So I had this nice 2014 post queued up that involved:

• Me shutting down the site and hanging it up.
• Me meeting this awesome hospital pharmy named Michelle who has (of all else) a totally awesome cooking website that (used to) throw down f-bombs worse than yours truly AND wrote a kick-ass cook-book (plus she was all “OMFG FAMOUS PHARMACIST” when she met me).  Every fucking pharmacist is published but me.  At least hers involves food porn and fucking tons of delicious bacon.  Uh.. Fucking as in the adjective, not the verb of her having sex with bacon.  Sorry NomNom, didn’t mean to imply that you have sex with bacon.  Fucking bacon is delicious though.. ARG FUCKING AS AN ADJECTIVE GOD DAMMIT.  You get the picture.  Her website is http://www.nomnompaleo.com and go buy her book, its awesome.  Her little cartoon of herself has no nose, which sorta bugs me, but I will certify, under penalty of perjury, that in real life she DOES have a nose.
• Me getting pissed off at this derpy douchebag patient and reviving the smoldering blaze of TAP that lives in my soul.  No, really.  I almost brained this fucker with the cash register I was so fucking pissed off at his utter waste of a life, and a resulting waste of my time.  Then his mother got all involved.  He is 40 by the way, that should speak enough right there.
• How in the past few years, I have taken into consideration not offending anyone (ie: Crackheads) with my ranting, and by doing so I am doing you all a grave injustice.
• How gasoline cans in California fucking suck with the safety valve (instead of a direct spout) and as a result you spill more gas on the ground (and all over yourself) then you get in the tank, thereby making the “save the world” mentality that California wants to impose on people a fucking waste of effort, not to mention a huge safety hazard.  Plus you smell like fucking gasoline for a few days and must resist the urge to light yourself on fire to end it all.
• Other shit that Im too lazy to type because Im fucking livid about the topic below.

However, this topic came up and is far more important (and involves far more swear words).

We all know that drugs are like stocks, the price goes up and down (mostly up).  However recently, a ton of shit has just skyrocketed in price.  Take various creams.  They used to cost 10 bucks a few months ago, and now they are just shy of 100.  Digoxin ranges from 900-1000 dollars for a bottle of 1000 where a few months ago it was 50 bucks for 1000.  Morphine ER has jumped from pennies to fucking hundreds and Endocet is almost 100 bucks a bottle.  Nobody knows why the price is going through the roof, and nobody has any answers other than the generic drug manufacturers must enjoy raping the American public so they can sell their shit in Mexico for reasonable prices.

Now usually this isn’t a problem, because as the price of the drugs go up, the PBMs (The companies that YOUR insurance companies hire to do the processing/computer shit and pay US, the pharmacies) adjust their prices and pay us more.  Its done on a contract basis like Cost + shit + a crap fee.  Its not the greatest, but it keeps the doors open and paychecks from bouncing.

HOWEVER, due to some fuckery or just plain greed, as the price of medications go up, they PBM’s are paying based upon the OLD price.  That means that little ms crackhead who gets Morphine ER that now costs me $200 the store is getting a fat check for $40, the price of the drug from 5 months ago.  In other words; under cost.  Thats right, I’m expected to dispense medications and take a $160 dollar loss.  Then the fucking twat has the balls to bitch about her $3 copay and take up 20 mins of my time as she bitches about what she can take (for FREE) because her turds resemble a fucking piece of plaster-of-paris.

So whats a pharmacy to do?  Take care of the patient so they don’t die and take a $100+ loss? Or tell her to take her shit elsewhere? The choice is easy, give her back the Rx, tell her it pays under cost, and you dont know where she can go to get it filled.  Per your contract with her insurance company she can’t pay cash (HAHAH PAY CASH!! AS IF!!).  Only rich fuckers and chumps pay for their medications now days.  Its not called Freemacy for nothing.

