Another good thing

So, while out running errands (getting gas and getting money for tomorrow), I realized I was close to the pharmacy I use. So I figured, well, even though I don't have my prescription bottles with me, they can look me up, I'll ask about synching up my medications so instead of two trips a month, I have just one.

I wound up talking to the owner (or one of the owners; I'm not sure if his brother is still active). Explained the situation, saying "I know BC/BS changed some of their medicine plans..." and told him about the one-month refill, with the aim of "could you please synch them up?"

He said that certainly they could, but..."Let me check, because what happened to you probably shouldn't have happened."

He pushed a few buttons on the computer, and said, "Yeah, you might have got a new person who didn't know we give three months as the standard when your doctor writes you that long of a refill. Both of these meds are cheap and they're maintenance meds; there is no reason you should have to come out here every month."

And he pushed a few more buttons, and said "Come in Monday and you can get three-month refills of both."

So, hooray. This makes my life considerably easier. And maybe it's a lesson to me: I am far too prone at times to accept suboptimal situations because "that's how it has to be now" and also "I don't want to seem demanding." But I did go in and approach it pleasantly - I wasn't angry, I wasn't demanding "You need to fix this!" - I more took the tack of "If you could do this [the synching up of the monthly refills] for me, it would make my life easier and I'd appreciate it" and instead got "Oh, we can do better than that for you!"

Really, about 80% of the time when I push myself to do an "ask" like that, the answer I get is either "yes, we can do what you are asking for" or even "We can do even better than that" (as happened here). I don't know why I expect to always get hosed on things like this and be told "no," but I do.

But yeah. It DID seem like a monumentally silly policy for BC/BS to only pay for a month of blood pressure medication at a go, because it's not like I'll be going off it, and if I ran out and had to go a few days without (like: if the weather were bad or something), they might have a *more expensive* health issue on their hands than paying for some cheap generic beta blocker pills. But this pharmacy has been so good in the past I assumed that they knew the policy. (Hopefully he looks up who fills it and gently tells them they don't have to do it that way).