"Tomorrow, my body will begin rejecting my recently transplant organs because Express Scripts cannot get a prescription filled and delivered to me in less than 2 weeks"
This tweet was from a couple of weeks ago, but it’s a post like what I see daily as the fear and panic of the initial realization sets in that medications will not arrive on time. Although the stories of transplant patients feels very close to home because my son is a transplant survivor, I see the similar story of lives being at risk from patients who are going without medications for diabetes, asthma, blood pressure, hemophilia, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and the list could go on.
Recently, a patient publicly shared a tweet about medications taking 2 weeks to be delivered from Express Scripts.
When these delays occur, there is little to no accountability for the risking of patients' lives as many are forced to one mail-order pharmacy. For my family, we were told that we would have to exhaust the appeal process before an attorney would take the case. In the meantime, many give up and others risks their lives. Many just come to a halt. With the temperature issue, the Department of Labor said that, this may be unethical and unfair, but it is not illegal. Abuse and neglect would be charged of almost any other healthcare professional and even parent who would unnecessarily delay life-saving medications. The pharmacy benefit managers such as CVS Caremark, Optum Rx, and Express Scripts that force us to their own mail-order are so loosely regulated that they face little to no repercussions.
Upon sharing the post, a couple of weeks ago, many suggested for the patient to ask for a one-time override to pick up locally or to get an emergency refill. The patient was eventually able to find a way outside of using Express Scripts mail-order to get the life-saving medications.
These patients suffering should send a warning to all of the danger ahead if safer options are not prioritized or even offered in our coverage. Can we just stop pretending that the risking of human lives for the profits of a billion-dollar industry should be even minimally tolerated as our pharmaceutical care in the US is rapidly declining? Where will we go for emergency refills that could be avoided if patients were able to use their local pharmacies in their coverage? The steering of patients to use only mail-order pharmacy is putting the health of our communities at risk as pharmacies close. Our local pharmacies will not stay open by filling antibiotics and emergency refills. We must save patients from this unethical steering, but we must also save our trusted pharmacies who are harmed.
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