Drug Woes

So, once again, I spent ten minutes on the phone with Nurse E, speculating as to when I should schedule by monitoring ultrasound, based on when I might start the cycle, then got off the phone, went to the bathroom and . . . oh . . . ok. Now.

I will have the ultrasound on Thursday morning, and start Clomid that evening. Just like last cycle, I'll do five days of Clomid (days 3 - 7), followed by FSH injections on days 7 and 9. The next ultrasound will be day 11, Friday October 12.

I'm hoping I'll be ready to trigger that evening, for IUIs on Saturday and Sunday. It would be nice to not miss any work, and Shrike is off all weekend.

The phone call to Nurse E wasn't all about scheduling, though, it was mostly about insurance.

You know it's bad when your nurse coordinator, who deals with insurance and pre-authorization and pharmacies and the such on a regular basis, sends you an email that says, "Your insurance company is the DEVIL!"

She's trying to get my pre-authorization for the FSH, and get the prescription to the "specialty pharmacy" that has to dispense it, in order for it to be covered.

I believe I've already discussed the run-around that they've been giving me about this, and how, when the pharmacy that's connected to the doctor's office submitted the claim for the Bravelle (FSH), the insurance company just told them that it wasn't covered, so they charged me $300, when what they should have told them was, "Go get preauthorization, then get it filled at our very special pharmacy, and we'll only charge her $50."

We're trying to make that happen this time around. And, Dr E has written this prescription for an extra box, because the regular pharmacy has agreed to buy a box back from me, for the $300 that I never should have paid them.

So, poor Nurse E talked to the insurance people, and the pharmacy and the insurance and I don't know who else. At one point one of them asked her, "So, your office is going to be providing this medication?"

"Um, no, that's why I'm getting pre-authorization to order it from the pharmacy!"

She's going to check tomorrow and see if they've gotten it straightened out yet. Luckily, I don't actually need that until next Monday.

In the meantime, on Sunday, she called in the prescription for Clomid to my local pharmacy.

I called them yesterday to check, and they'd never heard of such a thing. So, I emailed Nurse E and asked her to call them again, which she did.

I called back today, and asked if the prescription had been called in. "No, we haven't gotten it."

I said, "Well, my doctor's office says they left you a message on Sunday, and they called again today."

"Oh, well let me check on that." (. . . bad Muzak . . . ) "Oh, yeah, we have it. It just hasn't been filled."

So, why didn't you go "check on that" in the first place, instead of just telling me that you didn't have it?

And I'm one of the lucky ones, because I have health insurance.