Express Scripts Issues / Rant

[Deanne]

Is anyone else having problems with Express Scripts? For the last couple of months, when I try to order refills online I get to the "Submit Order" screen and then receive an error message and I have to sit on hold for customer service. Their customer service people are then almost worthless. Two problems ago, they told me they would second-day a prescription to me. They lied. When it didn't arrive and I called back, the rep then said "second day" meant they would ship it second day after they finished processing it. It took them three days to process. If they'd been honest with me, I could have called my neph that day for a short-term prescription to pick up locally.

When I called about the last problem, they told me the prescription I was calling about wasn't theirs to fill. They routed me to Acredo (the specialty pharmacy), even I pointed out that Express Scripts had refilled that medication only one month earlier. The Acredo rep confirmed that prescription was not theirs and routed me back to Express Scripts where a third person was finally able to process the order (maybe - I haven't seen it show up at my door yet).

I also tried using their iPhone ap and found it worthless. It tells me I can refill out-of-date prescriptions from a year ago, but it doesn't give me the option to renew any of my current prescriptions. When I called to refill three prescriptions a few minutes ago and told the rep about the repeated problems, she told me to send an email message through the website. She wanted nothing to do with it.

Express Scripts worked great up until a couple of months ago. It makes me wonder if they changed something internally. What are we supposed to do when the mail order pharmacy stops being useful, but this is the only affordable offer we have from insurance?

[jeannea]

I experienced similar problems years ago. I forget which mail order company. It sucks big time. Keep calling Express Scripts. Ask for supervisors, etc. The other step is to call your insurance company. Frame it as asking for advice. Keep calling the insurance company also until you get some help. The rep at the ins co will also say she has no idea. Ask who you can talk to that can help. Eventually you should find someone. I did.

How do you have your insurance? Do you buy it or is it through your husband's work? If his work, also call the benefits person there and ask for help. I had eventually gotten the direct number to the representative at the insurance company assigned to my company's account. It helped a lot.

I'm sorry that you have to do all the work.

[Deanne]

Thanks for the advice! I sent email to Express Scripts through their website yesterday and again today, and I plan to call them again this morning to ask for confirmation that my order went through, and talk to a supervisor if the customer service rep can't give me a definite answer - the last person only said "It looks like it went through." Not good enough now since that was last week and it *didn't* go through. If that doesn't work, I'm planning to call my insurance company. I'll need an exception to using Express Scripts to get this from a local pharmacy. I have less than a week's supply left and I don't have time now to deal with Express Scripts. It's my own insurance, through work. I hadn't thought about talking to the benefits coordinator. I'll add them to my list of people to contact.

[jeannea]

My apologies for assuming you don't work. My own bias since I don't.

[Deanne]

No worries jeannea. I know a lot of people here don't work. I'm fortunate that I can. I understand that kind of bias. I do it all the time myself.

My prescriptions *might* be on the way. I talked to yet another customer service rep this morning. She again placed the order and she talked to the pharmacist while I waited on hold. When she came back online she promised it would ship today and be here by next Wednesday. I immediately received an email message that it was in process and I saw the order show up when I logged into Express Scripts online, but...... everything said it would ship next Wednesday, not today. Not the first time they mislead me on dates, so thankfully, I was watching closely.

Another phone call, another rep. I only let this one talk long enough to confirm the Wednesday ship date and asked to be transferred to a manager. It took about 45 minutes with a manager to get through it all, but she sent an email message to an emergency pharmacist, and she checked on my other prescription orders and found they had also disappeared.

I see my neph next week and will ask her to send new prescriptions for all of them. I think something is corrupted in their ordering system. On two other prescriptions, also ordered yesterday, I received an email message that they're being processed, but if I look at Express Scripts online, they don't display. The email message also said the order date was the end of July. I ordered them yesterday. The manager no record of them being ordered.

[jeannea]

The only other thought I have is to call transplant. Most programs now have a pharmacist assigned to the program. Maybe you can get that pharmacist to call and find out the secret. Good luck!

[Deanne]

At last confirmation that the prescription I was most concerned about is shipping today - overnight. I'll see my neph next week to have new prescriptions sent to them. Hopefully that'll resolve everything going forward. I'll be ordering everything very early again next time though, just in case.....

[Deanne]

And now finally the other thing I wanted from them: Someone from Express Scripts called to tell me they have their computer people looking into my account to see what the cause of all of this is. Everything was fine until a month ago and now suddenly everything is a problem. It seems like something changed or got corrupted. I was worried that if they didn't look for the cause, I'd go through this every time I tried to refill a prescription. And the guy who called sounds like he'll even follow up. I told him I'm going to ask for new prescriptions to be sent over next Thursday and he said he is going to check next Friday to make sure they go through correctly.

No one before took any kind of ownership. They told me they put the prescription through but when I asked about follow-up, they weren't interested. The answer was always "call back" or "look online" with what I perceived as an unspoken "quit bothering me." It annoyed me.

[jeannea]

It's a good start.

[MaryJoe]

I have TriCare as my primary insurance, and get my meds through Express Scripts. I don't believe I have been able to get an Rx filled without some kind of screw up for the last 4 months or so. I don't know what the problem is, but it drives me crazy to have to jump through all their hoops each month! I'm a fairly easy going person, and usually I will go to great lengths to avoid conflict, but last month I finally I finally had enough. I told the latest "supervisor" that I was going to file a formal complaint with the insurance commissioner for my state. Within 24 hours I received a very nice e-mail from Express scripts telling me my account had been updated, and they were confident that I'd have no more problems getting my Rx's filled in a timely manner. (Awwww, made me feel all warm and fuzzy! 

We'll see...

[jeannea]

Good for you MaryJoe.

[Deanne]

MaryJoe, I'm sorry you had problems with them, too. It makes me feel a bit less b*tchy though, knowing I'm not the only one who's been through battles with them. I finally have everything I need to keep me going for a while, but they're still making me crazy. Today I received two automated calls from them, from two different phone numbers. The first call said my urgent order is being sent overnight today. What order? I have no pending orders. The second call says the order they received by mail is delayed. Again, what order? I never ordered anything by mail.

I received everything already, and when I look online at the order status information, it shows nothing is pending. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if something shows up at my door.

[Dannyboy]

I have experienced many of the same issues with Express Scripts.
Their web interface underwent a major transformation some months ago, and a lot of things didn't work right.  It *does* seem to be getting better, but yeah, I still have had to call to resolve issues, but these were mostly involving errors on the physician's office side, so Express Scripts did not have up to date data.
Their Android app works fairly well for me   If their records are incorrect, yeah you gotta call 'em.


--Dan