I take fluoxetine. I hate to admit it, as it is the generic for Prozac. I tend to tell people I take it for a touch of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) but the fact is it keeps me a little less curmudgeonly – so the wife tells me (it’s totally hypocritical to be uncomfortable telling this fact as I am always asking my patients “why is a chemical imbalance in your brain that causes symptoms any different to any other part of your body? No one feels bad taking medicines for stomach acid or high blood pressure.)
Anyway, I went to Wally World to fill the prescription that my primary care doctor had e-scripted to the pharmacy there (I know I shouldn’t be fraternizing them with their obnoxious employee practices, but they’re convenient – and cheap. Fluoxetine is on the $4 list i.e. $4 for a month’s supply or $10 for 3 months).
The clerk told me how much it was going to be with a rather quizzical expression – but I didn’t really hear her. It was only when I was about to swipe my credit card that I saw the charge was going to be $279.
At which I had a bit of a shit fit.
I then had to go to “Drop Off” to find out why it was going to be $269 more than it should be. After a bit of dicking about on the computer, the clerk there, told me “it’s because your doctor ordered this as tablets not capsules.”
Luckily I was able to pull rank and persuade the pharmacist that, because I was a doctor, he should do me the courtesy of changing it to generic capsules instead of my having to contact my doctor to change the prescription. But “I will be telling your doctor” he assured me with a slight head wag.
Now I want someone to tell me why in god’s name there is this insane difference in the price, for exactly the same generic medicine tablet form instead of capsules.
