Thursday, February 16, 2017

Wheeling and Dealing Down at the Goofmart

Physicians have a New Job! They are PRICE NEGOTIATORS:


Ring... ring...

"Hello, thank you for calling Goofmart Pharmacy. This is Crazy RxMan, how may I help you?"

"This is Dr. Shatner. What's your price on generic Cortef 20mg, quantity 60?"

I fiddle on the computer. It doesn't have Siri.

"$38.00 on our club card."

"That seems high. I'll call you back." <click>

Ring... ring... 

"Hello, thank you for calling Goofmart Pharmacy. This is Crazy RxMan, how may I help you?"

Yes, this is Dr. Shatner again. Wagmart has the same thing for $28.80. CostLow has the Cortef for $26.50. What can you do now?"

"We don't match prices if it is below our cost. We hardly dispense that medication so we're not eligible for rebates so I can't match the price."

"But my patient wants to come to Goofmart. Come on now, what's your best price?"

"$38.00 on our club card."

"I'll call you back." <click>

Ring... ring... 

"Hello, thank you for calling Goofmart Pharmacy. This is Crazy RxMan, how may I help you?"

"This is Dr. Shatner. I want to call in that script for Cortef..."

The doctor calls in the script. After we finish the call, I don't hand the script to the technician. I already know what is about to happen.

<Ten minutes pass>

Ring... ring... 

"Hello, thank you for calling Goofmart Pharmacy. This is Crazy RxMan, how may I help you?"

"This is Dr. Shatner again. About that Cortef script... I was able to negotiate a better price with another pharmacy, so I'm going to cancel the script I just gave you on the phone, unless you can offer me a lower price..."

"$38.00 on our club card."

<click>

I shred the script.

Price negotiation is not a physician's duty, nor should there be any price haggling among professionals. This is not the job of a pharmacist or physician. What this physician did was DEprofessionalize both our professions. If I wasn't so busy bagging up people's grocery purchases at the register, I would have told him all about professionalism.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Drives me crazy how so much of a health professional's reputation depends on absolute garbage like online reviews. As if you could somehow equate going to your local McD's to your doctor's office or favorite pharmacy or even a Level 1 Trauma Center.

Seriously.

How many times do we, as healthcare professionals (I'm looking at you doctors, nurses, etc), do what we think the patient 'WANTS' instead of what they 'NEED'? Granted, I as a pharmacist, am guilty of doing just that every, single day but I am under threat of losing my job if I don't kiss the 'customer's' big, fat, entitled behind. I grind my teeth everytime I have to put on a smile and tell a 'customer,' not a patient, that 'sure, I can take care of that for you!' and hand over a gift card even though they may be raging lunatics.

Because, do you know what will happen? The second you do what you think is right, they'll have a complete meltdown because, as the unique and wonderful snowflake that they are, they deserve everything they want in life. Just because. And because, you (insert any healthcare profession here), the big ol' meanie, said that the patient is mistaken, gets a nice little complaint and a bad review online.

Normally, that wouldn't matter, right? Who gives a crap what Weirdo McNutbag thinks about you personally? Well, guess what, your bosses OBSESS about complete garbage like that. And if it makes them look bad? You're screwed.

Welcome to fast food healthcare folks.

Brought to you by:

MBA, masters-of-the-universe corporate overlords and their out-of-touch middle managers

And by:

Entitled 'murican customers like you

Thank you.

Ms. Donna said...

I am just glad the physician is trying to look out for the pt. Now what she/he could have done is, assuming the pt. had insurance, check what was in the insurance's formulary to get best price.

If the pt didn't have insurance, then rxing a generic might have been the answer.

If the brand-name was the best med, then shopping price was the answer. Again, bless the MD for trying to help. While the realm of copay, formularies, pricing, etc. may be second nature to retail pharmacists, it is a maze to pts. They are hurt, scared, sick and probably confused. Add that they do not have 20+ years of education and they are lost.

Anonymous said...

The day I found out Wrong Aid stopped price matching?

I think I did a little happy dance as I was reading the email. Techs did the happy dance when they found out too.

And the first time we got to say no?

Amazing.