<p>Well, in the “olden days” it was easier to give some customer service. Now to get refills, question dosages, ask a doctor anything you have to wait forever. I worked at a volunteer free pharmacy (we served those who slipped through the medicaid and insurance cracks with no ability to pay) and I would be SO frustrated at the inability to
get timely answers. We weren’t open on a daily basis so a lack of answers really did mean hardship for the patients.</p>
<p>Try having a back load of scripts to fill (and/or check) and try calling the health department (and now many doctor’s offices) with a voice mail system with 10 options (at least)–none of which have anything to do with pharmacy. And get the nurse’s voice mail. Or the receptionist.</p>
<p>And while computers are great–it seems insurance boggles things up. I actually remember when someone could call and get a price–now a lot of pharmacies can’t give straight answers until info is entered in their system.
And things were discounted by quantity–you get 30, 60, 90–it was cheaper the more you got. Forget it.
And even if there are cheaper ways to do it–your insurance will stop you at that 30 day supply. I sympathize with the pharmacist who says “too bad for you”. I do not mean that in a harsh way–it takes a time to figure out a cheaper way, better therapy and sometimes multiple calls to a doctor (see above). With no recompense nor time to do it.</p>
<p>Oh yeah. And now a pharmacist is supposed to counsel everybody (we always did this) and everybody has to sign papers and fill out paperwork (we didn’t do this). And give you a flu shot while you get your foot cream.</p>
<p>And if you think your neighborhood chain store pharmacist is actually filling that Rx…a lot of chains have them filled at a distant location and then shipped back to your store to be picked up.</p>