Pharmaceutical Madness
Mrs. Bloom returned from the pharmacy with my latest prescription, a month supply of Adderall which includes 30 XR capsules and 90 supplemental IR tablets. Even on my lousy insurance I was only paying a co-pay of 15 bucks each for generics. The receipt the Mrs. presented today… $231 and some change. I went a little ballistic.
I bypassed the online help as I didn’t have the patience to click around and dialed the 24/7 number on my insurance card. I got the automated help who couldn’t understand anything I was shouting into the receiver. I held the zero button down hard until the bit Betty shut the hell up. Finally, the recording said, “Just a few more questions and a customer service rep will be able to help you.” I entered my group policy number, verified my name, did some jumping jacks to finally be told that the offices were closed.
The Mrs. was finally able to track down my benefits on the web tangle… there it was in striking font, generic medications, $15 co-pay. I printed the page, rounded up the receipts and bounded for Walgreens on a mission for justice.
The mouth-breather across the counter looked at my prescription and said, “You must have a deductble.” I countered with a stern gaze that I didn’t. He asked to see my card and I asked how he knew I was on Aetna considering I hadn’t given them my new insurance info. He mumbled something about an Aetna ABM number that I was under. The only thing I could think of was that when people expire under one policy that it falls into a bucket that Walgreens can use to make claims against. It sounded fishy for sure.
After punching in a few numbers and telling me the real cost of the meds (about 10 dollars more than the 230+ I’d just paid) I countered that I could buy it online for 17 dollars and would happily take my business to the US postal service. Neither of the attending lab coats seemed to care. A few minutes later the clerk came back that indeed, each prescription was only $15. The store manager was called in to authorize the refund and I was relieved by a $200 error in my favor.
Here’s what I don’t get. Pharmaceuticals, even generic are priced ridiculously. The retail price of those generic meds was nearly 250 dollars, of which I was paying 230. Does that mean the pharmaceutical companies get charged the difference between my co-pay and the retail price? I got to thinking about my Symbyax which has a price tag of close to $600/month. That’s more than my entire insurance premium. I can’t imagine an insurance company paying that much. I can only guess that there is some legal racketeering transpiring between the insurance companies, pharma, and the dispensaries. Perhaps there are enough poor schlubs who don’t have insurance that they pay for those of us that do. Maybe I’m wrong, but I highly doubt that Walgreens is getting a check for full retail.
In: Depression · Tagged with: Adderall, Depression, health insurance, prescription