OMFG Walgreens You Suck

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Its Z

Its Z

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So it looks like my daughters as some skin infection... Friend who's an ID faxed me a script for Bactrim Susp and Mupirocin Oint.

Took it to Wags and they said they can't fill it because it's not a hard copy prescription. And the hard copy must be faxed to them...not to me. I said..really? It's not controlled substance.. did tell him I'm a pharmacist and the prescribing doc is a buddy of mine..and that I'm a little out of practice. He said the law has changed and my script is not valid.. but he said since I'm a pharmacist, he'll fill it for me.

Well, the total charge for muprocin was $45.99 (cost is $5.46 - I know this) and my copay was $17.44. The total charge for bactrim susp (200ml) was $27.29 (cost is $12.74 for 480ml bottle) and my copay was $16.60.

Nothing against the poor pharmacist who was working today..I appreciate him.

But good god all mighty.. Decreasing reimbursement my ass... I feel like I got ripped off.

:mad:
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Its Z said:
So it looks like my daughters as some skin infection... Friend who's an ID faxed me a script for Bactrim Susp and Mupirocin Oint.

Took it to Wags and they said they can't fill it because it's not a hard copy prescription. And the hard copy must be faxed to them...not to me.
Click to expand...

This is true. It looks like you got a break from a pharmacist for filling the prescription.
 
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Sparda29 said:
I'm pretty sure you don't need the hard copy for non-controlled prescriptions.
Click to expand...

You need the hard copy whether or not it is a controlled substance to prevent multiple use of the same prescription. That's the intent of the law. Whether or not you agree with the law is different issue.
 
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They have to make money to pay that pharmacist $100K+ a year
 
not complaining bout the script or the pharmacist. im complaining about the mark up. all along, all we ever heard was small reimbursement.
 
Its Z said:
So it looks like my daughters as some skin infection... Friend who's an ID faxed me a script for Bactrim Susp and Mupirocin Oint.

Took it to Wags and they said they can't fill it because it's not a hard copy prescription. And the hard copy must be faxed to them...not to me. I said..really? It's not controlled substance.. did tell him I'm a pharmacist and the prescribing doc is a buddy of mine..and that I'm a little out of practice. He said the law has changed and my script is not valid.. but he said since I'm a pharmacist, he'll fill it for me.

Well, the total charge for muprocin was $45.99 (cost is $5.46 - I know this) and my copay was $17.44. The total charge for bactrim susp (200ml) was $27.29 (cost is $12.74 for 480ml bottle) and my copay was $16.60.

Nothing against the poor pharmacist who was working today..I appreciate him.

But good god all mighty.. Decreasing reimbursement my ass... I feel like I got ripped off.

:mad:
Click to expand...

How do you know what the total pharmacy reimbursement was? I gather that the pharmacy got paid a total of what your copay was. There is no way your ins paid the pharmacy AWP. At least that would be a normal reimbursement for our shop, but yeah, we do make 100k + and we do need to fill a lot of rxs to pay a salary that the market is paying...btw, i would have just called your ID friend to turn the rx into a verbal....
 
Its Z said:
not complaining bout the script or the pharmacist. im complaining about the mark up. all along, all we ever heard was small reimbursement.
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure the pharmacy made 11 dollars on the mupirocin and 4 dollars on the bactrim...yeah, the gross margin percent is great, but thats why volume is out friend :)
 
on the label was the total charge and a message how much my insurance saved me. if thats just a placebo label, i stand corrected.
 
Its Z said:
on the label was the total charge and a message how much my insurance saved me. if thats just a placebo label, i stand corrected.
Click to expand...

its just a placebo...It shows what the cash price would have been and what you paid by having ins...the pharmacy didnt actually get paid the full price...never happens...either way, glad your daughter got her meds!
 
Its Z said:
So it looks like my daughters as some skin infection... Friend who's an ID faxed me a script for Bactrim Susp and Mupirocin Oint.

