Clash of the Titans

In case you have been hiding in a bomb shelter for the last few months you missed the announcement that Walgreen's was not going to renew its contract with Express Scripts for prescription processing at the end of 2011. They have already dropped E.S. employee rx processing and are ready to give the rest of them the old "heave ho".

Why would a pharmacy business give up a ton of customers, including all military rx insured? Due to craptacularly low reimbursement rates from the processor (ie E.S.). Why lose a sh*tload of money if you don't have to. This is not the first time Walgreen's has gone toe to toe with an rx insurance provider. There have been many instances in the past with different state medicaid programs and other rx processors in which Walgreen's just said "No". Quite frankly I don't blame them one bit.

I say f*ck you Wal-Mart (and Sam's Club) with your $4 rx (and no charge to mail it to your house), and a smaller f*ck you to Target for jumping on the $4 band wagon (No hard feelings Target I still love you, it's just a matter of principle.) Oh yeah, I didn't forget you Costco, f*ck you too with $6 prescriptions and a "you don't have to be a member to use the pharmacy" policy, and a special lick my twat to all the grocery store pharmacies with the list of free antibiotics, and to any other rx chain that has such equally bastardizing low ball tactics to get business.

This pricing bullsh*t is what makes insurance providers believe they are entitled to craptacularly low reimbursement rates because if we can fill over 300 drugs for $4 then we must not really need AWP (average wholesale price) + a finger in your ass for reimbursement, which is the industry standard right now. This means we will get less than AWP and not even the uncomfortable "how you durin" of a finger in the ass for employee hours, supplies, drugs, utilities, patient counseling, vaccinations, etc. You know who gets the really short end of the stick? Independent pharmacies that are subjected to the same craptacular reimbursement rates with a much higher drug acquisition cost. Even being in a buying co-op isn't gonna save most of them.

As a "f*ck you" return serve to Walgreen's, Express Scripts is trying to buy Medco, which is another huge rx benefit provider. E.S. states that they will "save money by being a bigger company" but we all know they just want to bend Walgreen's over to get them to take the craptacularly low reimbursement rates and the rest of the retail pharmacies will have to bend over and take it too. This is a bitter pill to swallow indeed. The only hope is that the Federal Trade Commission prevents the buy because E.S. will then control about 40% of the prescription market and will have way too much control over the industry.

If the FTC does as wonderful a job as the Congressional budget fix then the pseudo-comfortable "we can make a few bucks and keep the lights on" days of retail pharmacy will be at an end. The new dawn will bring obliteration of what was once a landscape of semi-prosperous independent pharmacies to a place where only chain retail pharmacies remain. Just one more American dream shat upon by the greed of others. Go Team!

...And Then I Don't Feel So Bad...

Sing along to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music but for the love of Pete don't drink searing hot beverages whilst reading or singing along...

Opened abscesses stuffed full of packing

Burns bad enough for most skin to be lacking

Infected piercings that might have gangrene

Just a small taste of the gross things I've seen

Under-size tube tops on large whiskered women

Multiple ring worms on neglected children

Pants low and saggy on wanna-be thugs

Scarred by the things I see while counting drugs

Wads of gross money from dark sweaty places

Amphetamine junkies with scabs on their faces

The smelling and itching of frumunda cheese

These are all things that the summertime brings

When the narcs are, refill too soon

And the patient is mad

I simply remember

I'm off all next week

And then I don't feel so bad!

(repeat all one more time, with gusto!)

**DISCLAIMER**

Just wanted to post a friendly reminder that this blog in NO way reflects the views, opinions, operating paradigms, etc of our corporate paymasters, any board of pharmacy, or any pharmacy related organization. This blog is a group of people exercising their right to FREE SPEECH. We do not strap you into a chair, prop your eyes open, and force you to read our opinionated/asinine/ridiculous blog posts.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT DON'T READ IT!

Have a wonderful day!

Crashin Your Party

I reached in my mailbox and came back with a letter from the Florida Board of Pharmacy. It was not license renewal time so I tore it open with wonderment and curiosity and was rewarded with fantastically amazing news: New legislature passed for pain clinics.

HB7095 and HB1319 were signed by Governor Scott and went into effect July 1st. The news says Gov Scott's approval ratings suck but I give him a happy two thumbs up! These house bills changed the guidelines for pain management clinics, prescribers, pharmacists, and pharmacies. Both bills, oops laws can be read in their entirety at www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/Legislation/legis.htm along with updates and other pertinent info.

My favorite part:

***Prescribers no longer allowed to dispense CIIs out of their office. This means news crews won't be able to film people injecting oxycontin with insulin syringes in their cars outside the clinics...what will they do for news...

Keep up the good work Florida and hopefully other states will follow your lead!

It's About Damn Time!!!

Thank you Mylan for taking the initiative and creating something palatable. A million Type 2 Diabetics sigh in relief that they no longer have to stuff some foul ass fishy tablet down their throat to control blood sugar and staffers like the change in smell also :)

I Hate F*#%ing Coupons

I always try to be helpful and tell people with high copays to "Google" the drug and usually there is a coupon/loyalty card/copay discount card/etc to be found on the company sponsored web page advertising whatever crap you just can't live without. So the lady I talked to on the phone dutifully printed out a coupon and sent it with her husband. Of course she printed the coupon for up to 75% off for cash paying customers instead of the one for a copay discount.

Upon hearing the bad news husband proceeds with a tantrum so the tech comes to me and I see that this is for the child of the lady I spoke to on the phone. I explain to man baby what the dealio is and write a note on the coupon to explain what they need to print out. Man baby throws his credit card in the drawer and gets mouthy about how "this crap happens every time I come here." Um yeah, had I not put foot in mouth about the coupons your whiney f&#%ing ass wouldn't have had any way of knowing beyond the insta-print copay what shit could cost.

To the issuers of said f#*%ing discount items: For the love of all things sane put the motherf#$&ing drug name or abbreviation of drug name in the group so when a patient has 5 or 6 of these turds in their profile we can find the right one faster than waiting for the patient to dig through a ton of useless crap they tote around to find the f#$&ing card!!!!

And I'm done...

If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It

I understand that a new allergy pill has gone over the counter. I also understand that your tiny little brain has been subliminally programmed by years of advertising campaigns that "new is better". I do not understand why you came in to debate the advantage of switching to the heavily advertised next big thing when you have complete symptom control and no adverse reactions to your current allergy pill. Use what works because if you do switch and have some weird reaction I am just gonna bust out the old "I TOLD YOU SO!" and you are not gonna like that dose of smug. This is me "Thank you for shopping at McDruggie's!" and this is you leaving "Buh-Bye!"