Do You Need Patanol That Badly?

A patient had a Patanol script filled on 5/10 for 1 gtt ou bid. She has Medicaid. She called today, the 19th, and asks for a refill. I said, "are you out of eye drops because you should have plenty left"? She said she's completely out as if MY question was the dumb one. So I ran the claim through and sure enough, it rejected. Medicaid won't pay for it again until the 29th. I'd like to point out here that the 29th is still too damn soon.

And people wonder why health care costs go up.

She asks me the cost of Patanol without any insurance. I just told her it would be over $100 because usually Medicaid patients' responses to such an answer are "oh! nevermind!" and they hang up the phone (Actual retail price? About $120). But this woman wanted to piss me off. She had the nerve to contemplate paying the FULL PRICE of these damn drops while on MEDICAID. If you can afford the retail price of Patanol because your damn eyes itch, then get the fuck off of welfare! Stop taking my god damned tax dollars you fuck!