Complaint Review: Medco Mail-Order Pharmacy

My health insurance company "encourages" us to use Medco to fill prescriptions for maintenance drugs. It is supposedly slightly less expensive, so I decided to give them a try.

I had my doctor fax a prescription for all of the medications that I use ( a total of 5), even though I only needed refills on 2 of them. They called to get credit card info since mine had expired and told me at that time that they did not keep prescriptions on file, so I had to either fill all of them right now, or I would have to have my physician fax new prescriptions when I was ready. They certainly keep prescription information on fiel for refills. What's the difference. That is ridiculous!

Things got even worse when I told them to fill 2 of them, and they filled all 5 anyway. After several phone calls and emails, I was promised a refund more than once, but of course they never came through. Just yesterday I got a letter in the mail stating that if I would return the medications they would issue a refund.

Here's the biggest part of the problem...I NEVER recieved the medication. It was over 3 weeks ago that they supposedly mailed it. They have not provided tracking information. I cannot get a refill at my local pharmacy because Medco reports that they were recently filled via mail order.

Interesting note: when I explained the situation to the pharmacist and asked him if he had any suggestions he said he could fill it without filing it on insurance. He checked prices for 30, 60, and 90 days and was able to fill it for 90 days for 19.00 and change. For this particular medication, a generic hormone, there was actually no benefit to filling it through Medco, or in fact to using insurance at all. If I had filled it locally using insurance, I woudl have had to pay more! $10 for a 30 day supply whcih woudl translate to $30 for a 90 ady supply. I consider it to be a major ripoff when it costs more to fill a prescription using insurance than it does to pay for it yourself without their so called "assistance"!

I am basically screwed on all the other medications because I donlt have local refills for them. I don't have the money (over $200) or the medication. Legally, I should think that if they can't provide proof of delivery they should have to either resend it or issue a refund.

Their "solution" was to provide an "early refill" for me, but I woudl of course have to pay another co-pay. I don't think so! How stupid do they think I am? I am so angry.

Please think twice before using them. If they have done this to me I am sure that they have done this to others and it can be life-threatening in some cases not to have your medicine. Please be careful. If others will report their similar experiences, perhaps we can get a class action suit going against them. They need to be stopped!

Alison
Montevallo, Alabama
U.S.A.