Curious also if this is Canada-wide or just in Ontario:

Recently have had two occasions where Shoppers was pushing me to have the pharmacist prescribe a renewal of something, rather than troubleshoot an error with a renewal request through 1) my family doc and 2) a specialist.

In both cases they wanted to charge me $15.

Case #1 I just said no thanks and called my family doctor, thankfully it was sorted out quickly.

Case #2, Shoppers’ automated system waited until Saturday at 5pm(!) to notify me that the renewal (which I’d requested on Tuesday at 11am) had not gone through. When I called, they tried to charge me the $15 - but I successfully pressured them to give me a few days of the medication while I sorted out the issue (which is what they used to offer).

I can’t help but wonder if this is the ‘enshittification’ of pharmacy services, where they tell you they’ll take care of the automated renewal, but then - oops! - they mess it up and try to squeeze $15 out of a patient who just needs their medicine, and doesn’t have time to make a bunch of calls, or trek over to the walk-in clinic or whatever.

Anyone else having similar issues? If so, it might be worth collecting people’s stories and raising a fuss.

    • patatas@sh.itjust.worksOP
      5·
      3 days ago

      Believe me, I would love to.

      Problem is, I’m low income, I need a couple of moderately expensive medications, and my spouse’s insurance is such that I have to pay double if I go to another pharmacy. Honestly it’s the only reason I switched to them. I held out for so long, too.

      It should be illegal for insurance to provide a different coverage rate solely based on the pharmacy chain.