The Trouble With Insurance Companies

1. I’m grateful that, after 30-plus years, my diabetes is under pretty good control.
2. I’m happy Owen and I were able to enjoy a nice walk on Kelly Drive.
3. I’m grateful Man United announced their intentions for the Premier League with such authority.

Yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, as Meg, Owen and I were driving out to my parents’ house, Meg popped into our local mega pharmacy to pick up some ointment for Owen (he took a header at daycare and ended up with a nice scrape on his chin) and a refill for one of my insulins, Lantus.

Meg came out, we headed on, and the world was good. That is, until we got to Mom and Dad’s and I opened the package, noticing that the mega pharmacy had decided to only fill three-fifths of my prescription. Instead of being in the manufacturer’s box, the thee pens were packed in a ziplock bag.

I was, needless to say, a little irritated.

When we got home, I studied the pharmacy’s sticker to notice the amount I was entitled to was changed from 15 ml to 9. (A little background: My prescription ran out of refills, and I asked the drugstore to contact my doctor to reup my script.) Anger. Someone is fu$&ing with my meds.

I stopped by the drugstore today to talk about my problem with this unilateral changing of my script. You see, I self-medicate, so back when I started seeing my current doctor, he asked what my dose was. I told him: 24 units, once a day. That was FOUR YEARS AGO. My dose now is considerably more than those 24 units, so I need the whole 15 ml to get through the month.

I told the pharmacist about this, and he said it wasn’t a problem, he reran my prescription with the new dose, and then he told me the change was made by my doctor, likely after an audit by the insurance company.

Everyone involved (my doctor, the pharmacy, the cursed insurance company) has my contact information. None of them, despite the fact they were restricting the availability of my meds, thought for a second about actually contacting me. This is pretty unbelievable to me.

I don’t like the fact the insurance company feels it should get to know how much insulin I need to get through the day/week/month/year. I’m pretty angry with you, unnamed insurance company. Expect my phone call tomorrow to find out just how angry I am.

I also don’t like the fact my doctor readily changed my prescription without consulting me. I’m pretty upset with you, unnamed doctor. I question whether you have my best interests at heart and might have to replace your sorry ass.

Mega pharmacy, the best analogy I can think of is to compare this with the sport baseball: Consider this strike two. F$&k with my scripts again and I’ll happily switch all of my prescriptions to one of the other drug stores in the hood.

F$&kers.