PHARMACIST STEVE

IF you patronize such businesses… it is only your life that you are screwing with

5 Responses

1. 

   jane, on August 3, 2021 at 1:36 pm said:

   Steve, I want nothing to do with CVS but they are making me pay 3 times the copay unless I switch to a cvs pharmacy, or do mail order. I’d like to know about the lawsuit.

   I don’t want to do mail order, way too many things can go wrong with that. Do I have an option? well, is paying 3 times the cost of your RX’s an option if you are on several? I was on 3 different thyroid meds at one time, We don’t have that kind of money if you add up all the meds we use.

   I don’t mind paying a little more, we did that last year and it was ok, but you are talking about a $5 rx last year, versus the same one now costing us $30! ugh… We didn’t pick the plan, husbands employer did, and when they brought it up initially, they FAILED to tell everyone that after filling 3 maintenance meds at your local pharmacy, price goes up 3 times unless you switch to CVS pharmacy (target for us) or mail order.

   And the base cost was increased to $10 for each med,instead of $5 so then it was already double before the new triple cost thing. I hate them, so so so much!

   We were going to Costco. Why? because there are no close small business pharmacies near by that are even open within the hours for my husband to get to them, AND when we went and asked if we could get a specific brand of drug or brand of generic, we were told we get what is cheapest, and they will only order the cheapest. That won’t work for us. We thought maybe we could figure out a way to get there before they close, if they would work with us, but they weren’t interested, and I understand, they are a small pharmacy and need to pinch pennies, but i’m not willing to gamble like that, as some meds are completely ineffective. There are so many junk generic brands out there, with crap ingredients that give me diarrhea (sorry, but being honest)

   Our costco has actually been ordering in the brands we use. They are generic brands, mostly thyroid/adrenal meds so we don’t change brands because it screws up our absorption. We also take pain meds, for documented issues mostly back related, and the Manger at our Costco is wonderful and helpful and not judgy about it.

   My husband uses a compounded med, and CVS pays 0 for that. I told my husband I want him to do something about the fact that when this new plan was presented and voted on, they didn’t tell anyone about the 3 times cost after 3 fills thing, we found that out when it was time to sign up for the plan, and it was either chose gold, silver or bronze plan. We chose gold, the most expensive but best coverage. but the drug plan is the same for all of them. 🙁 the only good thing with this new plan is now the drug costs get added in with our medical costs, and our total out of pocket max is only $1500 a year, so with all we are spending on RX’s, we might reach that soon. Last year drug costs were completely separate for us.

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     Pharmaciststeve, on August 3, 2021 at 3:47 pm said:

     Educated guess – the CVS Health gave your employer a “dog & pony show” and promised to save the company money… maybe they did… by passing increased costs on to the employees. If the company that you worked for signed up for a Aetna insurance prgm… they are owned by CVS Health and most likely… your “drug card” is managed by Caremark/PBM that is also owned by CVS Health and may have Silver Scripts for your meds .. again owned by CVS Health… and of course CVS Health owns a MAIL ORDER PHARMACY… It not unusual for a Insurance/PBM to tell the pharmacy to charge the pt $30 for Rx copay and only pay the pharmacy $10 for the Rx and PBM “pockets” the $20. They are charging a monthly premium for med insurance that then charging the pt more $$ than they are paying the pharmacy for their “cash price”. From what I am seeing many state legislatures are looking into the tactics of these very large insurance/PBM business and how they are functioning more and more like a monopoly and as legislatures are looking at all these big tech companies and their monopolist behaviors and insurance/PBM industry may just get sucked into those investigations… Perhaps it is time for the employees where you husband works to speak up with whoever oversees healthcare options. Open enrollment is just a few months away… You might want to search my blog for CVS – Caremark – Silver Scripts and you will get a ton of articles that suggests that CVS Health is a real “bad actor” and share these articles with your Husband’s employer and whoever oversees health insurance options. CVS Health reportedly generates 25 BILLION in PROFITS every quarter… they are not a altruistic company

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       Leticia, on August 5, 2021 at 6:53 pm said:

       This is true because of what Steve Ariens has shared we won and my husband work made pbm cvs to pay for my husband full script!! Fight stand ur ground..ur employer believes there are doctors at cvs making these decisions..u have to tell them there are no doctors there and even if there were they have not seen u personally!!!fight!!!

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2. 

   Bob Schubring, on August 2, 2021 at 9:44 pm said:

   That makes it smaller than Sinopec and bigger than ExxonMobil and BP. Which buys it a horrendous amount of lobbying power. If it needs favors from Congress, it gives a fat bonus to its top ten execs, collects IRS withholding off the top, and the execs put the money in a Political Action Committee, which buys enough campaign ads on network TV that the newsroom simply ignores any bad news about the company.

   Of course, the neat trick to hiring PROP to do their dirty work, is that PROP cuts the IRS out of things, by claiming that the dirty work is “charity work”.

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     F1 Rocket Engine, on August 4, 2021 at 5:16 pm said:

     Very well SAID!

     Reply