An erroneous letter has jeopardized business for a Shawano pharmacy. Tim Dreier of Dreier Pharmacy says he first became aware of the error last Thursday.
“A customer brought in a letter that said Dreier Pharmacy is not a preferred pharmacy and they should go to these other pharmacy’s listed,” Dreier told TCHDailyNews.com
But on the Network Health website, Dreier was still listed as a preferred pharmacy and when he called Network Health, they confirmed as much. Dreier was on the phone all day assuring customers that the letter was incorrect.
When he looked into it a little more, Dreier discovered that Express Scripts–a Fortune 100 company that processes Dreier’s prescriptions–was the source of the faulty letter. Dreier got a letter from Express Scripts where they confirmed sending out a notice to approximately 2,600 Network Health customers incorrectly stating that Dreier Pharmacy was not a preferred pharmacy. Express Scripts did say they would call back those customers, but Dreier isn’t sure how effective that will be.
“You know how that it is, you get all those calls for people with donations and everything else,” Dreier said. “Even some of my customers that came in today said that they don’t answer those calls.”
Dreier has already heard from other pharmacy’s about customers who are moving their prescriptions. He says usually he will immediately send over the information, but he has asked the other pharmacy’s to allow him the opportunity to talk to his customer’s and inform them that Dreier Pharmacy, is indeed a Network Health preferred member.
Dreier said he was thankful for the many loyal customers who immediately checked with him.
In an email to TCHDailyNews.com, Express Scripts spokesperson Jennifer Luddy issued the following statement.
“Express Scripts experienced a rare error in a letter mailed to NHP members where we mistakenly noted that Dreier Pharmacy would no longer be part of the members’ preferred pharmacy network.
When we identified our error, we took swift action to proactively notify Mr. Dreier. Pharmacy outreach took place Friday night.
We’ve also taken swift action to correct this information with NHP members who received the incorrect information. Specifically, we are calling all impacted members, and will make 3 attempts to speak directly with the member. We also are mailing apology and correction letters to these members.
Outbound calls began Saturday. We’re currently making our second round of calls to members we did not connect with directly on our first round.
It is important to note all prescriptions that NHP members have filled at Dreier Pharmacy since January 1 have processed properly, meaning the member did not pay a higher copay for using this pharmacy. They paid their applicable copay for a preferred pharmacy.
We are looking into the root cause of the error with this mailing to ensure it does not happen again.”