Drug cost to retiree's Med plans way overstated

After a lot of work, research and time by my wife and other AZ alumni out there , the AZ Benefits Center now has agreed that Express Scripts (Medco) has been reporting prescription costs incorrectly. They have been charging the full costs of all the products charged, including all AZ products being used by you and your covered family members for more than the last year. In many cases (including mine), this amounts to many thousands of dollars yearly against your maximum of $25,0000 per person. The update on costs that you received are more than likely to be grossly overstated.
The Benefits Center told me that they will make the corrections as quickly as possible and send out updates to all of the retirees involved. Be aware of this, check your records and try to keep as current as possible. Make sure that you receive the updates, and be sure that the corrections are made properly.

AZ Benefits assured me that the mistakes were made to just about all of the retirees still in the plan, and it was entirely the fault of Express Scripts and not AZ. Wanna Bet!

 

See above....

As of today (8/7/13), I have heard nothing from anyone involved with the retiree health program. No corrections, apologies or anything at all. It is as if I never complained, and no promises of a correction had been given.
I will press on, however, I know that there are hundreds of other in the same situation as me. This is costing us, and saving thousands of dollars for AZ.
What a surprise, AZ being a s--t. Shocking!

 

Thanks for your efforts. Not surprised though, just like overpayment of pensions. Please note your script choices. I take Zestril and it seems AZ only manufactures 40 mg. had dr change script so it is now free. These continuing errors never cease to amaze me. If we had done our jobs this badly, we wouldn't have made it. Please keep us updated. Again, thanks.

 

My wife and I have been fighting Express Scripts for about six months now over the $4,000 that they have charged her AZ medical plan in error. We have compiled overwhelming proof of the excess charges of their charging her account full price for AZ products since early 2012. Proof was faxed to Express Scripts (and received by them) over three months ago, and we have as today (11/03/13) have heard nothing except that they are looking at it. Needless to say AZ wants nothing to do with this. What a surprise!

I suspect that this is a common problem with Express Scripts, and urge all retirees with active AZ health care accounts to check to see if they have the same problem...now.

 

Similar problem here. Resolved after months and months of going back and forth. We wrote letters to the president of Express Scripts (George Paz), the vice president of AZ human resources (Lynn Tetrault) , the president of Aetna and to the State Attorney Generals office in the state you reside. Don't involve AZ benefits. They are an outside company hired by AZ and really do nothing for you. Outline your case and send it certified mail.
Good luck!

 

Sent my own certified letters recently, just as you did above. How long did it take for you to get a response?
Thank you.

 

About 2 weeks. If no response from AZ beyond that time frame call Lynn Tetrault directly in Wilmington. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Will follow your course exactly. This thing has to be corrected. I only wonder how many more of our friends and their families have been short changed as we have, and either don't know about it, or possibly not understand the scope of what is going on.
I will try to follow up on this thread. It is important that we get to the bottom of this.

 

This note is a continuation of above;
As of today , after sending letters to George Paz, President of Express Scripts and having over ten long telephone conversations with a person on his staff (who eventually admitted that their figures were over $3,000 above my wife's actual medical expenditures), we still have not received any written evidence that anything has actually been changed by Express Scripts, nor are they returning any of my calls at this time....nor has our own Lynn Terrault of AZ HR returned any of our calls.
Today we conferred in a telephone conversation with the Florida State Division of Consumer Services, Department of Financial Services. They will directly call Express Scripts and discuss the problem with them, and then contact us of their reply and possible actions

My wife went on medicare in 2007. As we see it, and virtually admitted by Express Scripts, they used my starting Medicare date rather than hers when adjusting her 2013 Annual Notice of Lifetime Benefits Maximum.This may be a computer glitch that is affecting many other retirees in the AZ Retiree Health Care Plan,Medicare Indemnity Option. Check it out for yourself....it could be a serious problem for many of us,

I will keep this site up to date when changes occur.
Good luck to all of you out there.

 

Same thing happened to me after I went on disability leave for breast cancer with 3 operations and lymph-edema from total lymph node disection of 21 nodes in R arm/chest. and was granted Social security disability leave after the first application. AZ screwed up my resignation date which then affected Express Rx ; who also screwed up and I called AZ and Express Rx- it took them a year to get it right, and then Aetna did the same thing. Actually Aetna started dipping into the medicare annuity funds ( $25,.000 max) for retired AZ people and were using those funds for payments for medical purposes rather than RX and dental. I wrote them several letters with pictures of the screens on which the running tab of the indemnity plan ($25K) was posted, as well as bogus Rx charges for various meds. I was on that sight every week and they knew it because they can track. Within a few weeks I noticed that the amount of the $25,000 I supposedly used was changed and there were at least 15 corrections to the pharmacy page. I still go on there at least once every other month to check it out...and when I see that they use $$ out of that indemnity money for anything but Rx and Dental copays, I either write to them or call them. It is amazing to see the redistribution of those funds going on when they realize they have been found out!!