Tricare is so %^&$(*& frustrating
Last night I got two packages in the mail, one addressed to me, one addressed to my wife. My first thought, of course was that they were bombs since I didn’t recognize the return address and wasn’t expecting anything. But I shook them (the first thing you should do with a suspected bomb, right?) and it sounded like pills in bottles. So I opened one.
It was medication that I no longer take and a bill for $12. I opened my wife’s and the same things – two medications she no longer takes and a bill for $12. The packages were from Express Scripts. So I called them and after navigating through the frustratingly complicated telephone menu (so I can push ‘0’ for a rep) I get this dunce on the phone and I ask “who are you people” and it turns out they’re the mail order prescription contract activity for Tricare – civilians.
I explain the problem in my usual booming, terse voice without cussing and she hangs up on me. So I call back and get a supervisor who tells me I still owe money for prescriptions I don’t need and if I want to get it adjusted, I have to have the doctor (Walter Reed Army Medical Center) write them a letter (a note from my parent). So I call Walter Reed this morning and they tell me (after diddling around with some Jamaican-accented boob, whom I imagine has five-inch long finger nails and $400 hairdo) that the prescription service can only be requested by me, myself or I from a lady sitting in the hall. Well, of course, I didn’t.
So I call Express Scripts again and after explaining the problem for twelfth time, they tell me that I still owe them $24. When I said I’d just send them back the pills, they said I’d still owe them $24. They have a “policy” which is kept, I imagine, surrounded by candles on an altar in the center of a garden, in the center of their building.
He actually asked me if Walter Reed was the name of my doctor (hand to God).
So I’ve come to the conclusion that Express Scripts is a criminal enterprise which uses their access to the medical records of military members to blackmail us with the health of our credit records. And it is now my mission to sever Express Scripts from their contract with the military health services.
If nothing else I’m going to cost them much more than $24 using their toll-free number and giving their employees heart burn.
Is it any wonder I hate civilians?
Category: War Stories
Well, civilians still love you.
Send the pills back postage due. One at a time.
Someone at Express-Script is tied to a politician, or two, on the Armed Services/Veterans committees. Either that or they were the lowest bidder and think they will make up the difference by screwing the people on Tri-Care.
Everytime my ex attempted to get his prescriptions sent to him through the mail, it turned into a nightmare. Same thing as you: prescriptions that were years old and he wasn’t even taking anymore, but because they stay in the system as a history, that’s what we’d get sent. You’d think they’d check the dates on the prescription refills, or whatever, but I think they just fill them alphabetically, or something.
We had the luxury of simply running out to the VA (it was about 5 miles from our house) to get the scripts filled, and that’s what we did.
I’m using the Health-E Vet system from the VA.
I also take a page from Miss Manners. Be exceedingly polite. It throws the apparachik of its flow and entices them to assist you in a manner that resolves the issue.
Then go to the range and blow through a box.
Don’t get me started on Express Scripts. Everything from sending the wrong drugs, switching from generic to name brand and expecting me to pay the difference to their no return policy this organization is a joke and a danger to your health. I am lucky to have private insurance so that I no longer have to deal with them.
I am also lucky that most of that stuff was handled by my wife. Folks she can give so called customer service reps hell in about 3 different languages.
Report them to your state’s attorney general. Everyone. Make a history with them. Send copies to Tricare. Flood them.
If you need help with this…you have my emails. Use both. I’ll start working things from my side.
I’m torn between fixing it and being a total dick. It’s definitely worth $24 to be a dick.
Tricare owes me money.. I think they are the reason I am now paying for blood pressure pills.. 😉
The laugh is on the civilians though. They elected a leader who instituted a health care system that will turn out just like ours.. bwah hah ahah haha….
Ok, so the very quick answer is to call your local MTF and ask for the Tricare Health Benefits Advisor. If you want to work through Naval Medical Center San Diego, then the phone number is 619-532-8328. If this doesn’t work, then contact Patient Relations at your local MTF. NMCSD’s is 532-6418. Either one of these tracks should put you on the path to getting a refund/removal of the co-pay. I would also encourage you to complain about the experience to anyone and everyone. Hope it helps.
DaveO is correct about the VA on this. My scripts through the website is easy and actually works. Deb gets her’s through CHAMPVA and my buddy who was a Medic with the Cav, his wife also uses med’s by mail through CHAMPVA and it works perfectly. If you’re eligable…you may want to use the VA for meds. Sounds like a huge mess for you guys. Why am I not surprised.
Honor and Courage
Call your local Attorney General’s office and tell them your situation and that you think this is an attempt at fraud. Then file a claim with the Post Office for mail fraud. Tell them you never ordered these items, they are attempting to collect money vial the mail for something you didn’t order and they refuse to take back. That’s felony fraud in the PO
‘s eyes, and ought to get someone’s attention real fast. 🙂
I once was the recipient of an attempted fraud by mail, and believe you me, when I sicced the Postal Inspectors on those folks, things got fixed in an amazingly short period of time.
Hey, outsourcing is one of the tenets of conservative free market fundamentalism. According to a lot of you guys they are by definition doing a better job than the government simply because, well, they aren’t the government. I don’t know what you’re complaining about – a good look at the future….
