I Hate Accredo

I am not even sure how to explain how impossibly hard it was dealing with Accredo these past few weeks. I think instead of writing a post that could easily go on for hours I will give you the quick and dirty run down. I think it is important to note that a rep from Vertex as well as my clinic coordinator was also helping me deal with Accredo and I have no doubt it would have taken significant longer to get my meds if I was doing it alone. Which is so beyond ridiculous because it took over two weeks for me to get the medicine as it was.

• At one time my clinic nurse called and explained in great detail what she discussed with Accredo. I called Accredo and when I told the rep what my clinic nurse just explained the rep told me there is no record of such conversation in their computer system. Huh? What? How do you even respond to that?
• Every time I called the rep would flip flop what they were saying. Sometimes they would say it wasn't covered by my primary which meant my secondary wouldn't cover it either. Other times my primary would cover it, but my secondary didn't leaving me with a co-pay of $5,300.
• Two times my Orkambi was scheduled to ship out the next day only to be cancelled at the last minute due to "issues."
• Between Thursday and Friday I spent FOUR hours on the phone! About 90% of this time was spent on hold with Accredo.

We eventually found out a lot of these issues were because someone opened two accounts under my name and neither had both my insurance plans. So depending on which account the rep opened there was differing insurance information. Hence the reason some reps said that my nurse or Vertex never called in. They had the wrong account open. After this issue was resolved I assumed we would be good to go. Oh, but no that would be much to easy!

• Accredo kept insisting over and over again that my secondary insurance didn't cover Orkambi although it absolutely DOES cover Orkambi and I was told over and over again that the only way to get my medicine is to fork over $5,300. (The issue was that they were using the wrong authorization number)
• My case had been escalated a few times to people "higher up" in order to try to expedite (HA!) my shipment. However, there was complete lack of communication between the higher up "center of excellence" and the reps. The center of excellence (I use the term excellence very very loosely) made a plan and was told to me by my Vertex Rep. When I called Accrued explaining the plan I was told by both the rep and her supervisor that, "Nope, it doesn't work that way!" I ended up hanging up and calling back until I found a rep that would do what I said.
• I was told by a supervisor and someone in center of excellence that they would call me back within a specific time frame. Did it happen ever? Nope. And when I called them, the rep said the person I needed to speak to was nowhere to be found.
• After about two weeks I talked to a rep that said that maybe I should let me doctors office know I was having trouble getting my medication. Uhhh, if you look at my log they have been calling in for almost two weeks now...I think they know! This seemed to be another common theme... reps that didn't bother to read the notes in my file and wanted to d the bare minimum as far as work goes.

So we finally figured everything out and I was starting to believe I would finally receive my Orkambi. But wait, that would be too easy right?

• I was scheduled to get my Orkambi and although I had already ran out of my supply and it was coming super late I was beyond relieved to know it was on its way. Just when I thought I was safe my phone rang.... it was Accredo... nothing good comes from those calls...
• They were calling to say that their inventory was low and it would take 7 days for me to receive my shipment. SEVEN DAYS!!!
• At this point, I will not mention the things running through my head. However, the rep that delivered the news was one of the few reps that knew how to do her job. She had talked to me several times and I kept telling her if there is ANY inventory ANYWHERE they needed to send it to my pharmacy to get it to me. She told me to hold.... came up with a potential plan and told me she would call back.
• And guess what? Whoever is in charge of updating their inventory electronically didn't do their job (notice a theme??) and they actually did have some to send me. So I was going to miss another entire week of medicine because someone "forgot" to update their inventory list.

And then I got Orkambi and we celebrated. The whole family. Kaylee wouldn't be neglected anymore while I spent all day on hold. My husband didn't have to put up with my mental breakdowns anymore. And best of all I had my medicine. Except, restarting also meant my body had to readjust to Orkambi which my body doesn't do well...

To be continued...