If this wasn't already enough to make my head feel like exploding, then getting a bill from my former pharmacy company, PharmaCare, was.
Um, I owe you $1037.58? From JUNE? Not to mention, the forthcoming bills for drugs from July, August and September? I don't think so.
There is a reason why (and I know I'm lucky, here) that I have two insurances - its so I won't get unexpected bills.
It seems to me that I've never gotten a bill, after-the-fact, from CVS or Walgreens or the freakin' grocery store pharmacy for that matter... SIX MONTHS LATER. Its usually "here's my insurance cards," and then they tell me if the drugs require co-pays (never more than $7 each) and then I PAY the co-pays and then I get my drugs. Ever try to get prescriptions filled without paying for them in advance? Doesn't really work, does it?
According to PharmaCare it does. They apparently went on some "assumption" (WHAT?) that [Other Insurance Company] would pay for the dugs before they actually gave me the drugs. The Pharmacare rep said, "Well, I guess we thought [Other Insurance Company] was going to pay for the drugs when you got them in June, so that's why you only paid the co-pays then. We didn't know they weren't going to not pay for them, so that's why we have to bill you now."
YOU THOUGHT? I'm sorry I don't buy that. Not for a second. Sound fishy to you? Yeah.
What was even more unexpected was PharmaCare's answer to my questioning if they even BILLED Other Insurance Company: "[Other Insurance Company] won't pay the 20% for your anti-rejection drugs that Medicare doesn't cover..."
WHAT?
NO. They're wrong (at least according to Other Insurance Company, they're wrong) and I'm angry that I even had to listen to PharmaCare's stupid rep tell me that Other Insurance Company rejected their claim for payment. RIGHT! When I called Other Insurance Company (two different numbers, in two different departments, mind you) I was told that PharmaCare hadn't even billed them.
While I haven't had any problems with the local PharmaCare and in actually getting the medications from them... I have been REALLY disappointed that I allowed myself to even be talked into using them as a pharmacy to begin with. I've always used CVS pharmacy and never had any problems. However, when I was still in the hospital getting my transplant, I was 'informed' that I needed to use PharmaCare because they are a "specialty" pharmacy (BULL) that could handle my transplant drugs better than a "regular" pharmacy. Of course I've since figured out that, NO, I can still use my "regular" pharmacy, but damnit. Why did I get taken advantage of while I was in the hospital?
You'd think someone like me would've seen that coming.
We had to use PharmaCare for my initial post-transplant meds, and, yeah, they are SUPER expensive. They do "rush" prescriptions, which my mail-order absolutely doesn't.
I had a pretty negative experience with them, too. It was like we were bleeding money to them.
I don't understand how I could POSSIBLY get a bill from them, considering I DO have two insurances (Medicare is primary, of course, for all things kidney related).
I was actually surprised the other day when I refilled my Myfortic at Target (had a coupon for their pharmacy that gave me a $10 gift card just to transfer/refill a prescription... I basically gave them $0 and walked out with ten bucks in my pocket... but I digress) and I didn't have to pay anything. I keep getting these little bills from PharmaCare here and there for twenty bucks, forty bucks, etc. etc. that are supposed to be my "co-pays" (which I've paid without question) But then when I got the Rx filled at Target and I paid nothing it kinda made me wonder... just exactly WHY is PharmaCare charging me? I wasn't getting anything shipped to me or delivered as a "rush" order, so....? Um, I dunno.
Anyway, I haven't gotten any prescriptions from them since the beginning of September (or maybe even August when I was last in the hospital) and since I figured out I could just go to the CVS, instead.
I don't give a @#*% what PharmaCare says, I am NOT paying one more DIME to them. I asked, and double checked, and asked again, while I was still at the hospital in June to make CERTAIN that they accept BOTH insurances (because some don't accept the second) and was assured that everything had been "run through and approved". If they told me that and think now they can tell me something else, they are DEAD WRONG. I am NOT paying for something that I could've been getting at a 'regular' pharmacy for my 'regular' co-pays (which are usually ZERO).