Tricare Mess

For years we have been able to use our local pharmacy (there's only one in town) but now we are forced to use Tricare's Home Delivery Pharmacy. It has been one thing after the other when dealing with them. I mailed in the application and the prescription (with my credit card information and signature on it.) I then signed-up online. I got the first medicine and it was only 1 bottle (when usually it is 3 bottles for a 90 day supply) and I received a bill. I called Tricare to get things straightened. The first woman I spoke with had such a thick accent it was difficult to understand what she was saying. She transferred me to someone in their pharmacy department. I could understand this woman better, but she was clearly not able to think for herself and just kept repeating what sounded like a rehearsed speech. She kept saying that they filled the prescription as it was written and that it definitely was a 90 day supply. I knew she was wrong. The prescription may have been written one way but if you did the math then you knew it was a 1.5 ml shortage for a 90 day supply. That may not see that big of a deal, but I can't mail the medicine to Iraq and so have to have the full 90 day supply on-hand for the next leave so it can be taken back. I also asked why I was given a bill when I had sent in my credit card information with my signature authorizing payment and was told that they didn't know why and that I could sign -up for automatic credit card payments.

 I then called the eye doctor's office and was told there was a 1.5 ml shortage in the 90 day supply of medicine. They will give me some free samples to make up that shortage and a new prescription. I then sent Tricare a secured e-mail about the issues with the shortage and the billing - specifically stating that while I understood they can only fill the medicine amount as written but that the Tricare pharmacist didn't catch the 1.5 ml shortage when I pointed it right out to her. She could have said something like: "You're right. There's a shortage and you should have your doctor write a new prescription so you can get the correct amount." Instead she kept saying: "We filled the 90 day supply" - - like a robot.

I got a reply to my e-mail today and the woman who replied was also hit by the same dumb-stick that the pharmacist was. Even when you point the mistake out and say that it could have been a wrongly-written prescription (ie. not Tricare's fault) they continue to tow the "party line" that they fulfilled a 90 day supply. I don't understand how everyone at Tricare I have dealt with over this has such poor basic math skills or how they can keep repeating something that doesn't have any logic behind it. I really wish I could stop using the Tricare Home Delivery Program for this medicine, but it is being forced upon us because of the government. I do know one thing: I will double-check everything I get from Tricare from now on because I have no faith that they have the basic skills to fulfill the orders correctly. The only good thing is that I don't have to use them for my own medicines (I can get those at the local pharmacy still.)