2.) First and foremost, let me state that I have been without my maintenance corticosteroid asthma medication for 12 days now. That's nearly 2 weeks. Without a maintenance asthma medication. I have #ProAir "resuce inhalers," but that's it. No steroid inhalers. None.
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3.) A couple of months ago, I set my Qvar and ProAir inhalers both to "Autorefill" and "Autorenew." Both were eligible for refill on 2/17/18. Weirdly, though, they didn't autorefill on that date.
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4.) In fact, several other scripts that I have that are not eligible for "autofill" were eligible for refill as well on 2/17/18, and I filled them manually online. They arrived in the mail late last week....and still NO inhalers. Weird.
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5.) I called .
@CVSHealth on Friday, 2/23/18 and the rep with whom I spoke stated that "autofill meds automatically fill when you are 10 days away from the med supply being exhausted." When I pointed out to the rep that my inhalers had been due to fill on 2/17, she was evasive.Näytä tämä ketju -
6.) She then subtly blamed me for my own meds not be autofilled by .
@CVSHealth. I asked to speak with her supervisor and was placed on a long hold. Eventually, I gave up. I waited. More days ticked by with no asthma inhalers. No medication.Näytä tämä ketju -
7.) Today, I received a weird text from .
@CVSHealth stating that one of my medications "needed additional documentation" or somesuch from my Dr. When I called both the Dr. and .@CVSHealth, I was very surprised to hear it was apparently the Qvar---a med I've been on for years.Näytä tämä ketju -
8.) The .
@CVSHealth#Caremark rep told me that the problem was that my regular Qvar inhaler (see image) was "on backorder" and they needed my Dr.'s permission to authorize a "substitute." --- Wait: what kind of "substitute," right?pic.twitter.com/UD4BNq1OvE
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9.) When I got home tonight, I was able to log into .
@CVSHealth /#Caremark and see the actual name of what the substitute is. (The rep from earlier had only told me it was "another kind of#Qvar inhaler made by .@TevaUSA." Interesting.Näytä tämä ketju -
10.) Turns out the name of this "substitute" Qvar inhaler is the "Qvar Redihaler." It looks like this:pic.twitter.com/hYvW85EuWr
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11.) Seems legit, right? Looks basically the same. It is, of course, basically the same. Just a few minor tweaks perfectly crafted to jack up patients' 3-month copay from $80.00 per 90-day supply to $140.00 per 90-day supply. But wait, because there's more....
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14.) Look at the dates on the articles / PR releases. February 16th. February 12th --- you know: right around the time that my regular Qvar inhalers were *supposed* to "autofill" (recall that that date was 2/17/18).
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15.) What it means is that either .
@TevaUSA discontinued the manufacture of its metered Qvar inhalers before it had sufficient supply to replace them with its new Redihalers (knowingly or unknowingly)....Näytä tämä ketju -
16.) And/or, .
@CVSHealth intentionally held back fills of Qvar metered inhalers eligible for refill around precisely the time that#Caremark knew .@TevaUSA was due to launch its new Qvar Redihaler line (at a substantially higher price!) to force patients onto a more expensive medNäytä tämä ketju -
17.) And/or, .
@CVSHealth and .@TevaUSA colluded in a joint effort to achieve this mutually financially beneficial goal---conveniently as they near the end of the Q1 sales period.Näytä tämä ketju -
18.) As of .
@CVSHealth /#Caremark's last update shown on their website, I am not due to receive any inhalers (Qvar Redihaler or otherwise) for up to another week. If I do get them at the end of that period, I will have gone nearly 1 entire month without asthma medication.Näytä tämä ketju -
19.) I wonder how many millions of other people in the US are facing the same predicament right now. I also wonder if .
@CVSHealth and/or .@TevaUSA have considered the potential implications of depriving asthma patients of inhalers for up to 1 month to increase Q1 sales.Näytä tämä ketju -
20.) But I imagine they've already done the cost/benefit analysis and determined that even a few personal injury and class action lawsuits against them won't put a dent in Q1 profits, so it's all good. I can't breathe. But it's all good---right Teva and Caremark?
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