On Friday I called in refills on my regular prescriptions. Not a new thing. I was waiting for a text to tell me when they were ready. I thought I got one. Instead, it was a text from a phone number I'm not familiar with. The message was:
Review your prescriptions at [pharmacy name] now. With a link.
Well. That was something new. I clicked on the link, and it took me to a website that wanted me to enter my birthdate to confirm my identity. NOT-HEAVEN NO!
Yes. I am the suspicious sort. How did I know this was a legitimate site. It said something about my provider. Which I assumed must be my doctor. This had never happened before. Why would I need to review my prescriptions. I backed out of that website.
Later I got the regular text from my pharmacy that my prescriptions were ready. I picked them up without incident. But the next day, I got another text telling me it was a reminder that I had not reviewed my prescriptions. Why would I need to? I already paid for and picked up my prescriptions. So I consulted my estranged BFF Google about that phone number.
Seems the phone number was legit. It was for something called A*I*D*E*R*X. Without the stars. The more I looked into it, the more curious I became. It is apparently a service for pharmacies. The pharmacy is the "provider" that is referred to. And it supposedly is to boost "compliance" with prescriptions. Since a percentage of prescriptions called in are not picked up. The whole thing seems to be designed to make more money for the pharmacy.
NO THANK YOU!
I opted out of that service. No need to put my birthdate out there for a hacking of my information. That's the only thing I could see happening. I take my meds as prescribed. I pick up my prescriptions when they are ready.
Somebody somewhere is just dying to gain access to personal information.
Remember the good old days when you walked up to the pharmacy window, prescription in hand and were greeted by the pharmacist, who took the paper and filled the order and handed you the bag with your pills inside .... I picked up some RX just the other day at Walmart. Refills of what is reffered to as maintenance drugs that I have been taking for years. Usually, the only time you have have a "consult" with the pharmacist is when you have something new prescribed. Now they are making you consult with the phamacist on each and every prescription! This slows down the process and forces the pharmacy to have two phamacists to be able to keep filling and consult with customers. Makes me wonder what awful mistake may have been made to warrant such action?
ReplyDeleteI'm betting there's some kind of money involved with each "consultation." Have you ever known Walmart to do something just to help their customers?
DeleteI stopped using Walmart pharmacy 20 years ago, when they gave me young Genius's allergy medicine in a container marked with a lady's name, for a blood pressure pill. I took it back, complaining (can you imagine?), and was condescendingly told that it was the RIGHT medicine, just mislabeled. Imagine the consequences if it had been the right label, but the WRONG medicine!!! Thankfully Genius was so young that I was the one doling out the medicine, so I noticed the discrepancy.
My dad is in assisted living and orders his own prescription refills. He has received the wrong prescription, had them insist on payment when delivered and been asked when he would like to pick up his prescriptions. They have the credit card information on file and know they are to be delivered. He reminds them every time he calls with the request for his refills. Why, with today's technology, can't they put that in his file to be delivered. If they call too late in the week, it risks his chances of getting his meds on time. He now makes them wait, when they do deliver, so he can check and make sure he is actually getting his medicines and not someone else's. He's almost 91 years old and knows what his medications are and what they look like and what they are for. Nothing has changed for him for several years, other than moving into assisted living. He takes care of his own meds because it saves him over $100 a month to not have them dispersed by a nurse. Ranee (MN)
ReplyDeleteEither nobody can do a job right these days, or somebody is trying a scam to make money off the "mistakes." I tend to think it's the latter.
DeleteI wouldn't bother wih that either, as long as I can pick up and pay for my prescriptions, that's all I need.
ReplyDeleteYes. Anything else is not helping ME. It's just wasting time and mining information.
DeleteI was in pain and ended up on grocery store floor on my hands and knees, screaming. I would never let my children see me like that except for the pain and inability to stand! Doctor treated me like it was a psychiatric problem, keeping me in the hospital for a week until I could be treated by a psychiatrist who said it was not in my head.
ReplyDeleteIt turned out that half a dozen people I knew were hospitalized for same type of pain. No one was ever diagnosed with anything except hysteria. And, they were all women. My son had same thing two weeks later. Doctor had no idea and no one ever tested any of us for anything! I am still livid over that ordeal.
Twenty years later, I went to pain doctor about an injury that everyone said was healed. When I called for an appointment, you would think I was a known addict. The nurse warned me sternly that he would not give me an opiod. I was treated poorly for several visits and just gave up.
I suppose in this case, "hysteria" was another word for "we don't know." In college, we took Genius to the ER on two consecutive days for an extreme headache. They pumped him up with IV morphine, which didn't help until the third or fourth dose. All they could come up with was "some form of viral meningitis, which will have to resolve on its own." It was over Christmas break, and to the point that we were worried he might not be able to return to college in January. After a couple weeks of agony, he was a bit better. Well enough to go back.
DeleteHick had trouble getting pain meds after his back surgery. You know, an obvious operation days before, with scars and a doctor's prescription. It was the nerve pain in his legs, not at the incision area. Opioids make him sick, but he took the few he got, for minimum relief. A steroid and gabapentin finally helped.
No one ever tested for anything?? Shame on all of them!
DeleteI have had calls fishing for my information. And, Walgreen's has given me a sheaf of papers and prescription belonging to someone else. Gave me my prescription in wrong strength, told me to cut it in half which would still be more than I have been subscribed. You have to be on your toes to get a prescription.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Nobody else is looking out for you! Or even doing their job with minimal proficiency!
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