For the past 2 months, I've been trying to get one of the scripts I'm on OK'd by the insurance company I have. This medication is not covered without special approval. In order to do this I have to get them to send the doctor's office a form which the doctor must fill out and return. The dipso nurse told me the insurance company was stalling. BTW, if she's a nurse, I'm the President. When I first went on blood thinners, she told me not to use tylenol because it made you bleed more.

Anyway, I ended up paying for the last month's dosage. She assured me that it would go through in the mean time so I don't have any refills on the prescription. This is a heart medication and it the one thing that's keeping my heart rate under control. So now we're down to the last couple of pills and I haven't heard anything from her in weeks.

I called on Monday and still have not received a call back. A little while ago I called the insurance company and, in less than 5 minutes, had the medication approved.

I am beyond mad and will be switching doctors ASAP. This jerk of a nurse wannabe needs to work in a profession where she can't hurt people.

Thanks for letting me vent!

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Do you like your doctor??? If so, and you don't want to switch, you may want to discuss this with him. If the "nurse" is the problem, perhaps you can just deal with the doctor??

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Speak to the insurance company and they will reimburse you for last months pills.

Wow reminds me of a nurse at the place my mom goes to now in Lake Wales, needless to say she and I have butted heads twice since I have been here and I no longer speak to her I speak directly to office manager now.

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~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

The doctor is OK but it won't bother me to leave the office. He's from India, I think, and I have a lot of trouble understanding him. I only see him about every 5 months so it's not like there's a long history with this guy.

Thanks for the heads up. I will WHEN they approve it. I was informed by the dipso that no insurance companies have ever approved this drug. It's diovan and, while expensive ($114 for 30), not over the top as far as cost of some of the drugs out there.

Things actually got worse. Read on.

Holy cow, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. I finally got a call back after having a hissy fit in the message I left the dipso this morning. She said she was going to call me back today even before she got the message. Umm, yeah right. Just like a month ago when I hadn't heard anything and that very day she said she had faxed the info to the insurance company for the 3rd time. Whatever.

So she says they were able to get some more samples of the medication I was on and I could pick it up anytime. Usually I don't go out in the afternoon. By then my back is usually unhappy but I really didn't want to do this tomorrow. So off I went.

I get to the office and the secretary gives me the pills. I look at them and notice the label is a bit different but take them and leave. Get home, get the glasses on and, sure enough, it's the wrong medication. It's what I take but with a diuretic added. I'm livid!

So I called the dipso back. She says well that's what the insurance form had on it. I have not now nor ever taken this medication with a diuretic added. When I talked to the insurance company this morning I told them exactly what I was on and there was never any mention of taking the medication with the diuretic in it. Bottom line is she was just flat out lying to me.
It was her responsibility to look at the DOCTOR's order, not what the insurance company sent her.

Back in the car we go to return to the doctor's office, another 45 minute round triper, and finally got the right medication.

I will be so glad when I don't have to deal with this chick ever again!

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If the nurse/office people are rude or not doing things right (it sure sounds like they aren't doing right by you) and you don't particularly like or need the dr, I would find another dr if possible. I have switched dr offices before, after having problems with the staff or the way the place was run.

One place, I sat near the desk one day and had to wait a long time for my appt, that was ok, things happen but I was there long enough to repeatedly overhear the staff gossiping about patients and their pills and conditions and calling them names. OK that was it, I found another dr and quit going there.

Another time at a highly recommended gyn, the office person just about had a fit at my first visit, I had filled out the new patient papers, I gave her my driver's license, insurance card and cash for copay..she asked for my Social Security card and I said I don't carry one with me I can give you the # but don't have an actual card here..she put her hands on her hips and said What, no SS card...won't be allowed to see the dr until I showed them my SS card...WTH.
I now laugh about that experience but it was not funny at the time, I was mad! I was there for a basic routine exam like a pap or something. I have been to many dr offices and no one has ever demanded to see my SS card before lol.

There's bad customer service people everywhere. In medical offices I won't have it, I will stop going there and will become a customer/patient elsewhere!

Actually they are considering a black box warning about Tylenol and blood thinners. You should not take too much because it can cause bleeding.
So the nurse did know what she was talking about.
In the medical field you really should consider yourself a consumer. You are paying for the care. If you really feel that strongly about it, I would change MD's. Or ask if there is someone else you could deal with.

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Be careful what you wish for.....

I'm so sorry for your frustration. If "dipso" isn't careful, her laziness and lack of attention to detail are going to kill someone

It is frustrating when you as the consumer/patient are more knowledgable than the medical staff. I once had a heated discussion with a nurse where I used to work who insisted that Tylenol and Advil are the same drug I just gave up but after that, I was always sceptical about using the medical dept. at work for anything more than a resting place when I had morning sickness.

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Cecilia

"We must love them both--those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it."
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Op I am sorry to hear you having these problem, they can be so frustrating to say the least. There are so many wonderful truly caring people in the medical profession, while others should have taken a different career path. Sincerely hope things work out for you. Peace. Catherine

Here's what happened when "our dipso"called. She got voiice mail and was interupeted in the office so she didn't realize that she had set the phone down. She then made comments on patients and their ailment and how she couldn't stand her job and all these sick people. She laughed at them their ailments and the way they even dressed.
My daughter called the dr back and played the tape for him several times because he was astonished at what he was hearing and I think more astonished that it was caught on tape.
That was her last day of employment and he said she would not get a recommendation for any other job.

She may have been hired by Virgo's doctor..

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.