Recently have had two occasions where Shoppers was pushing me to have the pharmacist prescribe a renewal of something, rather than troubleshoot an error with a renewal request through 1) my family doc and 2) a specialist.

In both cases they wanted to charge me $15.

Case #1 I just said no thanks and called my family doctor, thankfully it was sorted out quickly.

Case #2, Shoppers' automated system waited until Saturday at 5pm(!) to notify me that the renewal (which I'd requested on Tuesday at 11am) had not gone through. When I called, they tried to charge me the $15 - but I successfully pressured them to give me a few days of the medication while I sorted out the issue (which is what they used to offer).

I can't help but wonder if this is the 'enshittification' of pharmacy services, where they tell you they'll take care of the automated renewal, but then - oops! - they mess it up and try to squeeze $15 out of a patient who just needs their medicine, and doesn't have time to make a bunch of calls, or trek over to the walk-in clinic or whatever.

Anyone else having similar issues? If so, it might be worth collecting people's stories and raising a fuss.

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[–] patatas@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Believe me, I would love to.

Problem is, I'm low income, I need a couple of moderately expensive medications, and my spouse's insurance is such that I have to pay double if I go to another pharmacy. Honestly it's the only reason I switched to them. I held out for so long, too.

It should be illegal for insurance to provide a different coverage rate solely based on the pharmacy chain.

[–] undefinedValue@programming.dev 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I’ve never heard of this. What insurance company is it? Name and shame.

[–] patatas@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Manulife

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago

Fight that because they came under fire for trying to be in kahootz with Shoppers, I think ombudsman said it wasn't allowed

[–] undefinedValue@programming.dev 1 points 6 months ago

I’m with them too and I’m definitely using a small independent pharmacy…

[–] CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

My wife has Manulife and I haven't heard of this and neither has she. We use Guardian pharmacy.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago

That’s horse shit, sorry you have to deal with that crap.