Mandatory Mail Order...

This post is in response to something I found on the NCPA website.  Here is the link...

Mail Order Waste

Basically, it's a series of photos that pharmacists and patients took of their medications that were sent through mail order.  For whatever reason, be it the unfortunate death of a loved one or just simply the doctor saying that the medication was no longer needed, people received a 3 month supply of the drug in order to "save" money.  Therefore, many boxes and of unused medication pretty much goes in the trash.

For those of you not in the pharmacy profession, you are probably saying they should just send it back and get a refund or part of their money back.  However, the rule usually is, once a medication leaves the pharmacy and is paid for, if you return it for whatever reason, we are NOT allowed to resell that drug.  So if you bring it back to us, it's going in our trash.

These mandatory mail order programs and specialty drug mailings are marketed as a way to save the patient some money.  What it actually is doing is making more profit for the insurance companies.  They tell pharmacists like myself, who owns his own business, that we can't fill your medication, even if you prefer the hassle of walking or driving to your local pharmacy.  And for specialty medications, which normally are crazy expensive, can't be filled in my store, so I lose a potential $5000 check in my bank account.

I believe people should have a choice.  If your choice is to get your drugs through mail, then I'm not going to complain, just like I don't complain if you choose to go to Walmart to fill you scripts.  But the fact that it's mandatory and because it's insurance from your job, you don't really have a choice to switch insurances either.  I've talked to way too many former business owners that had to close their doors because of this.  It's a shame.  This is America, give the patient the freedom of choice!