*sighs* Do they ever learn?

[Iris Kojiro]

Time for another story from the Medicine Hat! This one happened just this week.

During the early evening, after the rush died down and all of the doctor's offices were closed, somebody decided to bring in a prescription for a very much controlled substance. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Sadly, if that were the case, I wouldn't be posting here.

DSL: Drug-seeking lady
Me:

DSL: "I have no insurance, how much would this be if I were to pay cash for it?"

Me: "I don't know offhand, ma'am. I have to run it first and then I'll let you know. (Sure, I CAN check the cash price right now, but I'm going to check for active insurance to make sure you're not BSing me.)

*about 30 seconds pass*

DSL: "How much is it?"

Me: "I haven't run it yet. I'm going to need about 20 minutes." (Plenty of time to check things out)

DSL: "Okay"

*She hovers for a good five minutes.*

In the meantime, I root through and find an insurance. I run it and it's active! Looks like she got this filled only a week or two back. The plot thickens...and then she wanders away from the drop off zone. Thank God.

I then call the insurance and find out that it was filled at Big Pharma. I then call Big Pharma and get a confirmation that she got a bunch of this drug under insurance...and it's the same dose...AND a different doctor's office.

I leave a message for the doctor for this Rx as well as the doctor for the previous Rx, while also warning Big Pharma about her. After gathering the evidence...

Me: Hey, DSL?

DSL: Yeah?

Me: I can't fill this. You told me you didn't have any insurance when you actually did. I checked the insurance and this is WAY too soon. I'm not filling this until I get a doctor's okay tomorrow.

I start to walk away with the Rx.

DSL: You keep the prescription?

Me: Yes, I do.

DSL: (fully deflated and with a defeated look on her face) Oh...okay.

*she leaves without argument*

The next day, I got reports from both doctors that they won't be seeing her anymore. Another big win for us!

[Titi]

Good one for you! That was so awesome. Get the fake drug seeking people out of here so us good people who really need the medication can get it without hassles.

[tropicsgoddess]

To be honest, I was expecting her to make a big stink over her not getting her fix meds. Good on reporting her!

[mattm04]

Good Job! Just last week I saw a few cops talking to our pharmacist who had a stack of paper work in hand. Probably a similar situation.

[Der Cute]

Iris,

There have been times when I wanted a price quote on a pharmacy drug, but was told "We can't do that unless we fill the script and then ring it up." IMO that's horsepucky, but I wanted to ask you about that. I don't always have insurance, so that's why I wanted to do price checks on 2 script only medications.

Are/were these people pulling my leg?

Cutenoob

[Andara Bledin]

To be honest, I was expecting her to make a big stink over her not getting her fix meds. Good on reporting her!

She wasn't after a fix, she was after a profit.

I know a lot of people who sell of controlled meds.

^-.-^

[Hanzoku]

I'm a little surprised that it wasn't a 'call the police' sort of event if this script is highly controlled.

[Iris Kojiro]

*stretches and wakes up* Good morning, everyone!

To be honest, I was expecting her to make a big stink over her not getting her fix meds. Good on reporting her!

Believe me, I was pleasantly shocked too. Not that I'm complaining, of course.

Iris,

There have been times when I wanted a price quote on a pharmacy drug, but was told "We can't do that unless we fill the script and then ring it up." IMO that's horsepucky, but I wanted to ask you about that. I don't always have insurance, so that's why I wanted to do price checks on 2 script only medications.

Are/were these people pulling my leg?

Cutenoob

With most, if not all systems, it is easy to look up the cash price on any given medication. Personally, I'll ask if they have insurance or a discount card (the second part is key as while discount cards technically aren't insurance, they're treated the same in most systems). If they don't, then I can look up the cash price right away. Even so, if it is for a large price list of cash meds, it would definitely take me some time, especially if we're really backed up.

In my case, I very easily could have given her the cash price right away, but my mental alarms were going off and so I needed a stalling tactic.

Short answer: It depends on how you worded it. Just let them know up front that you don't have insurance or any other sort of card and you should get an answer right away.

[wolfie]

Short answer: It depends on how you worded it. Just let them know up front that you don't have insurance or any other sort of card and you should get an answer right away.

Not a pharmacist or assistant, but I'd imagine that it would also depend on the medication the prescription is for. Amoxycilin? No problem. Oxycontin? Pharmacist's mental alarm bells start ringing.

[Der Cute]

primidone/mysoline, aka an OLD barbituate deriviative that controls seizures.

It's just that this "we don't do price quotes unless we fill it" happened at 2 different pharms, Safeway and IIRC a Walgreens. It seemed strange, because, well, I was trying to save money, by buying from a place w/o insurance.

No problem. Now I know it's not always a procedure, but more of a stalling, I may escalate to a manager next time I need a price quote w/o insurance.

Thanks for the info.

Cutenoob