Most times I have a prescription filled it take much longer that I would guess. A recent example, at a simplistic level, all that was needed was for 10 pills to be put into a bottle, however, it took nearly an hour. There did not appear to be other customers waiting. Is the delay because there is a complex process with controlled drugs, or they are under-staffed, or are other things going on?
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Pharmacist here. We are checking for drug interactions, checking that your disease states are ok with this medication, checking the prescription itself but questioning why the doctor wrote it incorrectly and therefore you will not get a benefit. That’s a phone call to the Dr that we are waiting to hear back on. We are very busy but your safety is our utmost priority.
That being said pharmacies are poorly staffed due to PBMs. Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen who take the money out from right under us. Your drug cost me $10 but your PBM has paid me $4. I’m losing $6 filling your prescription, which is part of the day to day. CVS owns Caremark, which is the PBM. So the PBM (Caremark) tells you to fill at CVS and your med is $5. But if you wanted to fill it somewhere else, your copay is $25. Hence you go to CVS, because it’s cheaper right? But that drives everyone else out of business. If you can, please support a local independent pharmacy.
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