Jim Murrell is a well-respected transplant patient advocate. Recently, he had the experience that many have had in accessing his life-saving medications. The insurance company and pharmacy benefit manager suddenly stopped covering his medications at his trusted pharmacy.
Like Jim, many patients prefer to receive their specialty medications from the pharmacy that has been handling medications for years. When patients can access these medications locally, patients are not forced to take the risks of delays and lack of temperature control. I've personally never experienced issues in getting my child's medications at our trusted pediatric hospital pharmacy. A transplant patient's life relies on medications every 12 hours.
Upon being forced to mail-order, many patients find they are met with challenging hoops to jump through and numerous barriers to accessing medications.
Some of Jim's issues began in the same way as many others with the initial communication barriers and incapability of the PBMs and their pharmacies to understand simple patient information can be a major hurdle. Please listen to the many other issues that he had in filing his medications through the mail-order pharmacy that he was forced to use as the only option in his coverage.
When compared to our trusted pharmacies, the PBMs mail-order pharmacies that many are forced to use are really not special at all.
There is a great concern about the many patients with chronic conditions, those with learning disabilities, caregivers, or patients who are elderly who are trying to navigate these complex systems that provide an unacceptable, minimal, and hazardous level of "care."
How many just give up?