CVS Specialty Medications: continuing saga

I sent my problem with CVS Specialty Medications to the CA State Board of Pharmacy.

The following was attached:

“I was prescribed Repatha for my cholesterol.

Received a sample kit.

CVS quoted over $100 a shot with Medicare and Blue Cross/Shield prescription coverage.

Went to Walgreens and was quoted $500 a shot.

Called CVS Specialty Medications.

Informed them I couldn’t afford $100 a shot.

They changed the cost to $15 a shot.

In the meantime I saw Amgen’s ad on TV quoting $5 a Repatha shot.

I called CVS Specialty Medications. They said it was for a different insurance coverage.

 

I took the sample shots and got rash reactions. Specialty Medications said to stop

immediately because I was allergic. They will cancel my prescription.

 

CVS at Arden in Sacramento said I had a specialty medication prescription waiting for me in Hawaii. What? I moved from Hawaii more than 14 years ago. How did they get this personal information?

 

I called Specialty Medications: They said I will be charged for Repatha if the returned drug is not in good condition. I didn’t fill the prescription nor did I even touch it. How can I be charged? I was told that is their regulation. Repatha needs to be refrigerated and it was sent to Hawaii.

I need help in not being charged for a prescription I never filled. I also need an explanation why they kept changing the price on me.

I had another problem with a prescription for Fluorometholone OP 0.1

The local CVS had it in supply but would not fill the prescription because their home office wants an alternative. They advised me to go to Safeway where it was filled.

I need answers to this, too. Why is CVS controlling my prescriptions with different prices and drugs.

I received a statement for $30 for a prescription I didn’t fill.

I left a message at CVS Specialty that I was not responsible for this prescription and the CA State Board of Pharmacy will resolve this for me.

As expected, I received an immediate call from CVS, Chicago. The woman kept calling me Frances as though we’re good friends and said to disregard the statement I received. I told her the problem is still unresolved and the CA State Bd. Of Pharmacy will be contacting them. And now I wonder how many patients obediently pay these companies for their greed without making these irritating phone calls and writing letters and filling in  forms, etc.

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3 of my favorite quotes for Poetry Month

 

“There is no poetry for the practical man. There is poetry only for the mankind of the man who spends a certain amount of his life turning the mechanical wheel. But let him spend too much of his life at the mechanics of practicality and either he must become something less than a man, or his very mechanical efficiency will become impaired by the frustrations stored up in his irrational human personality.
An ulcer, gentlemen, is an unkissed imagination taking its revenge for having been jilted. It is an unwritten poem, a neglected music, an unpainted water color, an undanced dance. It is a declaration from the mankind of the man that a clear spring of joy has not been tapped, and that it must break through, muddily, on its own.”
– John Ciardi

 

“Poems are not written to sing of the moon and flowers; they must speak of our hearts in response to the moon and flowers. We must never forget that in our hearts are the seeds of our poems. If we merely speak of the moon and flowers, poems become simply poetical forms, whatever the human heart may be. If these things become a part of ourselves, then we may admire them in verse.”
– Okuman Kotomichi
19th century

 

“A haiku . . . is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature. It is a way in which the cold winter rain, the swallows of evening, even the very day in its hotness, and the length of the night become truly alive, share in our humanity, speak their own silent and expressive language.”

— R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Volume 1, page 243

 

 

   This thing called life,  passion, feelings or  sexuality belongs to us, men and women of all ages.

We still see things we shouldn’t see –

We still feel things we shouldn’t feel-

We still hear things we shouldn’t hear-

We still taste grief, joy, fear,

In a world that vibrates

Through all of my senses.

We are not dead yet.

   Definition

Do not define me by age.

I am not Roosevelt, Truman,

Eisenhower, or JFK.

 

Do not define me by blue veins

bulging out on my spidery arms,

my gobbler, once a Hepburn, Audrey.

 

Do not define me by Rorschach,

On skin brushed with indelible ink.

A Pollock on the wall of MOMA.

 

Do not define me by a new dance step

Shuffling, shuffling –

My heels replaced by clogs.

 

I am

a rabbit out of a hat,

a three ring circus without net,

A whodunit without clues.

War and Peace, chapter one,

The second act.

 

I am

Without epilog.

from my Dangerous Women: Poetry for the Ageless

Crooked CVS Pharmacy

Crooked CVS Specialty Medications

I was prescribed Repatha to replace statin drugs for my cholesterol.

CVS quoted over $100 a shot.

I called Wallgreens and they quoted $500 a shot.

I saw Repatha’s ad by AmGen on TV quoting $5 a shot so I called the CVA Specialty Medications.

They said it depends on your insurance.

After some negotiations with my health insurance, they quoted $15 a shot.

In the meantime I took two sample shots and got bad reactions so I called CVS Specialty and was told to stop immediately so I cancelled my prescription.

Today CVS in Sacramento  told me a prescription was sent to Hawaii. What? I don’t even have an address there. They would not tell me name of prescription because it was sent from CVS Specialty Medications. I called Speciality Medications and they insisted they sent it to Sacramento.

I had called them to be sure I wasn’t charged.

I was told I would be charged if  the meds  returned are not in 100% condition.

I said I am not responsible for this drug since I haven’t touched nor filled the prescription. And it was cancelled by CVS Specialty Meds.They refused to accept this. Repatha must be refrigerated.

I called them  crooked, said that was the last prescription they would get from my doctors and I would pursue this with the right authorities. She tried to interrupt and I hung up the phone.

Poets for Peace for April: Poetry Month

 

When I was in high school, Russia and Communism were taboo subjects; they were feared into silence. One day I read where poets were the most feared in Russia and my passion for poetry empowered me and I became less and less fearful as I kept on writing. I felt the more poetry I read and wrote, the weaker the enemy became. Nothing has changed so we keep on writing.

Poets for Peace

Each time a poet
Puts pen to paper,
There is a sliver of hope
For Peace.

from my Dangerous Woman: Poetry for the Ageless

#2 for Poetry Month

Yes, I Will

When he takes my hand in his,

His tiny little fingers curled around mine,

I am filled with a great sense of duty,

Duty to keep this world

Free from fear and evil.

 

When I feel his hand in mine,

The contrast: spring to autumn,

I feel compelled to live

Every minute of my life

With love and human kindness

So this world that belongs to him

Will be a place where his deepest secrets

Will be safe,

Where all his dreams and hopes

Become possibilities,

And this world becomes

The greatest, most trusted friend,

Anyone could ever have.

 

Oh, I will live so I can make

All the difference in his life,

For having trusted his hand in mine.

frances kakugawa: from Teacher, You Look Like a Horse

 

Poem 1 for April is Poetry Month

During one of my poetry writing sessions with 3^rd graders, this was my contribution. Not quite up to par with my students’ poetry.

 

A Poet’s Declaration

 

I am a star

In the Milky Way.

I am the crest

On emerald waves.

I am a dewdrop, crystal clear,

Capturing sunbeams in the morning mist.

 

I am that dust

On butterfly wings.

I am that song

Of a thousand strings.

I am that teardrop

You have kissed.

I am a poet!

I am! I am!

 

I am that rage

In the thunderstorm,

I am that image

Of a thousand form.

I am magic on each page.

I am a poet!

I am! I am!

 

   Frances H. Kakugawa

   From Teacher, You Look Like a Horse