Where Did They Go

CP: Let's play a game of where did they go?

ME: Why?

CP: I have this hatred of Outcomes and MTMs in general. 

MICE ELF: Why? Are you saying these aren't helpful? 

CP: Another post for another time but I'm saying they're a waste of time for us to fight to keep the money the insurances paid us and that it is improbable the 90 days supplies and phone calls from MTMs make patients take their medication correctly. 

ME: Thanks for the clarification. 

CP: Where do these medications go? People always say "I take these EVERY DAY! I never miss a dose. I never take more than I am supposed to take", yet here we are, 120 days in to a 90 days supply and you still have plenty of loaves and fishes to go around a few more times. 

MICE ELF: Where DO they go? 

CP: I had a guy this week looking for his one refill; no, not that one, the other one he can't remember. 

CP: Your two other medications are past due. 

Maybe It's Meth, Eh?: No I don't. I just picked them up. 

CP: If by <spits word> "just" you mean 99 days ago, then yes, you "just" picked up your 90 days supply 99 days ago. Which means you should have run out <checks math, does air calculations for dramatic effect> 9 days ago? 

MIME: I still have at least month left. 

CP: You take them every day. 

MIME: Yes. 

CP: Never miss a dose? 

MICE ELF: <they don't call him never-misses-the-mark-michaels> 

ME: <let's see who gets that reference> 

CP: Stop, you two!

MIME: Never miss a dose and it's still once a day. 

ME: I guess you're asking "where do they go" in a rhetorical sense?

CP: NO! I really want to know where they go! How do they make these supplies last so long? Outcomes tells us patients are more compliant if they receive 4x90 days supplies per year, right?

MICE ELF: So they say. 

CP: But just because we FILLED THEM, it does not mean the patients TAKE THEM! As evidenced by our MIME up above. 

ME: You could also ask: "How do they make them last so long?'

MICE ELF: <sings "marijuana in your brain. . . "

ME: Stop. No one will get that one. 

CP: Ho DO they last so long? Four fills of 90 days should last 360 days. EVERYONE tells us patients are more compliant yet all I see are patients requesting to be taken off of automatic refills and being habitually late when they call the refills in themselves. 

ME: I have the solution. 

MICE ELF: An Epi-Fanny? 

ME: You mean epiphany? 

MICE ELF: Tomato -To-mah-to. 

CP: Let's hear it. 

ME: We start a service like DoorDash or Uber and send an employee to each patient's house to ensure they take their doses of medication. 

CP: Don't let the PBMs hear that. They'll make us do that to collect our own DIR fees. Each visit nets us tenths pennies on the dollar.

ME: Call it DrugDash?

MICE ELF: Either way, patient responsibility is not OUR responsibility. Just like you can't mandate personal hygiene or car maintenance, you can't mandate personal prescription compliance AND have NOT be the end users' responsibility. 

CP: You can give a person an education, but you can't make him use it. You can give a person medication. . .