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Mthr has been on 8 or 10 drugs over the last 18 months, some for a long time, others for just a few weeks. They are repackaged by the pharmacy for dispensing at a particular time by the memory care home. All I see are the bills.

In the last 12 months, I have found 4 errors on the bills. Accounting Dept talks to me and assures me that the right drugs have been sent, but that the pharmacist "forgot" to enter it into the system, and they won't even charge me for what they left off the bill!

Well, today I opened the bill and found that they are now sending her benadryl. The doc prescribed this for two months until her saw her on 9.27 and took her off. He was concerned that she would be confused and fall more easily, so of course I don't want her on that any more. I called and left a message on the machine, and will call the home tomorrow.

What recourse do I have, if any? I believe this is the only pharmacy the Memory Care home allows to fill patient prescriptions. Is there any way to make the pharmacy pay attention to detail so they don't make 4 errors in the new year? Ideas?

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Surprise, just remember the latest in research, vitamins are expensive pee.
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The memory care home is a personal care home, similar to AL but all they do with the meds is to pull the prepackaged ones out at the right time and hand them over. Mthr can take or refuse, and since I am including her favorite huge horse pill multivitamin, she's happy to take the others that we tell her are vitamins for her mind. The home says I can get the repackaging from anywhere since we are having such a bad time with this one.

The pharmacist at the independent pharmacy left a message that they did not have a discontinue order from the Dr in Sept thus the benadryl was a continuation. If they did not have a dc order, I don't see why I was not billed for the drug in Oct, Nov, Dec. unless this was another "billing error" as cya'd for by the accounting dept. ARGH!

I have had another iron in the fire (or three) with my teens and have not been able to reach the MD's office this week to find out if they do or do not have the order to discontinue in the record. I'm gonna be unhappy if someone forgot to write it down on either side!

I am definitely changing pharmacies to a big box that offers the repackaging. I'm so disgusted with the pharmacy. Since my husband is friends with at least one of the 4 pharmacists who work there, I have tried to be pleasant but very firm. I suppose moving the account will speak more loudly.
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Nursing homes usually work on doctors orders only, so if you want something stopped, you have to ask the MD to fax a stop order to the home. Your phone call alone won't get it done.
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My mother-in-saw was on prescriptions that came from the pharmacy recommended by the assisted living facility. They mailed the prescriptions every month to the facility and they were administered by the nurse at the facility. Unfortunately this drove my mother-in-law into the Medicare donut hole early in the year.

My wife discovered that she could get the same generic prescriptions from our grocery store pharmacy for a huge savings. She cancelled the mail-order supplies and set up the grocery store pharmacy for ninety day supplies, which was a savings in itself. She decided to pay cash for the lesser expensive meds, which pushed the donut hole much farther into the year.

I know that not all meds are available through Walmart or your local pharmacy, but if there are those that are, you can save money using that approach. You will have to get the meds from the pharmacy yourself and deliver them to the nurse at the facility, but I don't think that they can refuse to allow you to use this method of getting medications.
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Bring the mistakes to their attention, don't pay the bill until the mistakes are fixed, and report them to Medicare or whomever is handling the insurance. Make sure to double check the meds she is supposed to be taking, set up a meeting with the administrator or the facility, and use the paper trail to speak for the mistakes. If all else fails, take your mother out of this place! Yes, doctor was correct about Benadryl. The diphenhydramine in it is both sedating and causes a dementia-type reaction in all who take it. Try a nasal spray for allergies. Hope all goes well with your mom.
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I'm not sure what you can do about the pharmacy, but you definitely should be speaking with the Director of Nursing, the Administrator, or someone who is managing your mother's medications. They are the ones who usually communicate with the Dr. for necessary medications related to her medical issues. If you request a meeting, they should be able to give you a complete list of her medications and what they are for. They are the ones who should be watching her medications carefully, because then you wonder if they are even giving her the right ones, due to pharmacy's error. Make sure you bring your bills to the meeting to correlate all your information. If the home allows you to get mail order medications, try that. Good luck.
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I am sure you could go to your big box pharmacy or mail order your Mom's prescriptions for a fraction of the cost. But and it is a big but Mom would have to be able to give her own medications from the bottles or you could set up a 7 day pill box if she is capable of using that and keep the bottles at your home.
When drugs are administered by a facility to limit the chance of error they are dispensed in single doses. This of course costs much more money and entails the use of a special drug cart. As with any services there is plenty of room for exploitation. Certainly talk to the facility administrators and try to rectify any mistakes. If the mistakes are actually in dispensing the wrong medications the pharmacy should be reported to the licensing authority. Deliberately wrongful billing when the patient has not actually received the medication is fraud.
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I would sure express your concerns to the nursing staff. I think I would also have a meeting with the administrator and the Director of nursing... just express your concerns. I am sure they would be willing to talk with you and correct things... take care
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I don't think they can force you to use their pharmacy but they do encourage you strongly. When we toured the alf for our family member no one mentioned using their pharmacy. When it came time to finalizing all of the details we were then told it was "standard policy" to do so. That was a deal breaker for us, I did a price comparisan and found them to be TRIPPLE the cost of what we currently pay for medications and they ony dispensed meds in 30 day supplies which in and of itself was more expensive. I would talk to the facility director about you supplying the meds. So far that has worked out well for us. Had we not done our due dillegence we would have ended up with a surprise monthly bill tripple what we budgeted for on medications alone. Alot of the LTC centers have these contracts with these special pharmacies that benefit no one but them. I'm not sure how legal it is to "force" you to use their pharmacy as alot of these places are not under federal regulations like nursing homes but I can't imagine you would be "forced" to use their pharmacy. There has to be a loophold somewhere even if it means a little fine for using your own.
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