Joe- here’s how it works in the free market: company outsources, customer service goes to crap, sales suffer, business changes outsourced customer service or goes out of business.
Here’s how it works for the government: Tri-to-care outsources, customer service goes to crap, customers can’t get service anywhere else, tri-to-care has all the leverage, and nothing changes because they can’t go out of business.
Well Bobo, I guess that gives us something to think about when people want to outsource just about every little thing having to do with the government under the mistaken assumption that it will be more efficient.
Ultra-specialization and an assembly-line mentality is the birthplace of outsourcing (the idea that if you do only one thing, you will do it well, and better than someone who does three things).
Pure laziness and a shit work ethic is what causes the incompetence in some of the outsource companies.
“Pure laziness and a shit work ethic is what causes the incompetence…”
Yep. And in REAL Capitalism, they change or go out of business…unless they have a bought politician or six. Then it can be challenging, but the squeaky axle gets the grease, Jonn.
Make waves – politely. AW1Tim has a good idea.
And, I would add, PintoNag, the individual’s motivation – do they buy into the mission and goals of the organization, or are they just collecting a paycheck. One gov’t organization I’ll mention that does a good job is the US Forest Service. A lot of the employees went to college specifically to work in that field, they are dedicated to preserving our natural resources, wildlife, and heritage, and they go the extra mile on and off the job. You can’t buy that kind of dedication. Compare that with someone fufulling the same role, but at half the wage, and with no special love of what they’re doing, as in some of the privitization schemes for managing natural resources.
Joe, so I can get an apathetic union member at the DMV who costs the taxpayer $25/hr or an apathetic non-union outsourced contractor for $10/hr. Either way I get crappy service, but the contractor costs me less. The problem is being forced to rely on the government for services that I should be able to deal with on my own, and decrease the total number of apathetic government employees.
>business changes outsourced customer service or goes out of business.
And based on complaints and the number of “congressional panels” Tricare should have gone out of business long ago. Heck, can we even sue Tricare like we could a private contracted company?
Got to chime in and agree: Express Scripts sucks. I take a specific, non-generic drug, even though there are generic substitutes which are less effective. Anyway, Express Scripts will not fill out my doc’s prescription unless he fills out a 2 — 3 page form which basically states that he really, really means it when prescribing the drug! Filling out the form takes time away from the doc, embarrasses me to have to ask him, and doesn’t provide for any benefit to anyone. Frustrating.
Man, and I thought I had it rough when dealing with Caremark. At least I only had to yell at them once, and that was two years ago. Seems that they’ve managed to keep their shit in once sock since. Maybe it’s because every time I call, there’s a code that flashes up, “Stark raving asshole–piss off at your own risk.”
And if a prescription provider changes what is prescribed by your PCP, that’s fraud, bigger than shit right there, doesn’t matter if they substitute generic for name or vice-versa. They have to give you the option, or more to the point, it should already be settled before you ever leave the doctor’s office.
Oh, and Joe? Expect a LOT more of this shit under Obumblecare. And you wonder why so many people were against it.
Joe,
The free-market system is all about free will at each stage in a commercial transaction. In a free-market system, the buyer (customer, giver of cash) is free to purchase goods (medicine) and services (customer service) from anyone s/he pleases. FOllowing Muggeridge’s Law Tri-care and the VA are the basis of every horror story, every anti-insurance tale told to sell Obamacare.
Tri-care is free market at the front end: a person gets to choose whether to join or not. Once the buyer chooses, s/he then retains only one further choice: to break the contract and leave. Medical, dental, vision, physical therapy, surgery, pharmacological care, assisted living – all of that is now in the hands of a clerk who has zero skin in the game (folks who have not invested any money in the process, but must spend other peoples’ money, uniformly screw up the money. See also Congress)
We don’t have a free-market system in America today, and haven’t had one in decades. In a free-market system, Tri-care behaves more like a Ideal Insurance Company (don’t laugh y’all, I know it’s a stretch). The buyer goes to doctors and pharmacies that have an agreement with Tri-care. If the doc embezzles, Tri-care and the buyer find a new doc.
Joe, what tends to gripe people is Tri-care started off as a great idea: taking care of servicemembers and their families whenever they lived away from a base. With government’s usual enthusiasm and competence, it became overly bureaucratized, under-funded, and as focused as fog.
For those reasons, and having dealt with Champus, I won’t touch Tri-care. I do well enough through the VA and Aetna.
IIRC, if someone sends you something you didn’t order, you can keep it and refuse to pay.
If you don’t pay them, what can they do? Report you for failing to pay for something ypu didn’t order?
I am still laughing over the fact that they asked you if your doctor’s name was Walter Reed. dip$hit$.
It’s the Tricare-contracted out people that tell you to go to their network pharmacies, who then won’t take the ID card as proof of insurance. I’m currently $400 (no shit) out of pocket for my meds and trying to figure out how to hit them for a reimbursement.
I hate contractors.
AS; that sucks big time. Sorry you have to deal with that. Most of those contractors are worthless and like I said, above, this one probably has connections with a congresscritter or senator on one of the committees.