I received Remicade, an intravenous medication used in the treatment of certain autoimmune diseases, for over one year. The medication was administered in the Infusion Center at Deaconess Billings Hospital in Billings, Montana. At that time, my insurance company, Principal Financial, insisted that the medication be provided by Caremark Pharmacy instead of Deaconess Billings Hospital.
I was told, prior to my first dose of intravenous Remicade being administered, that it was the policy of Caremark Pharmacy that every single dose of Remicade had to be paid for in advance, before the medication would be shipped to Billings, Montana. Prior to every single dose of Remicade that I received, I received a phone call from Caremark Pharmacy (the caller i.d. on my phone read Caremark Pharmacy, and the person on the other end of the line identified themselves as being from Caremark Pharmacy) and the person on the other end of the phone said the same thing every time, "Hello.
This is Caremark Pharmacy. It is time to ship your next dose of Remicade. Remicade must be paid for before it can be shipped. How would you like to pay for it? " Then I would ask, "What is the copay for this dose?" (The amount I paid to Caremark Pharmacy for Remicade varied from month to month due to my meeting my deductible). The Caremark person on the phone would then tell me the amount that I owed for the Remicade for that dose. I would then put the payment for the Remicade on my credit card. No dose of Remicade was ever shipped to me from Caremark Pharmacy without prepayment.
Over a year, after receiving my last dose of Remicade, I started receiving bills from Caremark Pharmacy in the amount of $2,834.91. I ignored the first couple of bills that I received from Caremark Pharmacy because I knew that they were being sent to me in error, since I had prepaid for every single dose of Remicade that I had ever received. I do not recall exactly how many bills I actually received before I finally called Caremark Pharmacy, but I would suppose that I called after receiving the third bill. (I received the first bill and thought, "Well, they made a mistake sending me this. " Then they sent the second bill and I thought, "Gee. They still have not realized that I prepaid for every single dose of Remicade that I ever received? " Then I received a third bill and thought, "I need to tell them that I do not owe them any money.")
When I called Caremark Pharmacy about the erroneous bills I had been receiving, they told me that the bill was not an error. I kept trying to explain that the bill had to be an error because Caremark Pharmacy had a no exceptions policy that required that all Remicade be paid for before shipment from the pharmacy, but my words fell on deaf ears. It was at that time that I asked for an itemized bill. I asked to be sent an itemized bill that listed every dose of Remicade that I had received from Caremark Pharmacy.
When the itemized bill came, that was supposed to list all the Remicade that Caremark Pharmacy had provided me with, only one dose was listed. I think that I received approximately 10 doses of Remicade from Caremark Pharmacy. (The medication was shipped to Deaconess Billings Hospital, not to me personally). I called Caremark Pharmacy again and made a second request for an itemized bill. When the next itemized bill arrived from Caremark Pharmacy, it again only had one dose listed. I called Caremark Pharmacy again.
I made anecdotal notes about every conversation I had with Caremark Pharmacy, but most of those notes were packed away when we started our home office remodel. The few notes that are readily available to me identify the people I was talking to at this time as Cynthia and Taryn. I repeatedly asked for an itemized bill, but I received the same response every single time I asked for one, "I am sorry, Mrs. C, you only received one dose of Remicade from Caremark Pharmacy. My response to her was, "So, if I can find the credit card that I used to have, that I used to pay for all that Remicade, and I prove to you that I paid for a minimum of 5 doses of Remicade --- that is 5 times the amount that you say that you sent to me --- will you agree that I do not owe you any money?" At that time my file was transferred to a senior resolution manager.
I think that the name of the Caremark Pharmacy Senior Resolution Manager was Dalton. This gentleman told me that Caremark Pharmacy had provided only one of my doses of Remicade; all the other doses of Remicade had been provided by a pharmacy that Caremark Pharmacy had purchased, and for that reason Caremark did not have access to those bills. My response to him was: 1) When my phone rang, my caller identification said Caremark Pharmacy; 2) When I answered the phone, the person on the other end of the line identified themselves as being from Caremark Pharmacy; 3) The charges on my credit card were from Caremark Pharmacy; 4) On two separate occasions there were problems with my Remicade dose that occurred while I was in the Infusion Center at Deaconess Billings Hospital.
