Many times, MMAP Counselors have to advocate for their clients. One opened my office door and said she was out of medication and couldn’t afford the full price. She needed my help – NOW! She had just come from her pharmacy and found out that she would have to pay $400 to get her new Rx. We called her pharmacist who said he was having difficulty getting her prescription from her doctor’s office. He had called several times, emailed and faxed the forms to her doctor with no reply and he had already given her a 10 day supply allowed by her drug plan.
As the details of her case unfolded, it seemed that she had been hospitalized recently and released on a new Rx. The doctor’s office was not responding. The client and I called her doctor and got multiple answering extensions, left a message with the triage nurse and then talked to their front desk who seemed unable to help. We called the hospital to attempt get their help with her prescription. We had to get it from her doctor. Her hopeful eyes said to me that whatever needed to be done, needed to be done today! So I jumped in my car and went to the doctor’s office, told the front desk that I wasn’t leaving until I spoke with someone about my client’s prescription. The front desk clerk handed me her telephone and I spoke to the triage nurse explaining the situation. I left my card at the front desk with a letter I wrote to her doctor documenting the event, and telling them that I would be back at 4:00. About a half hour after I got back to my office, she burst in again and said her Rx was waiting for her!
The nurse called me a little bit later saying that the client was on a similar drug before going in the hospital and they didn’t want to prescribe two medications. They instructed her NOT to take the original drug.
No one else was willing to unravel her predicament but her MMAP Counselor.
