Specialty Pharmacies Don’t Make IBD Any Easier On Us

A specialty pharmacy is an outfit that ships unique medicines such as biologic injectables to patients. In certain instances there are also specialty pharmacy retail locations where you can arrange a pickup.

I’ve dealt with several different specialty pharmacies over the past 6 years as an IBD patient.

Specialty pharmacy protocols are stressful

These companies certainly try their best. The receptionists, when you call to place an order, are most often genuinely interested in helping. Still, I’ve run into some issues with specialty pharmacies to the point where I’m sometimes left feeling it would really help if they could improve their protocol.

For example, one protocol that can be a bit taxing is many specialty pharmacies make you call to reorder every 28 days. This would be fine if they didn’t make you wait an eternity to get someone on the line.

Then, too, they often have you answer a lengthy series of questions, first verifying your identity, then checking for side effects, and asking you a million questions about your background and intentions. Then they want to know if you need a container for disposing of your needles and review with you in detail all other drugs you are currently on.

Between these and other questions it can take more than a half-hour. Again, their intentions are good. But when you’re ordering the same meds you always do, going through this process repeatedly is exhausting, and seems counterproductive.

How speciality pharmacies could improve

What I’m saying is I hope they could set up a system for ordering meds online. Or have a better way to auto-verify patients. This would save a lot of time and effort.

Another issue is every few months my specialty pharmacy requires my doctor to submit both a new prior authorization AND a new script for my Crohn's meds. I get that this is the protocol. But I wish there was a bit less red tape. For every other medicine I’ve been on, at least, a script is enough.

Interrelated with this, I’ve run into trouble when my doctor was slow to write the script. The reason: they do not offer a temporary dose as they do in ordinary pharmacies just to tide you over. Once while waiting on a script I begged them for a single shot. The only option they offered me was to pay out of pocket. Sadly, the price was $13,000. Yikes! I waited till the script was approved, but was late taking my Crohn's meds.

Finally, they recently sent my account to collections. I wasn’t notified about a missing payment. This frustrated me because I’d paid my bill over the phone a month earlier, and at that point, they’d promised me my balance was zero.

IBD is exhausting enough

As Crohn's and colitis patients, we have plenty of stress just getting by each week. Add in the complexities of ordering our medicine from specialty pharmacies and it sometimes feels like we’re in a bit of a minefield.

I’ve learned to call for my meds early and keep on top of my paperwork, so as to limit the number of issues. Still, the stress around my specialty pharmacy is another obstacle I sometimes wish I didn’t have to manage.

Thanks for reading, and, as always, I look forward to reading your comments below.