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Caremark RX Inc

Caremark Rx • Changing Prescriptions • Delivery Problems • Refusing to Fill Prescriptions • Shorting Prescriptions --- News • Caremark Settles Drug-Switching Charges • CVS, Caremark Rx Agree to Merge • CVS In Merger Talks With Caremark • Feds Side With Whistleblower In Caremark Case • Pharmacy Benefit Managers Scrutinized • Class Action Filed

Caremark Rx is one of the big three pharmacy benefit managers, companies that supposedly save consumers and, not least of all, their insurers big bucks on prescriptions. But these savings, if indeed they exist, all too often come out of the consumer's hide, as the complaints in this section demonstrate.

Susan of Rushville IN (12/28/08)
Caremark ripped me a new one. My doctor wrote me a prescription for 30 days instead of 90 days, like I have been getting for the past 4 years. I know it's my fault for not checking the script, but I figured the doctor probably would have gotten it right by now. Caremark charged me for 90 days instead of 30 or even 60. When I complained the told me they would call the doctor and take care of it. So now they are charging me again for a 90 day supply when they are only sending a 60 day. So I am paying double for one order.

I wasn't at home yesterday when they called to tell me what they were doing. So I called first thing this morning to find out they can't cancell it. They screwed me over good. I am on disability so I don't have much income and I was charged double for this script. I am just going to have to scale back on the amount of medications I take for awhile

George of Hot Springs, AR December 4, 2008

George of Hot Springs AR (12/04/08)
First prescriptioon was rejected then the system cancelled it. After getting approval I spent an hour on the phone and was told there was nothing they could do except call the doctor and get him to call in a local prescription while we wait up to 10 days for the mail refill. Terrible attitude towards customer service. Gracie was good but unable to solve the problem.

Fred of North Plainfield, NJ December 3, 2008

Fred of North Plainfield NJ (12/03/08)
I have been having an ONGOING problem with Caremark with regard to getting my prescriptions refilled. They seemingly never, ever receive the fax request for renewal, thus none of my doctors (my primary or pain management doctor) will send a request in. They are sick of Caremark and I am sick of Caremark. I have to pay out of pocket to send my scripts in via certified mail.

I saw my pain management doctor on 11/5/2008 and still do not have my refills as of today, 12/03/2008! My doctor has faxed over two requests (one on 11/24 and again on 12/01)and both have never been acknowledged by Caremark. The excuse I received last time was that Caremark has not updated their antiquated fax machines. Caremark is one company that should close its doors for the welfare of its customers.

I have had to drive, yet again, 60 miles round trip to receive hard copies of my scripts. They either cannot read the scripts or they never receive them. I have spent more hours on the road and phone trying to gain resolution to this problem. My stress levels are beyond anything I should have to endure. I merely want my medicine refilled in a timely manner.

Regina of Philadelphia, PA November 21, 2008

Nov. 11-placed a 'fast order' for prevacid/nasarel. Followed up w/doc to ensure they rec'd order. They did. Nov. 13-called Caremark to inquire about Rx and was told that it was returned to dr for more info. Called dr and they said that they had already faxed that back. Nov. 18-rec'd email from Carmark advising that my prevacid order was cancelled. Called Caremark and was told that ‘if the doc office would just call’ they could clear this up. I called my doc office and asked them to please call and they assured me they would. That same day I was assured by my doc that they called and spoke to ‘Gail’ in the pharmacy and the order was placed. I called Caremark to confirm this but was told that they couldn’t confirm this for 72 hours as that how long it would take to show up in the system.

Nov. 21 – After waiting the required 72 hours, I called Caremark to find the status of my Rx and learned that there was nothing new. There was no record of my doc ever calling. In addition there was no record of my call to the fast order dept on Nov. 11. Marilyn had a “senior manager� at Caremark call my doc’s office to confirm the order. Someone from Caremark was then going to call me to advise that the order was indeed in process. However, after waiting awhile and not receiving that phone call, I contacted the doc’s office myself. I learned that while the dr's office was on the phone w/Caremark, the connection was lost during a transfer of the call to Caremark's pharmacy and Caremark never called them back.

