CVS Caremark annoys the shit out of me. After my IUD saga last year, it turns out that CVS Caremark supplied the actual IUD to my doctor, and Aetna paid whatever they contract to pay.

So CVS Caremark sent me bills for 6 months saying I owed... $0.00. I finally called them and asked why they were sending me bills if I didn't owe, and the woman said it was because Aetna "hadn't paid the full amount," and my account was still "open." She then proceeded to tell me to call Aetna and tell them to pay CVS Caremark.

Uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure I told her I'd get right on it. I never called Aetna. Seriously? Two large companies who have ongoing supply/billing issues with each other have a process in place to deal with reimbursement, and it is NOT called "have the patient call her insurance and tell them to pay CVS Caremark."

All this bad customer service makes me want to sing a short song of praise for Geico.

Not only has their roadside service been extremely helpful on multiple occasions while the car was breaking down, but the policy side has also been very helpful, happily adjusting our policy when we weren't driving for four months.

Including backdating our renewal so we were only charged $10 to tow the car to the garage to get fixed.

So: Geico - the Nordstrom of car insurance.

I also have to praise Luscious Garage who not only felt bad that fixing our starter clutch caused our entire transmission to fail (we had been warned this was a possibility but elected to go with the starter clutch fix) - they put their money where their mouths were and ate $800 in costs on the transmission so we could get a new one.

My kids usually start the bickering in the car on the way home, too. Joy.

A teammate of mine made these.

[link]

Meatloaf cupcakes with brown gravy filling, mashed potato "frosting" topped with bacon. BACON! *sigh*

Geico was pretty awesome. When D and I got married and finally decided to put both cars on one policy, Geico insured both out cars, same coverage, for like $50 less than was D had been paying for his alone.

Re: barter... I once designed a show in return for the painting that is hanging in my kitchen. I would have to find something more practical to put food on the table though.

I am glad that nothing important was dependent on me today. I managed to break my hairbrush simply brushing my hair and failed to put grounds in the coffee maker this morning. I already had creamer in my travel mug when I realized that I had a pot of hot water, but no coffee.

My OB's office has amazing insurance wranglers. The most impressive was when they pre-authorized a sonogram while I was having it.

meara, with our CVS Caremark (totally agreed that it BLOWS), we can get a 3 month refill at a CVS. In fact, after 2 months on any meds, you are required to get 3 month refills after that.

My med issue is, of course, Grace-related. She takes Xoponex that Caremark pays part of and then Medi-Cal picks up the $90 copay. Yes. $90. But Medi-Cal only pays the copay for 8.5 weeks of the 12 we need for Grace. So we cover it with albuterol, inhalers and lots of wishes. It's headache inducing.

My OB's office has amazing insurance wranglers.

Mine too! She got an authorization for a non-network hospital while I was in labor and the authorization covered not only ambulance transport and the c-section, but also the millions and millions of dollars of NICU expenses.

Going for three...

ita and other hospital-ly types, have you seen the state hospital chargemasters before? They detail in an excel spreadsheet all the billables for a given hospital. (For example, at Huntington a 4% Cocaine solution (!!!) is $149.... Grace's trache tubes are $330+ each, a day in the NICU is over $5000).

It's FASCINATING to see what is available and what it costs. Centinela charges $21 for a single 200 mg Advil!

Amazing.

Anyhow,

we can get a 3 month refill at a CVS. In fact, after 2 months on any meds, you are required to get 3 month refills after that.

See, there's the rub--I had already filled one and thought I was being proactive ordering by mail...and there's no CVS where I live.