Rant: Prescriptions

[Tim]

I am a doctor, not a pharmacist

[redbirdjazzz]

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Or Poolman.

[cardsfantx]

The bigger question is how does a grown woman get pinkeye? Lol

[cardsfantx]

Everyone knows picking up prescriptions are kind of a pain in the ass, but today I go to Walgreen's clinic for pinkeye. The guy prescribed me some Tier 4 (insurance terms) eyedrops and when I come back it's $200 co-pay. My co-pay is $15. So I have to leave, call my insurance just to be given Tier 1 alternatives. Have to go back there, get a new prescription and wait another 45 min. for that to be filled. I'd say the whole ordeal took a good 3-4 hours. Why would the guy originally prescribe the expensive drug for pinkeye? Who's paying that?

Believe it or not, doctors do not have every insurance prescription coverage program memorized and may not know that the drug prescribed to you was not in your cheaper tier. They don't go to 4 years of med school and 3-7 years of residency to memorize insurance programs. Sorry.

Very true, but mds know which prescriptions are typically expensive and will at least give the patient a heads up that it's possibly going to be expensive. Sounds like this never happened so it was a shock when picking up a prescription, which should not happen.

Regardless of the insurance company, they're pretty uniform in which drugs are in which tier. The portion the patient pays depends on the insurance obv, but if it's in the expensive tier for say Cigna, it's also in the expensive tier for Aetna.