Medications Troubles Part 2

This article starts in part 1.

I was starting to get angry. I just didn’t understand how the doctor’s office can screw something up. So I started to get mean. I contacted the office manager at my GI’s office.  She was very rude to me because she tried telling me things that were not true. She said that I should be using the new specialty pharmacy. That was a lie. She also told me that my original specialty pharmacy, the one that I have been using for the last three years, never reached out to them. I found out that was also a lie! I had the pharmacy send me the communication logs for proof. I also sent them to my doctor’s office. The office manager was completely stumped. She actually started to cry and told me, “maybe I should quit my job.”  At that point, I had lost any sympathy for anybody, so her guilt was not going to make me feel the least bit bad.

Figuring out the miscommunication

I had told my doctor’s office, that I wanted to speak to my GI directly. He is one of the top doctors in the country, so the chances of hearing from him would be slim to none. Surprisingly, he called me back an hour later. He was very upset that his office failed to complete a task that was very common to do. I knew that talking to him would get the ball rolling.

The next day (one day late for my injection), my original specialty pharmacy reached out to me and told me that the doctor’s office was still trying to bill the wrong part of my insurance. They were just as baffled as me because I had been using them for three years.  They decided that the best way to solve this problem was to put me on a three-way phone call with my doctor’s office. This way, we were all on the same page and I could explain what they were doing wrong. During this phone call, my doctor’s office was very rude, and seemed annoyed that I kept calling for the same reasons. But they were not doing there jobs!

The hospital that my doctor’s office is associated with knew that they messed up and sent a courier to my house with one needle to hold me over for the week. It was the day after a big snow storm, but I didn’t care, I needed my medicine.

A lesson in advocating for yourself

Finally, after two weeks, I got the call I had been waiting for! It was the original prescription pharmacy saying that, after what seemed like pulling teeth, they were able to receive the final authorization from my medical insurance. The lady on the phone, who I felt like I developed a great professional relationship with, was so relieved. I had to give credit to her because she took time out of her day every day to be persistent with the process. The pharmacy went ahead and shipped it overnight, so I could inject. I received it yesterday. I will reach out to my doctor’s office to follow up with them about where the miscommunication happened. Moral of the story: You have to be an advocate for yourself because, if not, these doctors and insurance companies will walk all over you.