Druggie

I stopped by Bauder's today to pick up my "supply".  I picked up my Lupron, Vivelle patches, progesterone, a couple different antibiotic pills, and a muscle relaxer for THE day.  I managed to shell out a little over $350.00 for my "supply".  I seriously felt like an addict when I left as I had two bags full of medications, alcohol pads, and two big bundles of two different sizes of syringes!  Today was by far the most I've carried out of that place!!!  I did struggle a little bit to hold onto everything and open the door to leave as of course I had a malt in one hand... I had to buy a malt on my way out!

Last week I received an awesome letter from Wellmark Blue Cross stating that Bauder Pharmacy would no longer be a preferred vendor for home infusion therapy.  The letter stated that I had received medications from this vendor in the past 6 months.  The really awesome letter unfortunately did not state what medications I may have received that would fall under their category of home infusion therapy.  They did however conveniently offer two other pharmacies to utilize instead:  HyVee and CVS.  Well thanks Wellmark, but neither one of those two pharmacies provide any fertility drug services.  Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to give Wellmark a call to get a better understanding of the letter.  I looked online at their information booklet that described what their definition of home infusion therapy was and I was still confused.  Their broad information booklet really didn't help me decipher if the medications I need would be covered at all or even if the medications I need would fall under home infusion therapy.

Anyways, as I said I called Wellmark to get a better understanding, but their customer service representative didn't have a clue what home infusion therapy was nor did she know if any of the medications on my claims would fall under that category.  So...not....helpful....that the letter didn't explain what specific medications they wouldn't be covering starting 1/1/2013.  The lady on the phone didn't have a clue, but mentioned that just because Bauder's wouldn't be a preferred vendor I could use another pharmacy to get the medications.  I mentioned to the customer service representative that there was no other pharmacy that currently sells fertility drugs in the greater state of Iowa... Thanks.

As I was not satisfied with my answer from the customer service representative, I decided to ask the pharmacists at Bauder's as I can't be the only patient at Mid-Iowa Fertility to have Wellmark as an insurance provider.  General consensus from talking to the pharmacists and my experience with the customer service representative, Wellmark doesn't have a flippen clue what they're doing.  They're being wishy washy about the services - home infusion therapy and which medications fall under that requirement.  All of this wishy washyness is tied into this past spring when Bauder's was under investigation by the State for prescription pain killers. Long story short this girl is not pleased... and I will be checking into this situation a little bit more on my end with Wellmark (again) and I want to get in contact with the financial gal at the clinic.

I'll start my first shot of Lupron on Saturday evening!  This will bring back memories of our last try and the first shot I had to psych up for was during the Olympics when the women's gymnastics team won gold!

Till next time!
ALJ