Taking care of medical business

One of the problems that I've had over the years is keeping my prescriptions straight.  No, I'm not talking about which drug to take and when to take it.  Instead, it's getting the orders in sync enough, so that I can expect all of my prescriptions at the same time when I am ready to reorder them.  This is not usually something that can easily be done, as none of the processes in place are geared to sync up prescriptions A, B, C, and D that are prescribed at different times, so that they can be delivered in one periodic shipment.

As much as I have to live with the headaches of a system not designed for patient convenience, I am most annoyed by a system that relies on inefficient mechanisms to confirm that a doctor wants to renew his/her patients' prescriptions.  When a recent drug (noted above) needed physician approval for refill (my 3 x 30 day orders were up), the system depended on me to contact the physician instead of providing him/her with a list of patients/drugs up for refill, and an easy way of checking off everything needed for the approvals. (This is how I see it.  It may be much easier from my doctor's point of view.)  So I had to chase down my doctor, and have his office send in the renewal.  To make things worse, is that there is no way for me to switch a prescription to go to the mail order pharmacy - I must go through the doctor.  (Even this is reasonable, but inconvenient for people like me.)  But what happens when a prescription is lost in limbo, like the one above?

Last Friday, I noticed a problem with the above prescription.  Unfortunately, my doctor was off for the weekend.  So I had to make a phone call on Monday morning.  The problem wasn't fixed on Monday (a slip up by the doctor's office), and I had to supply even more information to the office, so that they could get things straight.  Luckily, after my call back, things finally got fixed.  With only 7 pills left in the old prescription, I'm glad things are moving forward again.

There has to be a much better way.  Is this a problem in other countries?  The American medical system is extremely inefficient, and I wish I had access to something better.  We aren't getting our money's worth.  Doctors, Nurses, and other medical staff are not getting their fair share of monies being spent on health care.  The only people making out in our system are the big players: the major hospital chains and big pharma.  Hopefully, market pressures will eventually force our system to provide better value for monies being spent on it.  But I don't see that happening in my lifetime.
 

I almost forgot to post something today.

 

Last night, I didn't much sleep.  So I was doing whatever I could to stay awake at work throughout the day, and was very glad I could leave the job at the end of the work day.  

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But first....

During the day, I found out that my doctor's office had taken care of some paperwork I needed, and that I should now be able to pick up prescriptions at my local drug store. (I later found out that the drug store had left a message telling me that my prescriptions were ready to be picked up.)  There is only one problem.  During the week, I live in Marian mode, and hate changing into Mario mode for just a couple of hours.  So I will try to find out whether I can pick up everything on Saturday, after I have changed back into Mario for the weekend (and after I have stripped off my nail polish.)

At times during the day, I check my email.  Vicki sent me an email to let me know that she received a call from me, and that there was no message.  No, this is not as weird as it could be.  On the way home, I tried calling a couple of known numbers, and my phone did not handle communication from either station.  So, I rebooted my phone, and all was OK after I did this.  Vicki and I exchanged a few texts, and we decided to meet and eat at a local diner after work.

On the way to see Vicki, I killed some time at the new Trader Joe's, and then made it to the local diner to meet.  She was surprised that I was there early, and we proceeded to chat about many things.  I mentioned communications I had with my ex-girlfriend and she wanted to get control of that narrative, but I kept control - and got out the points I needed to make.  (No, I won't go into these points here.  But they have been covered before, in details which she could accept in this forum.)

All too soon, we had to go home, and I was in for the evening....

Thank Bruce it's Friday!

 

As you can guess, I enjoyed "Bruce Almighty", though it hasn't been on cable in years.   It's a pleasant, mindless piece of fluff - something perfect for a night spent at home, where if you miss anything in the film, you can either go back a scene or two, or just keep playing the film.

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Today, I was awakened by a person looking for some paperwork from me - which I sent in (in parts) throughout the day.  If all goes right, there will be a job waiting for me in two weeks.  And it'll be something that stops the drain from my savings account, something that the census provided last year. However, this good news is balanced by some bad news - I still don't have income tax info (W2 forms) for the Census and for my Pension. I'm hoping that I don't have to start making a lot of phone calls to get this mess resolved.

Sometime towards mid afternoon, I ventured downstairs and found a box addressed to me.  In that box were the prescriptions I asked my doctor to send to the mail order pharmacy.  Yay!  Now I know that my problems with the health insurance company are over.  Hopefully, I'll be able to go to the doctor on Monday, given the storm they expect to come in that morning.

Eventually, I decided to go shopping for food.  Considering how cold it was, I figured that the car needed a good half hour run - and Stew Leonard's was perfect.  So, off I went to Stew's, and I returned with a full bag of goodies.  Knowing that I still needed stuff I couldn't get at Stew's, I stopped at the Stop & Shop for canned Chicken breast meat, so that I can make something filling if I can't get out Monday afternoon.

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Tomorrow, I'll be seeing FH again.  It'll be another shopping day (for her) and she wants to see what the Brooklyn Wegmans is like.  I told her it's a big supermarket, but until she sees it, she won't appreciate it.  Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll be able to get some premade dinners that only need to be nuked.  Otherwise, it's my turn to take care of takeout....