A Golden Oldie – In 2017, i was sure grateful that my Growth Hormone finally arrived (L-o-n-g saga to follow)
Wednesday, October 25, 2017, 11:08 PM on Facebook
Me: My $450 monthly co-pay refrigerated medication was overnighted to me yesterday, arrived a couple miles from my house at 7:05 this morning. UPS couldn’t get it to me today so they’ll “deliver it tomorrow between 12:30-4:00” .If that ice is melted, the medication is ruined. I see angry phone calls tomorrow.
Friend 1: My Specialty pharmacy replaces it free of charge if that happens. Or at least that’s what they tell me will happen. I asked because our UPS driver is terrible.
Me: We’re on the phone with the pharmacy right now.
Friend 2: OMG, you have one of those copays too?
😡 (Part D? So you have the same donut hole joy we do in Jan/Feb?)
I hope the pharmacy replaces/handles it. “At least” it’s tracked, so clearly documented as being en route for too many hours.
Me: Yup. People not on Medicare can get this close to free.
🙁
Still on the phone.
🙁 I hate this, ummm, stuff.
Friend 2: Ditto. The drug companies can give it for $25/copay with private insurance, and some f’d up anti-kickback statute prevents them from doing the same for anyone on federal insurance, including Medicare, even when it’s under patent or otherwise has no
generic (which is the point of the damn statute). 😡
The drug companies HAD (in our case, until this year) worked around it by funding independent patient copay programs to avoid the bad PR/increased regulation risks from being like Gleevec a decade ago (let’s bankrupt the cancer patients for whom this works and keeps them in remission indefinitely!), but at least with the myeloma oral chemos they’ve pulled their funding and the copay assistance programs have shut down, AND they’re raising the prices 20% (in the US, not countries that can legally, oh, bargain with pharm companies) to cover other drug failures. (I’m sure they’re hardly turning any profit at all, though, and the combined actions are totally 100% necessary. And I’m someone who *wants them* to turn a good profit so they’re incentivized, but come on. It’s absurd that the $$$ drugs that are a quick sub-q injections in an office building is fully covered by Part B and supplemental, whereas the “patient convenient” pills cost one $13k or so annually in copays.
Friend 2: But aside from my thread jacking rant (😳), I really hope you’re a) not entirely out right now, and b) it’s resolved at no additional cost to you or having to stay home again all day to sign for delivery.
😞
Me: We’re still on the phone
🙁 This is the 4th person.
This person on the phone can’t guarantee that it will be still cold but is hesitant to send another shipment at no cost
Friend 2:
🙄 Will they send at no cost if it arrives ruined? Like, you can have a time stamped photo and video of melted ice, and the tracking info with a delivery time stamp?
😕
It should really come out of their insurance or likely-contract with UPS.
Me: Don’t know yet but they’ve added a 5th person on the line. This can’t be the first time UPS messed up a temperature-sensitive medicine.
Now they’re going to call back in the morning. (HAHA)
🤣
Friend 2: I *constantly* want an eyeroll reaction button on FB. Good luck, and as long as you don’t run out before it comes I do have faith that you’ll end up not-screwed! (It’s just going to cost you time and frustration vs a second $450.)
Me: Still on the phone. This is nuts. I have 1 more cartridge (about 15 days worth)
Friend 2:
👍🏽 to enough on-hand,
🙄
🙄
🙄 to the phone mess?
Me: Phone call is over, nothing resolved. 5 reps, a couple robots and background music.To be continued in the morning…
Friend 3: I had that happen but it would have made it 3 days. I told them the cost and how long it could be in shipping. If they were to do as planned, it would be on them. They got a courier and I got it that night.
Friend 4: I would report it to whom ever you get the medication from . When I was getting a refrigerated medication they would never send them to arrive on a Sat.or around the holidays. They always made sure I got it next day Shipment !
Me: Mine is marked “next day” and they ship it by UPS Next Day Air Saver®
Me: I guess they saved the money but the Next Day got lost somewhere.
Friend 5: UPS explained to me that when the package is labeled “Air Saver” UPS can deliver the package anytime that day. If the package is labeled just Next Day Air, they have to deliver it in the morning. The problem is that the RXplan won’t pay the additional amount required by omitting the air saver.
Friend 6: Praying you get this mess resolved!!!
Me: Thanks!
Friend 7: This is what shipping insurance is for; it’s between the pharmacy and the shipper. ETA: only stable up to 24 hrs at room temp.
Me: Mine is only supposed to be between 2° to 8°C (36° to 46°F)
Friend 7: and starts losing potency quickly if not. Me: I know
🙁
Friend 5: Mary, I had the same problem on a day Texas temperature was 104 degrees. UPS delivered my GH the correct day but after 7 pm. The medication was warm when it arrived. My specialty pharmacy gave me a hard time about it. I phoned the manufacturer and talked to a nurse on the support team who said the med needed to be replaced and to have the pharmacy contact her if needed. I called the pharmacy and argued with the pharmacist for 15 minutes. I asked him if he wanted to be responsible for my taking a medication that wasn’t safe. He finally agreed to replace it. The box with my med was only half covered by the cold packs, and the tracker didn’t show damage, so the pharmacy argued about replacement. I responded with the fact that those trackers are not always accurate. They can and do fail. If he had continued to argue, I would have insisted he talk to the nurse with whom I spoke.I called my insurance plan and complained about the pharmacy. If you call the manufacturer of your med, be sure to get the name of your contact there. Good luck. I’m sorry you have that hassle.
Friend 8: So sorry!! Hope it gets to you in good, COLD condition. What an aggravation for you.
Friend 9: Refuse it… they replace it
Me: This doesn’t require a signature so they usually just drop it and run. Luckily, we have a dog who will sound the alarm.
Friend 9: Oh and Ask for fedex delivery all of the time
Me: 4:31 PM. The “window” today was 12-4:30. It’s still not here and back on the phone.
Me: I forget to mention that it’s going to take 8 days to track this package. Egads!
Me: I had to leave. Tom sent me a text “Donna from last night Called at 5pm I told her we were now considering replacing Humana.They are declaring the package lost and sending a replacement shipment immediately.It will arrive by 10:30 am Friday”. We’ll see! Several hours of phone calls and 15 people on their side. Aarrgghh
Friend 2: I will say that FedEx has been really consistent with ours (which ironically would basically be fine if lost for a few days, aside from extreme temperature ranges), though the whole designated “morning” and “afternoon” windows are a joke. (“Afternoon” has come before 8 am, “morning” at 3:30pm…but always the correct day! Just irritating since it’s so regulated – next-gen thalidomide, all those birth defects – it *has* to be signed for.) In case they’ll let you request FedEx after this.
🙄
Me: Today’s meds are coming UPS again but it shows as “Out for Delivery” today. Then, again, it said that on Wednesday, too. The difference is today has to be signed for and it’s supposed to be here by 10:30 so I can take my mom to a birthday lunch.
1 hour, 15 minutes and counting…
Me: Success!