So...I called Caremark again and spoke with yet another representative. Once more, I had to explain the same long story. This representative wanted to transfer me to ‘fast start’ to start the process all over again. Instead I asked to be transferred to a senior manager (since the other rep Marilyn, earlier that day, was able to do that for me). After holding for quite awhile…Pat of the Senior Team picked up the phone. Pat claimed that my doctor hung up on them when they called earlier. She promised to call the dr again and transfer them to the pharmacy to order my Rx. She also told me that I would then have to wait 48 business hours before I’d know if the order had been placed, but she did promise to call me back to let me know that the connection between Dr. and Pharmacy was made. I’m still waiting. This isn’t the first bad experience I’ve had w/Caremark. A similar situation occurred three months ago.

Chris of Roseburg, OR September 25, 2008

Chris of Roseburg OR (09/25/08)
My wife has been receiving interferon since November 2007. She was to have another order shipped so that she could take her medication this past Friday 9/19/2008. The medication did not arrive as expected so my wife called in to Caremark on Sunday 9/21/2008. She was informed that there was an error in the computer and they would be shipping out on 9/22/08 overnight with Fed Ex to be the shipping agent. Tuesday 9/23/08 came around and the medication never showed up as promised so we again called Caremark who told us that there was an error and the medication had been rerouted and that they would find out what was the problem. This morning at 9:30 a pharmacist called me to let me know that he had tracked down the medication and it is indeed in Roseburg Oregon and the medication would be delivered by early afternoon. Three-Thirty came around and guess what no medication....

So after many phone calls the Pharmacist calls back and says that the medication is at the Fed Ex shipping center and can be picked up before 5:00. I go to pick up the medication using the tracking number provided by Caremark and guess what? The package is not there but is in another town across the state because once again Caremark has made a mistake and sent the package to zip 97491. The Roseburg zip code is 97471. My wife is now 5 days late on a medication that is used to treat Hep C which must be taken on a regimen to continue fighting the virus for 1 year. Now we are 10 months into the treatment and cannot get the proper medication because Caremark cannot seem to ship at the right time or to the right address. This is totally unacceptable and must be fixed immediately.

Luckily for us the prescribing physician just did a viral load test and will be doing another one next week. If the viral load has increased I will be immediately contacting an attorney and filing lawsuit. This type of medication kills the weak virus first so by now at the 10 month mark any virus left is the most resistant so as you now if it returns it will be mutated to the point that it will not likely be able to be eradicated by any current treatment. It seems that the name of the business should be carelessmark as there is obviously no regard for the care of their patients as evidence not only by our experience but the thousands of people with similar complaints including those that can be found this website.

This has been stressful to me and my wife. I have had to take time off of work to deal with this issue and spend money on fuel and phone calls to try and get this resolved. The worst will be if my wifes virus returns mutated and cannot be cured. While this may not have happened yet the chances increase with every day that Caremark does not fulfill its obligation to its customers.

Kathy of Knoxville, TN September 13, 2008

Kathy of Knoxville TN (09/13/08)
I have been taking a medicaiton, Toprol xl 50mg 1 a day for several years. About 7 months ago caremark along with my primary care physician decided it was ok to switch me to a generic form of the medication. I was happy to try it as it was less expensive for me. About 2 weeks into taking it I started getting really bad headaches so I started monitoring my Blood Pressure. It had significantly increased so I notified my physician who called and had Caremark send me brand. After a few days back on the med my BP was again normal.

In June of 2008 when I requested a refill Caremark once again filled with generic after I had called them and asked them to put a notation in my records that the generic DID NOT work. I had to go thru an act of congress again to force them to finally send me brand. This has happened again this week (on 9/11/08. Again they decided they were going to send me generic. When I again had to call them I was told that my dr ok'd generic however my doctors office has assured me that they wrote the script and also called caremark and told them brand only.

I spoke with caremark, cancelled the generic order and actually after talking to 2 people in customer service I insisted on speaking to a pharmacist whose name was Dale. He also told me the same thing customer service had said. I asked him why he didn't see a note in my file NOT to send generic as it doesn't work for me and he said there was no such note. I had told someone on Wed in customer service when I cancelled that order to please place in my chart NOT to send generic but I guess they chose not to do as I had asked. Again my doctors office has tried to take care of this and again I have the generic medication being mailed to me. I cannot prove who is lying about this but clearly either my Doctor's office or Caremark is lying about the generic issue.

My blood pressure has risen drastically over this, it will get worse because I will be out of my brand name in about 10 days and will have to pay double to use a local pharmacy because obviously caremark can't get it right. I just want someone to be aware that if I have a heart attack or stroke because of medication issues that either my doctor or Caremark pharmacy need to be examined for their role in my health problems

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