Nah, I usually can tell the difference between a refill request and an auth request--easily discerned by whether I recently sent a refill over, of course. ;)
Actually, all I really request is "the patient's plan is AARP Part D," (or Humana, or whoever), so that I can find the online formulary. Usually, all I receive is "call this number." And, the frustrating one recently was the request for a cheaper medication for a cash-pay patient when I had already sent over a generic prescription. I did call back at that point and say, "I don't know your prices. We could keep doing the 'this is too expensive dance' all day, where I send over another script and you send it back with a note telling me how much it costs, or you could give me a suggestion."
I think part of the issue is the computers, as well. Recently, I had a staff member call back to question a request that was coming in way too early, the med was not even close to due yet. When she got a hold of a person, they said that the pharmacy wouldn't have filled it anyway, due to insurance constraints, because it was too early. So, why send me a request? "Well, if the patient calls, the computer generates those automatically." Usually, when I get an actual pharmacist (rather than a 16-year-old tech), I do get help, but I get frustrated with the computer-generated requests that don't include human interaction.
Actually, all I really request is "the patient's plan is AARP Part D," (or Humana, or whoever), so that I can find the online formulary. Usually, all I receive is "call this number." And, the frustrating one recently was the request for a cheaper medication for a cash-pay patient when I had already sent over a generic prescription. I did call back at that point and say, "I don't know your prices. We could keep doing the 'this is too expensive dance' all day, where I send over another script and you send it back with a note telling me how much it costs, or you could give me a suggestion."
I think part of the issue is the computers, as well. Recently, I had a staff member call back to question a request that was coming in way too early, the med was not even close to due yet. When she got a hold of a person, they said that the pharmacy wouldn't have filled it anyway, due to insurance constraints, because it was too early. So, why send me a request? "Well, if the patient calls, the computer generates those automatically." Usually, when I get an actual pharmacist (rather than a 16-year-old tech), I do get help, but I get frustrated with the computer-generated requests that don't include human interaction.
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