“Hello, Dr. _______, this is Jesse La Tour, your patient.”
“Yes.”
“Sorry it’s taken me a few days to get back to you. I’m just calling because I called the pharmacy to refill my prescription and they said you denied it.”
“Yes, I can’t refill it because you need to come in and see me.”
“I know, but I don’t have health insurance right now, and I’m on unemployment and the prescription alone costs $300 a month.”
“You are paying out of pocket?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I mentioned that to you before. I asked if there was a different medication I could go on, and you said it would be dangerous for me to go off this one.”
“Well, call me on Tuesday and we can talk about it.”
“If I call on Tuesday, I will have gone without my medication for four days,” I said, “The medication you said it would be dangerous for me to go off.”
“Well, I called you earlier in the week, you could have called me sooner. You need to be more responsible about calling me back,” he said.
“Sorry I didn’t call you back right away, but I’m talking to you now and I really need this medication refilled,” I said.
“Call me on Tuesday and we’ll talk,” he said.
“So you are going to let me go without my medication for four days just to make a point about me being more responsible?” I asked.
Awkward pause.
“Well, no,” he said, “I am going to give you one more refill and tell you that you need to find a different provider.”
“Alright, cool.”
