So, did you work today?

If the answer is yes, and you work in a pharmacy, you know what Pharmacy New Year is. For those of you who don’t know, let me explain:

January 2nd is the first day doctor’s offices are open again, many of them since before Christmas, or at least since last Friday. That means, a ton of faxes (though for some reason I got even more on New Years’ Eve than today), and a lot of “patients” realizing they are “sick” because they don’t want to go back to school/work.

Plus, it’s a new insurance plan year, so lots of people have new cards or deductibles (that they never seem to know about until their script turns out to cost $300) or formulary changes.

On top of that, Zyrtec just went generic, and is going OTC later this month, so all of the insurance companies’ computers are confused.

So please don’t complain that your prescription isn’t ready when you didn’t tell me you had a new insurance card, didn’t respond to my repeated pages to return to the pharmacy, and then hand me a card written in igPay atinLay that doesn’t have the essential information (like the bin number or, god forbid, the ID number.)

I offered to switch three people to generic Zyrtec today. All three of them (all of them Argus/Carefirst), were rejected for “non-match NDC number.” Well, ok, it’s new, not in their system yet. Let’s try the brand name Zyrtec: Reject “NDC not covered; OTC available.”

Umm, you mean it’s January 27th already? Because as far as I’ve been told, that’s when it’s going OTC. Thankfully, all three patients were willing to wait until tomorrow, when Argus says they’ll have it straightened out.

Today was also the day for people to call in all their refills (as in 8 or 9) at the same time. Some because they were waiting to be out of the dreaded Medicare donut hole, some because they’re trying to get everything on the same schedule.

We had one patient who used to be on Avalide, and was warned ahead of time (a shock, I know) that is was no longer going to be covered. He was prepared last month with a script for Benicar HCT, another ARB+diuretic that was on the list the insurance had mailed him. When he called in the Avalide, it was rejected (as expected; hey that rhymes). So, I tried the Benicar HCT and it was rejected, too. It turns out the insurance had a change of heart, and now prefers Diovan HCT. I faxed the MD for a change, and thankfully got it fairly quickly.

An 18-year-old girl (I can’t call her a woman) brought in 3 scripts: Doryx 100mg, Tazorac cream, and Duac. We filled the scripts; the two creams came to about $120, and the Doryx was about $300; she had a $1500 deductible, then everything is $7. Of course, she didn’t understand that. “Last month at the other pharmacy they were $7! Why are you charging me almost $600!?” Because, girl, you have a dumb-as-dung insurance plan. So, she put me on her cell phone with her mom, who argued with me, but ultimately seemed to understand that I couldn’t do anything about it. I handed the girl back the phone (did I forget to mention I had a cold?) and she demanded the scripts back.

So, Happy Pharmacy New Year. Are you ready for a vacation yet?

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