Cancelling Prescriptions....

[Pete53]

Meds by mail suck

[danang_1969]

I had a major problem when they continued to MAIL me meds that I 1. did not order; 2. did not need as I had 2 fresh refills at home; 3. was not discussed with me. I called when I got the meds and talked to the patient advocate....was told I needed to talk to the prescribing doctor. This doctor was a resident and never came back, so I got my copay invoice, refused to pay it by writing a letter to the address on the back. Another month went by, and now there was a service fee, admin fee etc. I called the "busy" patient advocate again and he was to call me back. I wrote his supervisor a letter...no reply. I wrote the individual in charge of the accounts receivable and got the run around. I ended up calling the DIRECTORS OFFICE. Got a nice lady that said "this happens a lot". I decided to recored the telephone conversation. In Georgia, as long as one party concents to the recording (me) you can record a conversation without the consent of the other party. So now, I have an individual in the directors office admitting it happens a lot. She transferred my call to another no-customer service person, and then to a third. All the time I was told, "oh we dont do that, pharmacy will not take them back". I even talked to the dermatology department head (what an idiot). Then I got the lady that was in charge of accounts receivable. She was very understanding. She did a conference call, confirmed that the doctor was a resident and no longer attached to the VAMC and said that I would receive a revised bill being sent out the next day showing all costs were reversed. WHY cant this be done at a lower level. Are the uppper level people afraid to empower the employees lower on the ladder? Either way, I had about 4 hours to fix a $16.00 problem. I feel better though simply because I stood up for myself. Everyone needs to stand up too. I was prepared to call my congressman if that is what it took.

Most of the time the VA will get away with this sort of thing. Most vets are either not physical or mentally able to do what is neccesary or will not go through all those phone arguments arguments and letter writing a 16 dollars credit. They just go ahead and pay it and avoid the hassle. The VA knows this fact and even though you won yours, over all they win probably 80 percent of these type mistakes by default. Way to go.