Medicare Part D – 1/1/2008

Did it go smoothly? No.  Was it a complete clusterfuck? Yes.  Am I suprised? No.

Today was a diaster.  I had some insurance companies publish the completely wrong information on the cards, bunch of stuff that isnt formulary, “card? what new card?”, and a shitpot full of people whom a deductible = rocket science.  Lets not even get into how fun it was to try to get through to any helpdesk.  The only shining moment is that Argus did not go down, and to be honest most of the big processors were not down for any length of time.  They had 3 years to figure this shit out, good job boys.

Yes, please bitch at me a bunch because you have a $0.05 increase in your copay for your $100 medication.  Plus, just to show how much fate hates TAP, it made one of my printers blow up today, and our pharmacy software glitch like mad.  Wonderful.

I barely have the ambition after a good night of drinking Jack Daniels to even write more.  I’m just so happy that today is over.

Comments #

Comment by Smooth Moves on 2008-01-03 05:06:09 -0800 #

Really? Smooth as shit from a duck’s ass here. In Ontario, that is. 🙂

Comment by Pharm-a-mom on 2008-01-03 09:33:57 -0800 #

Thank God that I’m on maternity leave for 2 more weeks. Maybe all the glitches will be worked out by then. Ha! Who am I kidding?!?!?!
Thanks for keeping me reminded of the “joys” of our profession during my time off.

Comment by Leslie on 2008-01-03 10:42:18 -0800 #

I feel your pain, one of our printers broke too. And no one could come and fix it for two days.

Comment by Pharmgirl2004 on 2008-01-03 16:25:31 -0800 #

I work for a retail giant (not Walgreens) and we were closed on new years but we did have a very sucessful January 2nd. Not many hang ups at all, to the surprise of all of us. And I just want to say…you crack me up, dude!!!!

Comment by Grasshopper on 2008-01-03 17:26:39 -0800 #

I had a similar 1/2 to yours, TAP. Lots of problems. No printer problems (thank the Lord), but many minutes on hold with the “help”desks. Today (1/3) was much more of the same.
Ugh…time for some alcohol…

Comment by http://openid.aol.com/blastoff2them00n on 2008-01-03 18:33:13 -0800 #

Just wanted to apologize, AP, for trying to sound optimistic when you were at least honest. I haven’t worked yet (I’m working tomorrow) so I’ll get the full scoop on my pharmacy then.
Happy new year and good luck smoothing out the kinks!

Comment by Jenn on 2008-01-03 20:06:18 -0800 #

Heh, we actually had a good day. We did a record number of scripts for our store (I forgot to check at 9 when we closed up, but it was about 465. Normal for us was 200/day 3 months ago..300 now.) We were blessed to have an old employee in helping out for the day, plus our new tech came for her first day (transferred from another store so she knows the systems) and one of our pharmacists came in to help out. We had 2 pharmacists and SIX techs (we have no cashiers at all 🙁 ) for all of the peak hours. It was brilliant. Very few problems with insurance. God did we get lucky. Today wasn’t bad either. *thanks the pharmacy gods*

Comment by techbeck on 2008-01-03 21:26:19 -0800 #

Hi there,
Just wanted to say…love the site. Long time listener, first time caller.
God, how I almost wish I’d once today received the response “card? what new card?”
Of the dozens (okay maybe one dozen, but it felt like more) people today that didn’t have the new card…every single #&$% one of them knew that they had a plan change & had received a card in the mail. Not only that, but they also had the card in their possession. Yet not a ONE of them chose to share this coveted information with me at the time they dropped of the Rx.
Yet then, some time later, acted all “put out” when I asked if they had one and requested to peek at it for just a second.
Oh, except the one guy…the one that borrowed the phone to call his wife and complain loudly about how we didn’t have a copy of the card that she found sitting on his home office desk. And with a straight face, turned to me and asked me “I don’t really want to go through this again. When will YOU be able to get my new insurance card?”
:::boggle:::

Comment by SES85 on 2008-01-04 06:52:58 -0800 #

Just wanted to share my favorite comment that I have heard probably close to 15 times in the last couple days. 6pm the line in the pharmacy is backed up to cosmetics because every single person who comes to the counter has a new card.
Me: “Did you have a new insurance card?” (complete with pleasant smile)
Pt(s): (After watching the last 10 people in line hand me their new cards) WHAT!!! DIDN’T MY INSURANCE COMPANY CALL YOU WITH MY NEW INFORMATION?!?! I DON’T HAVE IT WITH ME! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
Sigh goodbye another small piece of my soul

Comment by pharmerbrown on 2008-01-05 05:59:25 -0800 #

Hi I’m writng to you from Ireland – Great site btw
I have a question another collegue told me that She heard that Hilary Clinton wanted to get rid of Pharmacists completely under her Medicare plans. Is there any truth to this? Grrrrr!
Soory abour the randomness How does one post a new topic here?

Comment by one_angry_tech on 2008-01-05 18:11:31 -0800 #

It’s the most wonderful time….. of the yeeeeeeearrrrr

Comment by Chris B on 2008-01-09 23:27:50 -0800 #

LOL… thats absolutely priceless. “Was it a complete clusterfuck? Yes.” Im so happy I was out of the country for that bullshit.

Comment by RPH55 on 2008-01-27 11:34:51 -0800 #

Jan 2nd. Printer went down. Medicaid/Medicare duals about 20 came in with no new card and a reject on their old one. Filled about 15 Rx not knowing if i would ever get paid, which really does not matter cause we dont make enough on these anyway. Disp 90 day supply of HCTZ and got paid $3.86 then when to pickup my lunch and paid $$ 6.85… humm whats wrong with that picture ?
I have about had it. ready to sell out and become a insurance agent and sell Part D policies to unsuspecting elderly people.

Comment by sixft7in on 2008-02-13 10:44:34 -0800 #

I don’t suppose you’d tell me who your software vendor is, would you? I install and train pharmacy software. Pure curiosity, is all.