Pip, the emotion

I'm tired this evening, thanks to a psychological game being played in my head by the insurance company, pharmacy, and my doctor. Oh, you can add one of the prescription medication manufacturing companies to that as well.

As my grandmother would say, "It gives me the PIP!" The pip is an angry, disgusted, irritated, and moderately amorphous emotion. It is different from BEING a pip, which is quite a different thing all together. (I'll save that for another blog post.)

A month ago, the doctor wrote a prescription for Abilify to boost the Zoloft in order to get my anxiety and depression under control. When I went to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription, they told me the cost would be $200. I left the prescription there, saying I'd think about it. Two days of anxiety attacks prompted me to return to the pharmacy. When they ran it through the system, it came back as no charge. Zero dollars. I said let me have it and get out of the store before the computer changed its mind.

Time to renew arrived. They said $200 for generic or $1000 for name brand. I contacted the manufacturer and got a coupon. However, in order to fill the prescription this time (name brand rather than generic), the insurance company required a "Prior Authorization." Isn't it interesting that an existing prescription isn't, in and of itself, a prior authorization? It is written prior to being filled in order to authorize that medication. Darn, there I go being logical.

I called the pharmacy, and they sent the request for a PA to the doctor. Twice. I called the insurance company, and they said it had to be THEIR form. They faxed it THREE times. I called the doctor's office, and the nurse who takes medication related calls said that the doc said we had to "talk about it" before she'd authorize it.

I called the pharmacy back and said I'd pay whatever the charge was for the generic. They ran it through the system. I said I'll be there in thirty minutes. Got it and boogied out of the store.

Pip.