W2R
Moderator Emeritus
I am 75 years old, and grew up with the stereotypical "kindly old pharmacist" who owned his own store down the street, knew me by name on sight, knew my medical history, and did a wonderful job for me. But times are changing and that kind of pharmacy seems to have been mostly replaced by modern chain pharmacies like Walgreens or CVS. I went with CVS at first.
About 10 years ago a local CVS drive-through accidently gave me a big bottle of methadone (instead of lisinopril for my blood pressure). I took it back but was very turned off that that could even happen, and immediately switched to Walgreens for all my medications. No problems until I was put on Ozempic, which I couldn't get from them more than once every 3-4 months but I figured that was due to the nationwide shortages.
But.... last August my doctor put me on insulin injections instead of Ozempic, and ever since then my Walgreens has been absolutely nightmarish! They will say it is too soon to refill, that my insurance doesn't cover it yet, that my insurance will never cover it so it will be almost a thousand dollars, that I have no more refills available to get, that they are out of insulin (!) and can't get any locally, any excuse that you can possibly imagine so that I can't get my insulin. This has gone on for three refills. Mostly I have had to deal with it by calling my doctor and getting him directly involved, but he has other things to do.
So anyway, I figured out a way to deal with my nightmarish Walgreens, and today it WORKED. What it took, was to switch to a different Walgreens (only about 2 miles away). Today we ordered my insulin online at 10 AM, and by noon Frank was able to pick up the correct amount of the correct insulin for the correct price after insurance at that Walgreen's drive through.
TL; DR is that just because they all say "Walgreens" doesn't mean you get the same quality service from their pharmacy. Just wanted to let you know in case it is helpful, plus I am feeling so jubilant I had to post about it.
(Also I found out a month or two ago that in New Orleans, I can get insulin syringes from Amazon without a prescription, so I don't have to fight with Walgreens over those either. Not true everywhere, though.)
About 10 years ago a local CVS drive-through accidently gave me a big bottle of methadone (instead of lisinopril for my blood pressure). I took it back but was very turned off that that could even happen, and immediately switched to Walgreens for all my medications. No problems until I was put on Ozempic, which I couldn't get from them more than once every 3-4 months but I figured that was due to the nationwide shortages.
But.... last August my doctor put me on insulin injections instead of Ozempic, and ever since then my Walgreens has been absolutely nightmarish! They will say it is too soon to refill, that my insurance doesn't cover it yet, that my insurance will never cover it so it will be almost a thousand dollars, that I have no more refills available to get, that they are out of insulin (!) and can't get any locally, any excuse that you can possibly imagine so that I can't get my insulin. This has gone on for three refills. Mostly I have had to deal with it by calling my doctor and getting him directly involved, but he has other things to do.
So anyway, I figured out a way to deal with my nightmarish Walgreens, and today it WORKED. What it took, was to switch to a different Walgreens (only about 2 miles away). Today we ordered my insulin online at 10 AM, and by noon Frank was able to pick up the correct amount of the correct insulin for the correct price after insurance at that Walgreen's drive through.
TL; DR is that just because they all say "Walgreens" doesn't mean you get the same quality service from their pharmacy. Just wanted to let you know in case it is helpful, plus I am feeling so jubilant I had to post about it.
(Also I found out a month or two ago that in New Orleans, I can get insulin syringes from Amazon without a prescription, so I don't have to fight with Walgreens over those either. Not true everywhere, though.)