When Mail Order Medicine Is Harmful

Is anybody else tired of being forced into using mail order to obtain their prescriptions or going to a pharmacy that their insurance company tells them to? I recently found out that I may be forced into doing this if my husband’s company doesn’t allow its employees to “opt out” and continue to use the pharmacy of their choice in 2022.

I’ve been using the same dispensary for many years and have been allowed to patronize it up until the end of 2021. My pharmacist is well-versed with my entire medical history and my husband’s. She also knows our drug allergies/interactions.

Being forced to use mail order medicine is harmful. For example, there are certain medications that can’t withstand extreme temperatures, which can lessen their potency. Pills may be crushed during shipping, vials can break if not packaged carefully, another’s medication can be mistakenly sent to the wrong address, or it can be stolen from the mailbox. Also, some cancer patients are forced to wait for a month or so for their lifesaving treatment due to the mail order pharmacy choosing the cheapest and slowest method to ship. Can you say recipe for disaster?

I had issues with mail order years ago. To make a long story short, customer service lied to me about never receiving the script for my Crohn’s medication. I called a second time. I was told that they shipped it out. When I called the third time, as I never received my order, they didn’t do anything for me. I went back to my old pharmacy and within 24 hours, I obtained my much needed treatment to keep my inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remission.

In order to decrease costs and gain more profit, some of the pharmacies have cut back on the number of pharmacists working for the company. They are forced to work faster filling more orders, which is unsustainable and can jeopardize the safety of patients. They are also forced to work 12-hour shifts, which is extremely busy. They don’t have time to eat lunch or use the facilities. They leave work wondering if any mistakes have been made.

We need to address the CEOs of prescription insurance companies and ask them this very important question: “If you have a loved one who’s very ill, would you force their hand into using mail order like the rest of us?”