During both of those times I called the 800 numbers that I had for Caremark Pharmacy and the problem was remedied. But my Remicade was not provided by Caremark Pharmacy. How could that be? This Senior Resolution Manager held his ground and said that the prior doses of Remicade had not been provided by Caremark Pharmacy.
It was at this time that I started calling every single 800 numbers that I could find for Caremark Pharmacy. During one of those phone calls to a random Caremark Pharmacy 800 numbers, a kind soul told me (I have her name and phone number, but I am not going to jeopardize her job), "I have documentation that you received numerous doses of Remicade from Caremark Pharmacy. My computer shows 8 doses, but my screen also shows that the file is not complete. Caremark Pharmacy changed their computer billing program and they lost almost all of their past bills. That is why they will not send you an itemized bill; they lost your past bills. The complexity of your bill is compounded by the fact that you received your medication from the pharmacy in Richardson, Texas. That pharmacy has closed and we lost those bills, too.
With God as my witness, I have always paid every single bill that I have ever owed and my credit history was spotless prior to this fiasco. I prepaid for every single dose of Remicade that I ever received. I went to Deaconess Billings Hospital to request an itemized bill listing every dose of Remicade I received there --- hopefully, when I have that bill I will be able to track down the credit card that I used to pay for the Remicade and I will be able to find out what my insurance number was at the time I received this Remicade. (I no longer have the credit card that I used to pay for the Remicade, and I no longer have the medical insurance that I had, when I received the Remicade, and all of our payment information that we had on our home computer was lost during a battle with a virulent computer virus). Obtaining the bill from the hospital where I received the Remicade has been complicated by the recent movement of their infusion center. The Infusion Center's bills used to be on the main hospital computer, but when the physical location of the center changed, they changed the location of the bills on the computer. The administrative assistant in the rheumatology office is tracking down the bill for me.
The last conversation I had with an employee at Caremark Pharmacy was a female (I think this conversation was with Taryn). I said matter of fact, as if it was common knowledge, "I do not think this is fair. Caremark Pharmacy lost their bills when they changed their computer program, and you are absolutely incorrect about me owing you money. " She replied, "We lost our prior bills, but this bill was not paid. "
This Caremark Pharmacy employee, Taryn, inadvertently provided me with a second source that confirms that Caremark Pharmacy lost their files and they have absolutely no clue who owes them what. Since I no longer have the credit card that I used to pay for the Remicade, my thought was that if I could obtain an itemized bill showing me the dates that I received the Remicade, maybe I could find the credit card (I am relatively certain that I paid my hospital bill with the same credit card that I used to pay my Caremark Pharmacy bill) that I used to pay for the drug and I could do a check and balance. If I received 10 doses of Remicade, I would match that against 10 charges on my credit card. All of this is very difficult because Caremark Pharmacy waited such an exorbitant amount of time before billing me. The information is very difficult to obtain because so much time has passed.
When I say to Caremark Pharmacy, "I paid you. I am innocent of the charge that I owe you money," I do not understand why Caremark Pharmacy has absolutely no obligation to provide me with the information that I need regarding payment of this account. In my last conversation with Caremark Pharmacy I said, "Send me an itemized bill so that I can check to see if I can find payments that match up with your dates of service. If I find an unequal service:payment ratio, I will gleefully pay you the money you are requesting; but I am not going to send you $2,834.91 just because you say so." Taryn said that if I did not send the money, that they would turn me over to a collection agency. And they did.
This has taken up a tremendous amount of my time and caused me endless frustration and agitation. I have spent countless hours on the phone with Caremark Pharmacy and the collection agency, Miramed Revenues. With the exception of one phone call, my dealings with Miramed have not been unpleasant at all, but I cannot say the same thing about my dealings with Caremark Pharmacy. The people at Caremark have absolutely no qualms about screaming at me and making my life very unpleasant and obviously, Dalton does not have a problem about blatantly lying about what is going on at Caremark Pharmacy. This has been grossly unpleasant.