Prescription Blue's

My understanding of a prescription is as follows: you go to the doctor's, he or she decides that you need something stronger than an over the counter medication. The doctor completes and signs a form authorizing the pharmacist to release that medication to you the patient. End of story. Everyone is happy and goes about their lives. Right.

Wrong.

Today I took a prescription to the pharmacy to be filled. The form was signed and completed by my doctor. The medication is one that I take daily and have been taking for at least six months. I refill the prescription once a month.

I dropped off the prescription. The pharmacy said it would be ready in one hour. I returned in one hour to find they were unable to fill my prescription. Why you may ask? Because the insurance company requires the doctor's signature whenever the prescription changes. (My doctor had increased my dosage from 20 mg to 30 mg.) I explained to the pharmacist that the doctor had completed and signed the form which I given to him to have the prescription filled. Apparently said form does not meet the standards of the insurance company. They require another form to be faxed to the doctor, completed and signed by the doctor and faxed back to the insurance company. Of course, while all this is being explained it is 8:00 pm on Friday evening which means the doctor will not even see the form until Monday. There was nothing that could be said to corporate clone at the insurance company to get him to think outside of his manual that I am sure he was reading from. It was all very frustrating.

Fortunately the pharmacist understood my predicament and gave me some meds at the old dosage to hold me over until Monday when I can joust with the bureaucratic dragons once again.