January...

It's the New Year and there are lots of things I love about New Year, but you know what I don't love?  New pharmacy benefits!  I know, I know, I should be grateful that I have health insurance!  But when you take meds that have to be ordered and shipped from a specialty pharmacy and which require pre-authorization, trying to get that all switched over in a matter of a week or two can be quite the stressful experience.

I had gotten a letter telling me everything would be automatically switched from the old specialty pharmacy to the new one back in December... a smooth transition, they said.  I started the ordering process on January 7th... a good week before I ran out of my shots.  I did everything they told me to do in the letter they sent me!  Got online and created an account, gave them the medicine info and my doctors contact information if there were any issues.  I got the confirmation email from the pharmacy thanking me for sending them the information and letting me know "The next step is ours" and "we will contact you at xxx-xxx-xxxx if we need anything else..."

Two days later I still hadn't heard a thing, so I decided not to risk it and followed up with a phone call.  They promptly told me they didn't have anything on file for me and I didn't have an account with them yet. 😐  We started all over... I spent 15 minutes on the phone with them giving them all the exact same information again.

Two days later I still hadn't heard a thing.  Then started the insane calling chain.  We have the prescription, we don't have a prescription, we have the pre-authorization, we don't have the pre-authorization.  Back and forth on the phone EVERY DAY.  Calling the insurance, calling the new pharmacy, calling the Dr's office, calling the old specialty pharmacy... Finally come January 18th, they had everything they needed and they processed my order to be overnighted!  I had only missed one or two shots by this time so we were good.  However, later that night I got an automated message at 7:30pm that told me the shipment had been stopped.  I called back again and was told they didn't have the pre-auth again at which point I pretty much lost it as I told my hubby, "screw this, this is more stressful than having the actual disease!"

I finally caved and called MS-lifelines, the helpline run by the drug company who manufacturers my shots and who have the best people working for them who helped me last time I had issues.  I felt stupid for not calling them earlier, but every other day they had told me we were good, so I kept thinking we were fine.  Gene, the amazing woman who usually helps me wasn't there, but another sweet lady, Tanisha, took all my info, calmed me down, told me everything would be ok and that Gene would be on it when she got back in the office.  She also told me not to stress because I would not have to start over with the titration packs until being off the meds for 3 weeks. 

Thanks to Gene everything got sorted and I finally got my meds shipped out on the 24th to be delivered the 25th.  Hallelujah!  As a note, that same day I got a letter dated January 18th from the Specialty Pharmacy stating they had my pre-authorization and it was good through 2021. 😒

The next day I went to pick the meds up from the pharmacy they had been shipped to and guess what, they weren't there. 😅 Seriously people, it's like they are TRYING to kill my sanity.  I checked the tracking and UPS had been delayed somewhere and the delivery was rescheduled for Monday.  Hey UPS, these are refrigerated meds.  They can't be delayed that long or they are compromised!  Back on the phone with the specialty pharmacy who thank heavens called UPS and had them deliver them Saturday.  (Hey, what was one more day at this point.)  When we finally had them in our hands on Saturday, Mike and I just looked at each other with a mix of relief and unbelief... It felt like we should have a major celebration but we were both too mentally exhausted. 😂

And that my friends, is why I hate January. 😘