Who’s in charge of my medical care? Apparently not my doctor.
My post-tonsillectomy Lortab prescription
I’m a little peeved with the insurance company right now. I just had my tonsils out on Tuesday, May 18th. My doctor gave me a prescription for Lortab, a common narcotic pain reliever and cough suppressant. On recommendation from the nurse, I have been trying to taking a full dose (15 ml) every 4 hours to stay ahead of the pain. Even so, there have been times where I fell asleep at night or during day for more than four hours, and so spread out my dosage past the minimum.
I was prescribed a 240ml bottle, with 1 refill. Let’s do some quick math, shall we?
240 ml ÷ 15 ml dose = 16 doses
16 doses × 4 hours = 64 hours of coverage = 2 days and 16 hours
We picked up my original prescription on Tuesday around 6pm, meaning that if I was taking the recommended highest dose, I should run out around 10am on Friday. Like I said, I was a little behind. On Friday afternoon I tried refilling my prescription so that one of my parents could pick it up for me as they were both working on Saturday. CVS said they couldn’t refill the prescription because it was too early. My dad called up my doctor for me (I still can’t talk at this point) and asked him to call the refill in to the pharmacy. He did so, and CVS called me back shortly thereafter. Even after my doctor calling in the prescription, the insurance company refused to pay for a refill until Saturday. Apparently the doctor isn’t in charge of my medical care, the insurance company is!
Now I had to wait until Saturday to go pick up my prescription, while out of pain medication, because Anthem refused to pay for the medication one day earlier. I’m none to happy with them right now. Of course I could have paid the $30 for the refill instead of waiting a day and getting the refill for $5, but it’s the principle of the matter. Why does the insurance company get to decide when I get a refill… especially when I was following the dosing instructions provided by my doctor, nurse, and the printed directions on the bottle!
