About a month ago the premium on my Medicaid went up to $113.00. While this may not seem like a lot, it is when you only make disability pay. So I dropped Medicaid thinking that Medicare would cover everything that I needed. Boy was I wrong.
I got the bill for my meds today when I went to the pharmacy to refill them, and found out that Medicare does not cover prescription drugs. My meds cost $300.00. I about has a heart attack. So I went to work with Karen and got on the phone to my case worker at BJC. She tells me that I can call a pharmacy called Med Store and they will fax the bill to my Medicaid case worker and that that will meet my premium for the month, and that because of that I wont have to pay the $113.00 each month. Easy enough.
So I place a call to my doctors office to have them call this Med Store place to put a new prescription in for me. I find out that my doctor, who is really reliable, is on vacation. Someone else is covering for him. So I leave a message for this other doctor to call me about this since I am out of my crazy meds. (All the while I am in tears from being so frustrated about all this.) So I never hear back from this doctor. I called again to the clinic and get a really rude attendant who tells me that she left the message for the doctor already to call me.
Then my social worker from BJC calls to talk to me again to see how things are going. She tells me after an hour to call the doctors office again. She also informs me that she called the pharmacy to give them a heads up that this was going down. Still no sign of a phone call from the doctor. I call again. This time I get a different attendant and I explain my situation again and leave the pharmacy number for the doctor.
After a bit I call the pharmacy to see if the doctor has called. I am informed that he has but he didn't know what I needed prescribed. No call to me from the doctor to find out what I needed. So now it is 4:30 and I call the doctor's office again and they are gone for the day. Ack!
Meanwhile I am still frustrated and having emotional trouble from all the stress that this is causing. I then find out from the new pharmacy that it will take 5 days to get the order paid from Medicaid. So I will be without meds for at least that long. OMG!
Now last week I knew that I might have problems with Medicare not paying for meds, and my dad tells me that he will pay for it THIS month. This morning when I called him to confirm this I get a lecture about how this is really uncool, and that I should not have asked. What am I going to do?
So at dinner tonight my dad and I talked some more about what happened today with all the run around. He tells me that he will pay for the prescription this once so that I have my meds for this month. We decided that the only payment is that I don't let this happen again. Fair enough. I am getting my meds one way or another. We also decided that I should go ahead and get the other set of meds from the Med Store anyway, so that I know how this works for next time. So I will have a two month supply for backup. Good plan.
Moral of the story, the government sucks. The other moral, don't let yourself run out of drugs that you need to function day to day. I am really glad that my dad was willing to help this time. Although it came at a steep price. He doesn't like it when I need something other than a weekly dinner from him. We get along as long as I am handling my own affairs. Which I usually do just fine. I just got confused about all this bureaucratic stuff this time. The good news is, I will have Medicaid back since the cost of the meds takes care of the deductible each month. PHEW! The bad news is, that I can never ask for a favor again.
I just thought of another moral. Don't wait until the day you run out of meds to try and get it taken care of. I learned a lot today. I also was reminded of the reasons that I am on the drugs in the first place. I can't handle stress at all without crying and getting angry. What a day. I am drained in every way possible. But I did finish my dress today. Even if one pocket is higher then the other. :P
