My friend W. is on prescription medication that she can only obtain refills for every 30 days, so on every thirtieth day she has to go to a pharmacy. Last Friday when she got there after work, she found out that her health insurance company has a new rule: Her doctor has to fax a new thirty day prescription every thirty days, in addition to indicating that the prescription is refillable. Because it was 5:30 p.m., her doctor’s office was already closed. So she had to wait until the following Monday to obtain the medication she needs to live, having missed three doses, which saved the insurance company a few dollars, which was apparently the point. The new rule creates a mountain of extra paper work, labor and expense for doctors, multiplied by every patient’s every prescription, every thirty days. When doctors or patients do not get the paperwork to a pharmacy in time, medication is rendered unavailable for a while, which equals savings to the insurance company.
–Ann Bartow
But thankfully, we don’t have socialized medicine in this country, so at least she doesn’t have to worry about some nameless, faceless bureaucrat getting between her and her doctor. (/sarcasm)