Drug Store Operations

Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by Alpha8472 »

I work at a pharmacy, and it has been very difficult to hire or keep any employees. The pay is low and the stress is high. You constantly get verbally abused by mentally unstable patients needing psych medications or you have to deal with drug addicts who are trying to obtain Norco or other controlled drugs.

It is a daily battle to get the job done. You battle insurance companies that refuse to pay for medications, or you battle reckless doctors who make medication errors. It is your job to ensure the safety of patients and you get yelled by impatient overdemanding customers.

Most employees hate working late. It causes the dreaded sleep rhythm disruption. One day you work until 10 PM, the next day you have to get up at 6 AM.

Pharmacies might be closing early because of corporate metrics. If not enough customers pick up prescriptions late at night, then the corporate office deems the pharmacy employees as unproductive and then cut their work hours. The corporate office knows the pharmacy only gets paid by insurance companies when prescriptions are picked up. If pick ups are down, then the pharmacy hours are cut. Why stay open so late if only 3 customers pick up every hour at night?
Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by Alpha8472 »

My Kaiser Permanente health insurance now covers 4 free COVID self test kits from outside pharmacies. I used a Walmart and surprisingly they had lots of test kits in stock. Demand for tests has gone down, so they are in stock most of the time now. Kaiser only covers the BinaxNow kits, but there is another brand for sale.

At Walmart, they take your information and insurance card. There are no forms to fill out and the tests are picked up at the pick up window after about 15 minutes.
luckysaver
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by luckysaver »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 18th, 2022, 1:11 am My Kaiser Permanente health insurance now covers 4 free COVID self test kits from outside pharmacies. I used a Walmart and surprisingly they had lots of test kits in stock. Demand for tests has gone down, so they are in stock most of the time now. Kaiser only covers the BinaxNow kits, but there is another brand for sale.

At Walmart, they take your information and insurance card. There are no forms to fill out and the tests are picked up at the pick up window after about 15 minutes.
The current test kits most commonly in stock now are ON-GO, BinaxNow, iHealth, and FlowFlex. Before the Omicron surge, CVS was selling FlowFlex kits for $9.99 at the checkstand display and the Kroger had BinaxNow for $24 each. After the Omicron surge, now retailers are charging double or triple for a FlowFlex kit - One supermarket chain in SoCal (Superior Grocers) is selling the very same FlowFlex kits for $24!

ON-GO and iHealth kits are currently the ones that many local governments are giving away for free at drive-up Point-of-Dispensing sites or through local public libraries.

luckysaver
Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Demand for COVID vaccinations and COVID tests have reached a low point. There is virtually zero demand for COVID vaccinations or tests now. Now pharmacy business is down. For some reason people also do not seem to be filling as many prescriptions now. Have people just given up on taking their medications? Or are they just preoccupied and distracted?
storewanderer
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 28th, 2022, 11:01 pm Demand for COVID vaccinations and COVID tests have reached a low point. There is virtually zero demand for COVID vaccinations or tests now. Now pharmacy business is down. For some reason people also do not seem to be filling as many prescriptions now. Have people just given up on taking their medications? Or are they just preoccupied and distracted?
How short is the shelf life on many of the vaccinations and test kits? I wonder if we will see a push to move the test kits before they expire. Do they really expire? I have used expired OTC like cough syrup in the past and have not had any issues and think it worked. I also read some of the test kits that were sent from US Government via US Mail were contaminated somehow (maybe that was bad info, I did not cross check my "news" source against mainstream sources).

It seems these retailers that will "bill your insurance" should be able to move the test kits to customers who want them by simply offering them for free (we will just bill your insurance) with a prescription pick up then the pharmacy go ahead and pro-actively billing the insurance once the customer approves of it.
Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by Alpha8472 »

The insurance companies usually cover just the BinaxNow brand tests when you bill insurance cards at the pharmacy. These expire in January 2023. There are so many sitting unsold on the shelf now. The On/Go brand COVID tests are not covered by insurance cards at the pharmacy and they really do not sell. Customers can try to pay for On Go tests and then submit receipts to their insurance companies later, but they might get rejected for being out of network or some other excuse.

COVID tests should not be used after the expiration date supposedly because they lose sensitivity after the expiration date. Of course this is just an arbitrary date, and the manufacturers probably do this so that people will run out and buy more tests kits due to the expiration of kits being less than 1 year.

The Pfizer vaccine has different versions. One kind needs to be mixed before it is given. When mixed for the day the vial is good for 12 hours. When unmixed, the vial expires after 10 weeks in the refrigerator. The premixed version does not need mixing and has similar storage requirements before expiring.

Moderna vaccines can be stored in the refrigerator for 30 days. Once a vial has been used, it is good for 12 hours.

The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is no longer manufactured.
BillyGr
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: March 1st, 2022, 2:49 am COVID tests should not be used after the expiration date supposedly because they lose sensitivity after the expiration date. Of course this is just an arbitrary date, and the manufacturers probably do this so that people will run out and buy more tests kits due to the expiration of kits being less than 1 year.
Could also be that they didn't want to date too far out without data to know how long they would really last (given that these kits haven't existed that long it seems unlikely testing has been done to know that as of yet)?
Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by Alpha8472 »

I have noticed that many stores are selling COVID self tests that are nearing expiration. The On/Go brand seems to be expiring at the end of April 2022. How is this possible if the tests only started showing up in stores a few months ago?

Maybe these tests were made overseas and they have been sitting on container ships for a year?

The stores are overstocked with these COVID tests. People are not buying them. They are covered by insurance at the pharmacy counter too. I used my insurance and they were free of charge.

The BinaxNow covid tests say they are made in the USA and even they are not sold out. Most of them seem to expire in January 2023.
storewanderer
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: March 13th, 2022, 11:55 am I have noticed that many stores are selling COVID self tests that are nearing expiration. The On/Go brand seems to be expiring at the end of April 2022. How is this possible if the tests only started showing up in stores a few months ago?

Maybe these tests were made overseas and they have been sitting on container ships for a year?

The stores are overstocked with these COVID tests. People are not buying them. They are covered by insurance at the pharmacy counter too. I used my insurance and they were free of charge.

The BinaxNow covid tests say they are made in the USA and even they are not sold out. Most of them seem to expire in January 2023.
I heard many COVID test kits were being made with expirations of only 3-6 months from manufacture date. Many of these have a manufacture date on them. I have not personally looked at the On/Go boxes to see if those have a date but at least 2 other COVID test kit boxes of other brands I've dealt with (can't remember the brands) have a manufacture date and an expiration date.

I think the expiration date thing on these is simply a scam to cause additional waste and additional purchase of more test kits by those who "stocked up to have them around." I don't think they really expire in April 2022. But I am sure use of an expired COVID test kit could be considered not useful and nobody who is making decisions (such as- do we let this person work today or not) would want to use an expired COVID test.

It will be interesting if we see FDA release a statement extending the expiration date on these test kits.
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Re: Drug Store Operations

Post by bryceleinan »

I was surprised at how seamless things were for me at Safeway Pharmacy, compared to Smith's or Walmart. Went there for a couple of scripts, and while they had to order one of them (most pharmacies do), the folks were efficient and friendly, better service than I received at Smith's.
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