Took it to Wags and they said they can't fill it because it's not a hard copy prescription. And the hard copy must be faxed to them...not to me. I said..really? It's not controlled substance.. did tell him I'm a pharmacist and the prescribing doc is a buddy of mine..and that I'm a little out of practice. He said the law has changed and my script is not valid.. but he said since I'm a pharmacist, he'll fill it for me.

Well, the total charge for muprocin was $45.99 (cost is $5.46 - I know this) and my copay was $17.44. The total charge for bactrim susp (200ml) was $27.29 (cost is $12.74 for 480ml bottle) and my copay was $16.60.

Nothing against the poor pharmacist who was working today..I appreciate him.

But good god all mighty.. Decreasing reimbursement my ass... I feel like I got ripped off.

:mad:
Click to expand...
You got the money...quit bit**ing
 
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how much did my insurance pay then?
 
Its Z said:
how much did my insurance pay then?
Click to expand...

probably nothing...the pharmacy got reimbursed via your copays...the negotiated contract price which is what you paid:

Adjudicated:
45.99
Plan paid:
0
Pt Pay:
17.44
 
Its Z said:
how much did my insurance pay then?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't you be watching your stupid game instead of worrying about reimbursement rates. I'm not sure who I want to lose more though.
 
Its Z said:
on the label was the total charge and a message how much my insurance saved me. if thats just a placebo label, i stand corrected.
Click to expand...

Who are you and why are you impersonating Z?

I refuse to believe that Z wouldn't know that [Cash price - insurance copay] does not equal insurance reimbursement.
 
AWP - $45.99
ACQ - $5.46

Assuming you get paid AWP - 15%,

______Ingredient Cost___Dispensing Fee____Copay____Total Amount
Billed____$45.99__________$5.51______________________$51.50
Paid_____$39.09__________$1.00_________$17.44_______$22.65

Or something like that I guess
 
crazybob said:
AWP - $45.99
ACQ - $5.46

Assuming you get paid AWP - 15%,

______Ingredient Cost___Dispensing Fee____Copay____Total Amount
Billed____$45.99__________$5.51______________________$51.50
Paid_____$39.09__________$1.00_________$17.44_______$22.65

Or something like that I guess
Click to expand...

awp-15% on a generic? No way...maybe a brand. The pharmacies total reimbursement was the copay...his copay was high enough to deduce this..
 
you should've went to publix and got the bactrim for free
 
F-you man! Quit bitching and be glad a pharmacy was open to get your script filled on Thanksgiving. Lets not even talk about how inappropriate it is to have your friend fax you scripts for a person he or she has not examined.

The pharmacist was absolutly correct. That would be filling a copy of a prescription which is not legal. I would have told you to take a hike especially after you told me you were a Pharmacist. The fact you were dumb enough to not know the law and had the balls to stand there and tell me you are a pharmacist would have pissed me off, especially if I was working on a holiday.
 
kdt110 said:
You need the hard copy whether or not it is a controlled substance to prevent multiple use of the same prescription. That's the intent of the law. Whether or not you agree with the law is different issue.
Click to expand...

Yep. Same concept as a bank refusing to deposit a homemade copy of a paycheck. All ten of them. :laugh:
 
I am going to make copies of a $100 bill and hit black Friday and buy me some TV's!! Hey a copy is as good as the real thing right? I do not see a problem.
 
I would have told you to beat it with the faxed RX, it's straight up illegal and you dropping your title to get a colleague to break the law is a bitchy move
 
Its Z said:
So it looks like my daughters as some skin infection... Friend who's an ID faxed me a script for Bactrim Susp and Mupirocin Oint.

Took it to Wags and they said they can't fill it because it's not a hard copy prescription. And the hard copy must be faxed to them...not to me. I said..really? It's not controlled substance.. did tell him I'm a pharmacist and the prescribing doc is a buddy of mine..and that I'm a little out of practice. He said the law has changed and my script is not valid.. but he said since I'm a pharmacist, he'll fill it for me.

