wheres the hidden cameras? This has to be a joke” look on my face. Did she just want Ensure so she didn’t have to raise the fucking BigMac to her fat face?
So I get the info, and contact her doctor to find out exactly what the diagnosis and her latest BMI (Body Mass Index) was. The doctor called, and first thing after she gave some diagnosis about “not eating for 2 weeks” was “Have you seen the patient?”. Yeah, to make a long story short, when I submitted the Prior Auth I got a phone call from the insurance company asking me if maybe I transposed some numbers when writing down the BMI. I said no, and they promptly denied it with laughter in their voice.
Oh, and if you think you can somehow convince me to feel sorry for this lady, please dont invite me to your pity party. You have no idea what she milks out of our tax dollars.

Comments #

Comment by Mark on 2007-01-17 03:40:50 -0800 #

Go watch jag reruns….I’ve heard that before somewhere

Comment by Publius on 2007-01-17 05:46:58 -0800 #

Some lady dropped a bunch of used insulin needles on the counter “that she wasn’t satisfied with” then told me she had Hep B. Maybe they just want to take everyone down with them.

Comment by Tina on 2007-01-17 13:53:02 -0800 #

People come to the ER for help with their glucometers and we can’t help them because we haven’t had any teaching on their particular machine, so our teaching them represents a liability to the hospital. Not to mention representing about an hour’s worth of nonbillable time, and uncovering another hour’s worth of teaching they need about diabetes. We also have people coming for machine calibration and “this isn’t working right” calls. I’m SO GLAD I don’t have to be responsible for a machine I’ve never seen before but sometimes I feel sorry for them. Probably some of them couldn’t set a digital clock, but they have to figure out the glucometer…
Even with health cutbacks a new diabeteic deserves a few days of inpatient teaching and supervision- it’s a lot to take in.

Comment by Cat on 2007-01-17 17:12:02 -0800 #

Sir, I used to work in an HIV-specialty pharmacy in the crackhead district of SF and I swear to god if I ever see another can of ensure it will be too soon. At our place it got so the crackheads (who only show up for pain meds, clonazepam and methadone their MD’s write for to get their smelly asses out of the office and stop harassing them) wanted them too…easier to keep down than food when you’re smoking rocks I guess. Hard to keep on weight when you have a heroin and/or meth habit too! I quit after a patient harassing me for vicodin swore he’d die without it in a long shouting match and I asked him if he please would because I was sick of his shit.
I’ve been regaining my faith in humanity since I haven’t been there in months, but just knowing those assholes are out there and still refusing to do society a favor and die already kills me inside.

Comment by Hope on 2007-01-18 03:51:57 -0800 #

Can I just tell you, in NYC, they STEAL ensure (walking out of the store with it under the arm, not even attempting to conceal it) when it gets denied – then SELL IT literally ON THE STREET. NY Medicaid is a nightmare of inefficiency and red ink.
Still, it’s sort of better, on the-what-the-hey scale, than those scripts I used to review for viagra for the HIV positive guys. I never saw condoms on the profile, either. I’m a liberal, but even I have my limits.

Comment by Vicodinfairy on 2007-01-18 18:14:15 -0800 #

OH MY GOD. You are reading my freakin’ mind! Also diapers…adult diapers. For 50 cents with WI Medicaid. WHY AM I BUYING YOUR DIAPERS? You’re not in a nursing home!!! We got a script for Pediasure for ELEVEN cans a day for an unbelievably fat little girl. And do your know why the MD wrote it?? THE PATIENT ASKED FOR IT!!
Umm…doc…I could use some nice liquid morphine right HERE!
You would not believe how much flak I took for the 10 cent raise in the MPD copays after Jan 1. 10 cents!!!!! TEN CENTS!! You’re smoking a goddamn cigarette that’s worth more than that! YES, your script needs an F-ing PA. It costs $300 dollars! Here’s a thought: stop buying cigarettes, cancel your blue-tooth ready internet MP3 cell phone and take the bus to WORK. THERE! I just saved you $300 dollars a month.
Wow…I guess I’m angry too…

Comment by Asshole on 2007-01-20 23:58:18 -0800 #

You lazy Drug fillers have nothing to be angry about. Now shut up and fill my fucking script you lazy good for nothing but complaining ass.

Comment by Asshole on 2007-01-21 00:06:40 -0800 #

I hope and pray that you are stricken with a debilitating disease, you compassionate fuckstain. In fact I will pray to the Gods that this happens. Hmmm, maybe I had better not you’d like that too much. I think being stuck behind the counter like the slave you are is a fitting punishment. I laugh at you !!!!

