As of Jan my employer switched from Blue Cross Blue Shield prescription coverage to CVS Caremark prescription coverage. From day one, Caremark was the worst, ever. I had to contact the customer service department, who reads from a script, sound like they have a 3rd grade education, and are unfamiliar with any medications. I sat on the phone with customer service for four hours before I could fill a single prescription filled. I also had to spent an hour on the phone with tech support so I could log on to the website. Customer service told me that there was not any literature on how to navigate their prescription coverage system, so I would just have to fly by the seat of my pants.
I was not sent the prescription card until March, two months after it was supposed to be in effect. They never mentioned that if there is a medication that is taken longer than 90 days, it must be ordered through the mail order.
Fast forward 6 months, I had a prescription sent by my physician to Caremark. After two weeks, I began to wonder why it had not arrived, so I checked on the website, which did not show the prescription at all. When I called the customer service, I was told that it needed a "prior-authorization", and that I had to contact my physician to obtain it. I contacted my physician's office and they were able to contact the "prior-authorization" department and sent in the information that they requested. I did not hear anything for two weeks from caremark, again. I contacted customer service and they told me that it was denied by the "prior-authorization" department, but provided absolutely no explanation. I went back to my physician and she prescribed another similar medication, then sent the prescription directly to Caremark. Again, two weeks later, I called customer service to ask the status of my order. They replied that it was also denied by the "prior-authorization" department. I asked if there was anything I could do to obtain the reason for the denial, and the customer service rep gave me a phone number for the "prior-authorization" department. I called the number and it sent me through a confusing menu, including asking unrelated questions like, "Are you a medicare patient in South Carolina? Press one." After several more questions, it re-directed me back to the customer service department. The poor person that I tried to talk to, clearly had been under trained. I began to ask for an explanation from this person, but was completely unsuccessful, told me she was sorry that she could not help me and then hung up.
I went to the website, logged in, then composed an e-mail asking for assistance on resolving this issue. When I hit the "send" button it crashes the site, locks up completely, where even when I completely close my browser and return to the site, it is still locked up. Two hours later, I was able to finally log back in, checked my sent box and the e-mail was not sent, it completely gone. I tried a second time, with the same results.
In summary, customer service was completely unhelpful, the "prior-authorization" department is completely unreachable, but has total control over your health, and the web site is garbage. Yet, I am stuck with Caremark, I have no choice in my coverage, so I will continue to tear our my hair, trying to deal with them.
0 comments