I'll let the lovely Mrs YDMV tells us about it:
The story goes like this.
On Wednesday I order our 3 months of supplies
for both kids. On Friday18 vials of insulin arrive. It was delivered 2 day UPS
(did I mention it the 90 drgree plus days?) When opened the ice pack was warm and so was everything else including the insulin.I called and spoke to the CS rep, then the Pharm tech and finally the pharmacist... They were going to overnight me another 18 vials of insulin.
By monday afternoon nothing had arrived so I called. Yes it was sent Sunday it should be there by Tuesday. WTH???? It was supposed to be overnighted.
Tuesday afternoon UPS arrives with the box labeled GROUND - I spoke to UPS in between and was told it had no special delivery time attached or slow boat to China except speed. We are 3 hrs from the Warehouse so it only took 2 days.
Opened today insulin and it is almost cold. Ice pack is melted and just cool, boxes are sort of cool (compared to a 90 drree day.) The insulin bottles against my cheek are coldish (but then so is any peice of glass.)I decided to call Caremark. I finally get to the Pharmacist after the CS rep and Pharmacy tech. He decides that we do indeed need more insulin. That the last batch should have been overnighted and the frozen packs were frozen when they left the warehouse. So, we now have $4000 worth of insulin that will only be good for a month and the promise that another 18 vials will be overnighted.
I hope that the cost saving measure with regards to not shipping over night insulin any more is worth what they have lost on insulin to our house alone. But then overnght shipping doesn't run 4k per order does it?
My theory is they usually just sent one kid's bottles out so, one mid size freezer pack works just fine keeping the stuff refrigeration temp for 2 days. Unfortunately nobody is doing the calculations with how much extra cold they will need to provide to keep 18 vials of insulin cold for 2 (hot) days... So, they keep sending it two day with one frozen pack which warms up with all the bottles of insulin in the package.
So we are shipping back 'a little insulin' (a word that means 'just' the insulin in the photo above) so we don't get stuck paying for it. To keep anyone else for paying for the mistake we are going to take a sharpie to the boxes. That way the stuff doesn't end up in some other kid.
Oh and wouldn't that insurance money have been better, a word that hear means help keep BG in control, spent on a CGM?
I won't make any secret of my feelings on Caremark: compared to rival Medco, Caremark stinks. I chronicled my own problems with them very recently, and all I can say is that logic does not fit anywhere into this company's operating procedures!
ReplyDeleteCan I jump on the hate Caremark compared to Medco bandwagon?
ReplyDeleteAnd holy cow - insulin for two growing kids really adds up!
I can't believe they seem not to care that much about to proper handling of insuline in the knowledge of what your overnight shipments shoudl fulfill.
ReplyDelete