Comment by Neena on 2007-01-22 05:58:58 -0800 #

Speaking of no- and low-cost medications, Wal-mart pharmacy is now apparently a dollar store and since every single drug (obviously) has a generic name, a generic is evidently available for every medication (and a $4 generic at that), according to customers. Yeah – even for the brand-only drugs like Zetia and Seroquel. The other day we had a customer scream because her BRAND NAME — wait for it — ZYVOX — wasn’t $4. Right, a medication that costs thousands for less than 30 tablets, she expected to be $4. Why? Because her DOCTOR told her it would be $4! I love how they argue with me with the good ole “Well, I’m supposed to get it for $4 because my doctor told me that it would be $4.” I just reply, “WELL YOUR DOCTOR IS WRONG. YOUR DOCTOR IS NOT AN EMPLOYEE OF WAL-MART, THEREFORE WHEN IT COMES TO WAL-MART PRICES, YOUR DOCTOR CANNOT GUARANTEE YOU A PRICE.” And the customers who DO know that not all medications have a generic yet tend to think that the all the generics that ARE out on the market will be $4 at Wal-Mart (there’s actually a 300-drug formulary). And some one-time dose medications like fluconazole – you get one tablet for $4. So say the yeast infection is resistant and needs two doses, yup – $8. Oh, and the kicker – you can only have a 30-day supply at COMMONLY PRESCRIBED DOSAGES. So if you tell your MD to write for “atenolol 100 mg 1 tab q h ATC” thinking you’ll get your money’s worth (720 tablets for $4) – HA! It would probably cost around $24, which still is a great price, but not cheap enough to the scum who walk into Wal-Mart. Then we have the idiots who actually think that either every drug we carry is $4, or that we only carry generic meds. So tell your customers this before they all transfer their scripts out of your store and into mine. I don’t need any more jerk-off customers than I already have (you can imagine how my volume’s increased).

Comment by Thomas Price - Pharmacist Recruiter on 2007-01-22 21:30:21 -0800 #

I worked 13 years in retail before I started a pharmacy recruiting business. I once worked in a store that catered to the illegal Mexican worker crowd. You wouldn’t believe the stuff they were on, and Medicaid paid for it all. The biggest sellers were acne creams – taxcpayers were paying hundreds of dollars so these illegal mexican’s faces wouldn’t be pimply!!!!! Many were on nerve pills and anti-depressants as well, and all on Medicaid. At another store near there, the Mexicans would fake injury, get a doc to prescribe Lortab, come and get the rx filled and paid for by medicaid or church vouchers, and then sell it on the corner outside the pharmacy. Our tax dollars are hard at work.

Comment by Sarah on 2007-01-23 12:54:42 -0800 #

all pharmasists are ASSHOLE wanna be doctors

Comment by Health man on 2007-03-22 02:46:11 -0700 #

After chemo my mind went blank. I couldnt remember names and couldnt recall simple conversations. Im 31/2 years past treatment and those blank times are very rare now. Im thankful! WBR LeoP

Comment by Leonard on 2007-03-24 02:19:08 -0700 #

When I was doing chemo I would jokingly tell my kids and friends that the chemo was going straight to my brain. I almost fell out of my chair when I first read about chemo brain! WBR LeoP

Comment by hazeleyez on 2007-06-27 16:48:07 -0700 #

Look here all you mother fuckers!
My mother is one of “those people” that has to wear adult diapers, has to pay a co-pay, and is on disability. She has MS…do you honestly think that she sat down one day and prayed to god to give her this illness? She can’t help what she is and what happened to her! I have worked in a nursing home…do you think all these people asked for what they got?
“Maybe I’ll ask god to give me MS today.” What the fuck is that shit?
How dare you dumbass uneducated people say such a thing! You are all dumb as shit!
Some of you should know better…being pharmacists, nurses and doctors. I thought that is what you went to college for…or was it just the money? If you didn’t want to help people then I suggest you get out of the business while you are ahead!!!
And to the people on here that feels the same way…Thank You

Comment by JustthePOA on 2014-07-10 07:01:48 -0700 #

Ugh – all these bleeding hearts are killing me here. They ALL think that you are talking specifically to THEM or their family member. No, you haven’t been doing this for years and have seen it all. No, you haven’t had to deal with people shitting the system and are not a bit jaded by it AND them. No, you won’t have forgotten more in your lifetime than these idiots will ever remember. Yes, I’ve commented on some of your posts because I don’t agree with EVERYTHING that you say, but 99% of it, I do. If you would talk more person specific then these lemmings wouldn’t get so upset. Sometimes it does seem like you lump EVERYONE in the same category. However you clearly stated the types of people you were referring to in this post, so you idiots that are getting all indignant (i’ll wait while you look that up) need to seriously just stfu and get off that horse. Morons