My flu shot experience [View all]

[NewJeffCT]

So, I had to pick my wife up the other day and I got there a bit early. I decided to finally go in to get my flu shot at the local CVS on the way.

I figured I would have to pay the normal $10 or $20 co-pay you have for a flu shot. However, when the CVS pharmacy technician tried to put in my insurance from Cigna, she told me that I was not covered at all. That seemed odd, but since I had filled out the paperwork already and needed to run to get my wife, I decided to give Cigna a call after I got my wife.

Afterwards, I called Cigna and they told me the insurance gives me 100% coverage for immunizations, so I would not need to pay a penny. However, CVS needed to process the flu shot claim through Medical benefits and not Pharmacy benefits. If CVS needed any help, they could just call Cigna, I was told, and Cigna could walk them through the process because they do that all the time.

So, I go back to CVS and told them what Cigna told me, and everybody at the pharmacy there seemed to be totally stumped – how can we process a claim through Medical, we’re a pharmacy? So, the pharmacy technician called Cigna at my insistence. They went back & forth several times and I was waiting there for close to an hour. However, CVS and Cigna could not resolve the situation and figure out how to process the medical claim.

It’s not like the $31.99 flu shot (uninsured cost) is going to force me into bankruptcy or anything, but I’m really frustrated now, and I now have to leave because my daughter needs to get picked up from school this day as well. But, I’m also to the point where I’m insisting I'm not going to pay a penny for this flu shot.

After that is done, I called Cigna back again and we had a three way conference call between myself, Cigna and the local CVS store where I keep getting frustrated. This was after explaining the situation and waiting on hold for another 15-20 minutes. They were still not able to resolve the situation when I had to eat dinner. So, the person at Cigna said they would call me back when the situation was resolved.

That was two days ago. I was too busy to call yesterday, but finally got around to calling Cigna this morning to see if the situation was resolved and ask them why I never got a call back. Cigna has records that I had called, but nothing outstanding in terms of an unresolved issue. I had the Cigna person repeat that, just to make sure I heard it correctly. She also had no record of me needing to be called back. However, they again insist that they process these flu shot claims from CVS through medical all the time, and seem surprised that CVS cannot do it.

So, I called my local CVS again, and they seem to be totally confused by the situation. They insist that they could not have even called insurance until after I got the flu shot, but I told them that wasn’t how it worked the other day when I was in there. However, they can’t seem to enter my insurance information into the system now, either, and don't seem to understand why Medical and not Pharmacy.

I’ve probably spent a good three hours and three trips to CVS just trying to get a friggin’ flu shot resolved. Gotta love our healthcare system.

I guess I’ll go to Walgreens or Rite-Aid now instead.