Retailers, what are your 'go-to' phrases that help you serve patients better.......
This comment was posted to reddit on Dec 03, 2015 at 6:59 am and was deleted within 11 hour(s) and 17 minutes.
Retailers, what are your 'go-to' phrases that help you serve patients better.... but also be more efficient with your words
It's really going to take that long?
Well yes, it does have to be processed through your insurance (For some reason people will back off after I say this)
Someone swipes their card way too early in the transaction
Sorry, the register has it's own order it likes to go in, so I don't think it read your card yet. If you sign first, then it will cooperate and let you swipe. insert smile Usually gets people less frustrated that they have to swipe twice - this happens like 30x per day.
Prior authorization
Your insurance company wants to speak with your doctor before they decide if they will cover your medication. This may be because they want you to try another medication first, or they need more information about why your doctor picked this medication. This can take a few business days, even after your doctor calls the insurance, so if you need it quickly you may want to call and let your doctor know you're waiting on it so they get the call into your insurance company as soon as possible. We do try to follow-up on these, but if you haven't heard from us in a few days, feel free to give us a call and we can try to send the claim to the insurance company to see if they got it to go through.
HIPAA
This tells us who/when we can give health information. While I understand your family member may be fine with us giving information to you, because they're over 18 there are laws that we have to follow regarding their healthcare information, just like the bank/doctors office/etc
You guys called to tell me it was ready! Why isn't it ready?
Our system sends multiple types of calls, let me see, it may have just been calling to ask if you needed it filled. Did you get a chance to listen to the message? (Almost always the answer is no) Yeah, we just were calling to see if you need XX refilled, I can get it ready in the next 15 minutes if you'd like to stick around?
Is it really gonna take that long?
Yeah, we have to bill it through your insurance and process it through the computer system (The computer system one seems to settle people down all the time) If they're still going on about can't you just slap a label on the bottle? I will say something like I could, but we really feel strongly about safety so our pharmacists thoroughly check every medication and prescription to make sure that it doesn't interact with your other medications we have filled and double check it against what your doctor ordered. Once I explain that they often seem much happier and satisfied with the time.