There is a Medicare rule that requires your Part D (which is prescriptions only) provider to now call you before they send out your medications.
Many of these Part D providers also require, or at least push for you, the patient, to purchase your medications through the mail. The insurance provider wants you to have your doctor order these medications directly from them and then the magical pharmacy in the sky sends the medications to your home.
This process has its ups and downs. On the up side, your medications are delivered directly to your door. For many a senior, ill person, or caregiver, this is a blessing. Nothing is more delightful than not having to go to the pharmacy a million times a month for meds that run out at random intervals.
However, often our elder parents, aunts, and friends are frustrated by their inability to have that paper prescription in their hot little hands, take it to Phil, the Pharmacist, and go home knowing they have the correct meds as confirmed by Phil, and they don’t have to wait days or weeks to see the meds they need.
Now that Medicare has added this ‘protective’ provision that your insurance company must call you on the phone and confirm that you or your doctor ordered this medication, that you actually want the medication and that you wish it to be sent to you in a 90 day supply, another fun-filled element has been added to the mix.
So for me, it goes like this.
My brother-in-law struggles a bit with the phone, pays no attention to his meds anyway, and has for 5 years, relinquished any responsibility for anything. So, I leave a message at my brother-in-law’s doctor’s office requesting they order the medication.
I get 2 or 3 emails from the Part D insurance company confirming that a mysterious prescription has been ordered. They can’t put the name of the drug in the email, so I have to go to the Part D website to see if the correct drug has been ordered. My brother-in-law takes 40 pills a day. So I have to wade through the list to make sure all is correct.
Then Part D Insurance Company calls you on the phone. I never know when this call is coming. If I miss the call, I put the process behind until I can respond. Now, for all of you who may need acting lessons in the future, I was a theater major in college for a bit, and I will be giving lessons. Now.
When the caller asks you if you are your brother-in-law, drop your voice three octaves and mumble a reply that sounds something like, “Yus.” You’re only talking to a machine, never a real person. Every other question, as his Power of Attorney, I have answered a million times, so I have the answers. But remember mumbling and voice alteration are your friends.
You will be pleased with the results when they conclude the call telling you your drugs are on the way! Just in case you don’t remember this conversation, they send you yet another 2 or 3 emails to confirm that the mysterious drugs, whose names shall not be mentioned in an email, will be delivered shortly.
You’re welcome, and remember all my caregiving thespians….
“You just have to Laugh…..” but don’t do it while mumbling and dropping your voice a few octaves.
©2014 Cathy Sikorski
40/day! How many medication names can you pronounce? How many can you pronounce correctly? God bless you!!
Btw – Y’all ought to see what you deal with when your spouse is the same gender (not)! That adds a whole new level of complication and comedy (if you choose to laugh)
Hahhah…this is so great…a whole new level of comedy, I’m pretty sure! And you know, I ALWAYS choose to laugh!
Yes, I’m actually an honorary pharmacist now! Thanks Milk Money Mikey!
Ya gotta love when the government gets involved in your day to day life. They always manage to make everything more difficult. It is indeed to always remember to laugh when we can, and share that laughter as well.
Yes, that’s why I often look at the government as a source of entertainment and laughter…pretty easy to do most days. Thanks for the comment!
That’s funny! However I do see why things like this need to be done. It protects the doctor and patient from mistakes being made and that might just save people from misunderstandings that could cause harm. Maybe that’s just the wife of a defense attorney talking now, who’s seen people hurt from misunderstandings.
It’s not that I’m completely without understanding, but also as a lawyer, man do I get tired of new rules and regs all the time!
Wow, must brush up on my acting lessons. Practicing my lower voice right now …
You can do it!
I don’t know if I am more impressed with your acting skills, or that you would do so much, with so much love, for your brother-in-law! He’s lucky to have you.
Love makes you do crazy things, don’t it?!!?? HAHA
Every caregiver has wrestled with this. And what about when you find out another caregiver has stopped medication for the person you are now caring for? It is never easy.
That’s so true, and we try so hard to be diligent with meds. There’s no easy road here, which is why I keep laughing and try to pass the laughter on. It’s the only way to get through a day! Thanks for commenting.
So true! It’s ridiculous that when companies ask to speak to my husband because an account is in his name, I just have to put my son on the phone so they hear a man’s voice. Some of these rules are crazy – and beg to be broken 🙂
Hahah. Lois, you’re not going to believe this but I had an emergency and my husband was out of town. My girlfriend was visiting and she dropped her voice 10 octaves, I swear, and answered all the insurance company questions to ‘prove’ my husband would allow me to deal with my own health insurance problem..True story.
Wouldn’t the world be a wonderful place if all the creative energy that goes into making up ridiculous rules was redirected to making life more simple and joyful? 🙂
Have a magical holiday, Cathy!
Been there. Done that. The machine is the pits because if you say you are not the patient, it won’t get you to someone whi can understand that you are the POA.
On the other hand, they used to just send the medications even when dad was no longeron them. They even called his old doctor in the south to renew medications he had been taken off. And the old medical office apprved the renewal. I ended up oaying almost $300 for medications dad wasn’t taking until someone at the assisted living finally told me he was no longer taking that medication!
It was Medco’s convenience paln to just keep sending the medications forever whether dad needed them or not. I am thankful that Medicare finally realized they were wasting a lot of money on unused and unnecessary medications. It is a pain to approve them each time, but at least I am no longer wasting money on medications he isn’t even taking!
I know that this is a crazy mixed up system, right? I just try to shed some light on that for those of us in the trenches (and the rest of the world) that it’s just that. I, too, sometimes have a hard time deciding if the rules they implement are good or bad…but for sure, rules need bending now and again. Thanks, as always for reading and commenting!
now i know what to look for in the future of our county med-plan here at work.. and you are so right. you just have to laugh.. now i wonder can i laugh on the phone and get away with the voice, hmmmmm LOL!! and smiles!!!!!!!!!!
Well, Jerome. I ‘ve seen a picture of your beautiful wife, so you better sit next to her and practice her voice because you probably don’t sound like each other! But practice your acting skills and you will be prepared. Thanks for reading, as always!
I think I’ll start calling you Al. Another good one Cathy – I mean Al
HAHA, I like it!