Well, the total charge for muprocin was $45.99 (cost is $5.46 - I know this) and my copay was $17.44. The total charge for bactrim susp (200ml) was $27.29 (cost is $12.74 for 480ml bottle) and my copay was $16.60.

Nothing against the poor pharmacist who was working today..I appreciate him.

But good god all mighty.. Decreasing reimbursement my ass... I feel like I got ripped off.

:mad:
Click to expand...

That's a bitch ass move.
 
Wow, you have crummy insurance.
 
Screw all y'all. I still got the prescription filled. Who's smart now! So I win! And Aggies won! And y'all had fun bashing me for once. Consider it a gift..

:smuggrin:
 
MountainPharmD said:
No chit! For all his talk of hospital financial expertise this should not have been a hard concept to grasp.
Click to expand...


I know hospital stuff. I know nothing about retail. You know this.
 
DYSF777 said:
Shouldn't you be watching your stupid game instead of worrying about reimbursement rates. I'm not sure who I want to lose more though.
Click to expand...


thank you for your concern. Yes, I watched the game.
 
Its Z said:
I know hospital stuff. I know nothing about retail. You know this.
Click to expand...

So the next time one of these a-holes asks for hospital info, tell them to shove it where the spatula don't shine.

It's amazing how people revel in putting others down.....:(
 
Old Timer said:
So the next time one of these a-holes asks for hospital info, tell them to shove it where the spatula don't shine.

It's amazing how people revel in putting others down.....:(
Click to expand...

:smuggrin:

Oh..it's Thanksgiving and I'll be good spirited about it.. I've said it before I'm not a retail person and I wish I knew more about it. But let them have their fun.

The Wags pharmacist did say he would rather work hospital but no one would hire him because he has no experience. Then he complained how can he get any experience if he can't get a job.. catch 22.

Who knows.. maybe I'll see his resume come through in the future.
 
Its Z said:
:smuggrin:

Oh..it's Thanksgiving and I'll be good spirited about it.. I've said it before I'm not a retail person and I wish I knew more about it. But let them have their fun.

The Wags pharmacist did say he would rather work hospital but no one would hire him because he has no experience. Then he complained how can he get any experience if he can't get a job.. catch 22.

Who knows.. maybe I'll see his resume come through in the future.
Click to expand...

The other tricky thing about pricing in retail is, at least at our pharmacy, that what's listed as a cash price for a particular insurance is not necessarily what our cash price actually is.

So if you hadn't had insurance, you might not have paid that much anyway.

I'm sure there's a logical explanation for it, but I have not quite figured this out yet. It's what we bill but not what we get from the insurance.

Had one woman one time call and complain we were over-billing her insurance company. She got the same script at the two different pharmacies in our hospital, paid the same co-pay, but what it said the cash price was was very different. I tried to tell her that her insurance paid the same and that there's a contract, but she didn't believe me. Of course, she had that tone that no matter what I said she wouldn't believe me unless I told her yes, we were in fact stealing from her insurance company. Sometimes, I couldn't make these stories up...
 
FarscapeGirl said:
The other tricky thing about pricing in retail is, at least at our pharmacy, that what's listed as a cash price for a particular insurance is not necessarily what our cash price actually is.

So if you hadn't had insurance, you might not have paid that much anyway.

I'm sure there's a logical explanation for it, but I have not quite figured this out yet. It's what we bill but not what we get from the insurance.

Had one woman one time call and complain we were over-billing her insurance company. She got the same script at the two different pharmacies in our hospital, paid the same co-pay, but what it said the cash price was was very different. I tried to tell her that her insurance paid the same and that there's a contract, but she didn't believe me. Of course, she had that tone that no matter what I said she wouldn't believe me unless I told her yes, we were in fact stealing from her insurance company. Sometimes, I couldn't make these stories up...
Click to expand...

That's a new one to me. Someone who cared how much their insurance paid? Weird.

