I go to pick up my 3 month prescription at CVS today for my high blood pressure. The pharmacist tells me that the Doctor changed my prescription from Olmesartan Medoxomil (20 MG) to Losartan Potassium (100 mg). I said OK but I was not aware of this. Pharmacist says they are in the same family of drugs so I should have no problems.

I know jack shit about medicine.

I call my Doctor to make sure this was correct and the nurse says "Hmmm, let me check your file".

The nurse comes back and tells me that CVS requested this change because CVS claimed I, Angus, called CVS for a lower cost option to Olmesartan Medoxomil.

That's a bold face lie!

Should I make hay out of this? I think yes, but I wonder if it will really matter in the long run.

quote:

Originally posted by Angus the Kid:
I go to pick up my 3 month prescription at CVS today for my high blood pressure. The pharmacist tells me that the Doctor changed my prescription from Olmesartan Medoxomil (20 MG) to Losartan Potassium (100 mg). I said OK but I was not aware of this. Pharmacist says they are in the same family of drugs so I should have no problems.

I know jack shit about medicine.

I call my Doctor to make sure this was correct and the nurse says "Hmmm, let me check your file".

The nurse comes back and tells me that CVS requested this change because CVS claimed I, Angus, called CVS for a lower cost option to Olmesartan Medoxomil.

That's a bold face lie!

Should I make hay out of this? I think yes, but I wonder if it will really matter in the long run.

I would make a stink as it seems CVS is either incompetent or dishonest.

It depends. I would not alienate my physician or the pharmacist. It depends on whether the prescription was written allowing for substitution. It could be that your insurance decided that Losartan would be their preferred drug and therefore cost you less. Talk to your doctor directly. This happens ALL the time.

I would change Pharmacists, seems pretty unethical to me.
I can't imagine changing a prescription without talking to the patient first.
Go to Walgreens or whoever.

Take your business elsewhere. Complaining will change nothing. Vote with your dollars.

Do you want CVS making medical decisions for you instead of your doctor making those decisions?

Are you comfortable with CVS lying to your doctor?

Are you comfortable with those lies changing your care?

I’d have a discussion with the pharmacist about why they made the change. The pharmacist isn’t your doctor. They don’t know your record.

If the change is the result of insurance company shenanigans you deserve the truth on that not some story that’s a lie.

You need to find another pharmacy ASAP.

That’s complete BS and CVS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS.

Our prescription plan changed a few years back from Express Scrips to CVS Caremark and prescription prices tripled and quadrupled overnight with them.

Everything they sell is overpriced, I literally cannot understand how they stay in business.

Given you're in TX (Houston), we've been very happy with the HEB pharmacy.
I imagine there must be one nearby, they're about as plentiful as Walmart here.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:

I would make a stink as it seems CVS is either incompetent or dishonest.

Don't discount the possibility that both may be true, but I'm betting on greed, that they are making more from insurance on the substitute.

I went through this with Walmart a few years ago. Fuck them, they wanted to sell you what they had, similar maybe, but what they had. Went to a private pharmacist, cost no more, but when they are are out of something, they say so, and let me know they will call me when it is in. Buyer beware, and all that!!!!!

You might look closer at your insurance. CVS Caremark is a large pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). I wouldn’t be surprised if the change was initiated by the PBM side of the business under the guise of “saving you money,” but in reality reducing the benefits cost.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly. Most people have no idea who PBMs are and how they influence the price and availability of prescription meds.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Take your business elsewhere. Complaining will change nothing. Vote with your dollars.

There it is.

A few months CVS got bad publicity when they were fined by our state dept of pharmacy.

As I recall this was for short staffing the pharmacy and the mistakes they were making from that.

And BTW in my opinion and experience, they will tell you anything just to get you off their back, especially because they are short staffed and overworked and the damn phone is ringing off the wall.

That's one thing that pisses me off is going into a pharmacy and there is a long and slow moving line of customers, the drive through is backed up, the phones are ringing incessantly and not being answered, and I can read the employees faces that they are tired, worn out, and frustrated from short staffing.

Link To New Story, CVS agrees to pay $125,000 fine


And it's my opinion that it's just not CVS, its just about all the other pharmacies. Todays modern corporate pharmacies are, IMO, greedy and want to short staff to increase profits.
.

Find yourself a locally owned and operated pharmacy and see how they treat you.

Best wishes to you.

Absolutely...leave CVS. I loved the folks at HEB pharmacy when I lived there. Use HEB or find a good small independent pharmacy.

Found a nice independent pharmacy with great people here in NC thats INSIDE AN ACE HARDWARE AND SELLS STIHL AND WEBER!!!! Its a dream come true.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Given you're in TX (Houston), we've been very happy with the HEB pharmacy.
I imagine there must be one nearby, they're about as plentiful as Walmart here.

quote:

Originally posted by ECSquirrel:
You might look closer at your insurance. CVS Caremark is a large pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). I wouldn’t be surprised if the change was initiated by the PBM side of the business under the guise of “saving you money,” but in reality reducing the benefits cost.

Could well be. I would hope CVS and the doctor would paint a full and honest picture of what is going on.

I'm fairly easy to get along with but I would not tolerate that kind of crap.

Don't change my meds like that. I would also kinda expect my doc to call me and go over any change like that before they OK'ed it with the pharmacy.

I would look at changing to a new pharmacy somewhere also. I wouldn't trust them to not try and do something after you call them out for their crap.

It is possible that your insurance now prefers losartan over olmesartan and is either rejecting outright or paying for olmesartan, but at a much higher copay. I have seen many times a rejection for something very similar where we would fax the prescriber for authorization to change to a cheaper or covered alternative.

Now, where CVS really dropped the ball is, not communicating this to you. In instances such as yours, I would make sure to call the patient to get the ok AND put a block on the prescription so it would be discussed by the pharmacist on duty when they came to pick it up. My staff pharmacist were also instructed by me to do the same. Communication is key.

I worked for Walgreens for 15 years. The staffing issues mentioned by others is very true. It got to the point where it didn't feel safe. Do more with less. Oh, your script volume is up over last year? How about we take away some of your budgeted hours, you don't need those. Just sign everyone up for texting and automatic refill. That'll fix everything... Did I mention I'm glad I left retail pharmacy???

I was using CVS until I got the GoodRX app on my phone.

I am paying a fraction of what I was paying with insurance, with the app and no insurance.

One drug went from $300 to $100 and anther went from $50 to $12

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