I am an 89 year old male in good physical and mental health. I live alone and manage my household without help and play in two different bands weekly. I have been a customer of CVS Pharmacy for over a year.
I presented a prescription hand written by my Doctor on May 14th to be filled. It is still not filled but for none of the reasons they stated.
I was denied the medication because the pharmacist stated that my health insurance carrier might or might not cover it. So then I agreed to pay cash without involving my insurance carrier.
A CVS representative stated that this was regulated by the State and Federal governments and they have jurisdiction over the process and the doctor must make an application for insurance coverage so they still could not fill the prescription. I found a lack of State and Federal regulations covering health insurance companies and contracts with their beneficiaries. I returned to CVS with the copies of the government regulations denying any jurisdiction. They saw that statements were untrue, total lies?
Nope! That still wasn't good enough for the pharmacist he still wanted to hear from the doctor whether or not the carrier would pay, even though I agreed to pay cash and denied any inclusion from my insurance company in the transaction.
Well, that was not good enough for CVS either!
So, I called my doctor and he said he used the same prescription pad
and filed the necessary documentation with the State agencies. He had no idea why they should deny filling the prescription.
I told the pharmacist that he is leaving me no other path but to have him appear in a public jurisdiction and show cause for denying me my medication.
Only then did he agree to fill the the prescription but only if the nurse in the doctor's office would call him to verify the prescription. That was my moment of realization!
It was all about my age!!
In his eyes, my age made me senile!
Yes, it is age discrimination rapped in a cloak of non issues! It is simple discrimination by no other name. This how age discrimination unfolds because it is camouflaged with other non-issues that people assume will be later overlooked. I will share my experience with others in the senior community and maybe a journalist or two that need a cause. This kind of brutal devaluing needs to be exposed.
I can't express how painful it is to be devalued this way and denied services we need because some younger person wants to exercise their new found authority over aged-ed person. read more