I sometimes think that people believe insurance is some form of magic that involves me hitting enough keys to make their medication free. I am not convinced that most people understand that the pharmacy is getting anything from the insurance company. I think they think because they have a card (not on them of course) it means we just make the medication cheaper for them. The only other explanations I can come up with for why they think we wouldn't need their new insurance card involves a combination of rudeness and stupidity that I would rather not believe is possible.
 
More reason to go independent I guess. I had a skin infection in late August (more like a pimple the size of a quarter on my chin that turned yellow very fast) and 14 sulfa/trim tablets and a tube of muprocin was $28.54. What insurance do you have? I have blue cross/blue shield.
 
Old Timer said:
So the next time one of these a-holes asks for hospital info, tell them to shove it where the spatula don't shine.

It's amazing how people revel in putting others down.....:(
Click to expand...

First off you old fool everyone is just busting his balls for fun. When you create a thread titled OMFG Walgeeens You Suck you should probably expect to get some heat. Z has blasted people on here a thousand times. This was our rare chance to have a little fun with him.

Quiet now and go back to your CVS hell and let the rest of us be.
 
Old Timer said:
So the next time one of these a-holes asks for hospital info, tell them to shove it where the spatula don't shine.

It's amazing how people revel in putting others down.....:(
Click to expand...

In your 2k post career you have never seen Z give someone a hard time? Maybe you should remove yourself from his...oh nevermind.
 
How about the really important question here?

Z, how is your daughter doing?

At my last job, we could fill from a copy but we could not dispense until we had the originals in hand.
 
I would have filled it....called the doc on Monday...its an antibiotic...clinical judgement goes both ways.

It always surprises me how people are so black and white, instead of just doing the right thing.
 
BuffaloPills said:
I would have filled it....called the doc on Monday...its an antibiotic...clinical judgement goes both ways.

It always surprises me how people are so black and white, instead of just doing the right thing.
Click to expand...

read the other posts carefully!
no, it isn't people; it's the interpretation of the law
 
Its Z said:
United Health
Click to expand...

Insurance is the BIGGEST waste of money. My school requires that we all use their insurance, so they charge us $375 a semester for that. And you know how many times I have used it? ZERO and I will most likely never use it b/c I am never sick. So that is just $375 I am throwing away every semester for nothing.

Not to mention there is a $300 deducable before they will actually pay for anything (and they only pay for 80% of costs anyways).

What a big waste. I can buy 2 pairs of nice boats with $375. I can't wait till I graduate so I don't have to get insurance if I don't want to.

I hope your daughter is okay and you guys had a great Thanksgivings though! :)
 
SHC1984 said:
Insurance is the BIGGEST waste of money. My school requires that we all use their insurance, so they charge us $375 a semester for that. And you know how many times I have used it? ZERO and I will most likely never use it b/c I am never sick. So that is just $375 I am throwing away every semester for nothing.

Not to mention there is a $300 deducable before they will actually pay for anything (and they only pay for 80% of costs anyways).

What a big waste. I can buy 2 pairs of nice boats with $375. I can't wait till I graduate so I don't have to get insurance if I don't want to.

I hope your daughter is okay and you guys had a great Thanksgivings though! :)
Click to expand...

You can't bring your own to the table and waive out? Man, what a racket.
 
confettiflyer said:
You can't bring your own to the table and waive out? Man, what a racket.
Click to expand...

My parents are self employeed so we lived our entire lifes without insurance. We usually just pay cash when we go see a doctor. I don't ever get sick...I don't know why! lol...so I just go get my annual physical every year and that's about it. The physical itself is cheap so I usually just pay cash.

If you have insurance you can waive out. I prefer not getting insurance until I am 30+...:laugh: too bad the school is forcing me to get it. :rolleyes:
 
owlegrad said:
Until you need it, of course.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I would have been SOL having to pay for my surgery this summer to the tune of 60K. And that was only 3 nights in the hospital. I was only out my OOP 3K.

I have cost my insurer a pretty penny this year, stupid cancer. :(
 
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