There are two huge points to be made about this:

• Unless I can pay my fucking house payment and put food on the table using “Good Deeds” as a currency, Im not going to take a loss filling a prescription.  That little lady, when push comes to shove, doesn’t really give two dicks about you, your kids, your store, or the good deeds you do for her.  She wants her fucking dope, plain and simple, and she doesn’t want to pay for it.  By you taking that loss, you have just shown her that your time/profession/skills are worth nothing to her.  In fact, you’re just a fucking whore to her and her insurance who takes a fucking and then gives $100 for the privilege of getting your asshole reamed out.  Its reverse prostitution, and we as a profession are better than that.  Well, I used to think better than that, until the chains started handing out gift cards to PITA patients instead of backing up their abused staff and showing these fucks the door.  Grow a fucking pair chains!
• By refusing to fill the Rx based on losing money, you are putting the ball in her court.  The insurance companies dont give a fuck about the pharmacies, but they give a fuck when she gets on the phone and cries that nobody will fill her medication.  SHE pays their paychecks, not us.  A problem with HER insurance reimbursing is not OUR problem, its HERS.  Does the grocery store give a fuck that your credit card was stolen by hackers who got into the Target systems and thereby wont work? No, because its YOUR credit card through YOUR bank so its YOUR responsibility to take care of that shit.  If enough patients complain and whine then maybe they will do something about it.  Yeah, and I can pull gold out of my asshole.

Now this all sounds fine and good, however the chain stores (and the pharmacists who staff them) really don’t give a shit if they lose money on an Rx.  They hand out gift cards to whiny fucks who complain that their prescriptions weren’t fill in 2 seconds or less.  The chains are so afraid of losing business they will gladly take that loss with a smile on their face.  The chain stores are killing the profession of pharmacy.  By having the chains put up with this bullshit, they are just showing the PBM’s that we are nothing but fucking whores who’s time and education are worth absolutely nothing (because we will fill the Rx even if we lose money on it AND reward patients for abusive behavior).

I’ll just make another point, that the PBMs, the insurance companies that hire them, and the pharmacists who work for these companies are nothing but fucking idiots.  They are so blind to the big picture, that they have NO CLUE that independent pharmacies are the counterweight to a huge big deep dicking thats on the horizon.  Let me elaborate:

You cut your reimbursement so much that it drives all the other pharmacies out of business.  Sure you make a zillion dollars and your CEO can afford that beach-house.  Sure you traitors to the profession get that fat bonus for saving “all this money” and the CEO strokes your cock a bit for being a “good little insurance-company pharmacist” for saving their plan a ton of cash with your bullshit cost-analysis and P&T handjobs.  However now all there is left are Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid.  Three huge companies that will gladly pay that million dollar anti-trust lawsuit fine for the sole ability to COMPLETELY FUCK OVER YOUR INSURANCE PLAN AND RUIN YOUR PBM.  How?  Easy.  The men in suits from Walgreens come to your insurance company and want to talk about their contract:

“So, since there are no independents left, we want to renegotiate our contract.  We want cost + 25% + $15 for EVERYTHING.  Oh? You don’t like that? Well then I guess you’re going to lose a few hundred stores in your network.  Oh, and see CVS and Rite-Aid? They want the same deal that we want.  Man, its going to suck for you when the members who use your plan cant go ANYWHERE ELSE to fill their prescriptions because your shit reimbursement rates put the independents all out of business.  Why don’t you think about that for a few hours while we go to lunch with the CVS and Rite-Aid execs and discuss if your plan fits within our business model.  Oh, and we don’t care if you sue us for anti-trust, because we’ll make up that fine in a month from this revised contract.  Im sure that your members will understand.  Chao!”

You have painted yourself in a corner with only a few HUGE chains left.  Huge chains with a TON of stores that your members are forced to go to because there are nobody left.  Your penny pinching now cost you your anal-hymen.  It fucking kills me how people shop at Walmart because they have done the exact same thing to the manufacturers of household items because there are no little mom and pop shops around anymore to offer any competition.  They can name their own price, and that price is a few steps up from FREE.

So when you fill that Rx and see the fat negative reimbursement and your pharmacy system blows up with warnings that you’re losing your ass; think of me.  Think of where you are going to work when the toilet of pharmacy finally flushes and we’re all out of a job.  I’ll see you fuckers in the unemployment line with a huge smile on my face and a huge bowl of “I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO” for you to eat.