Brothers and Sisters;
As most of you know, as of Jan 1st '06, our coverage for prescription drugs changed from Medco Health to Express-Scripts. While we were not supposed to lose any covered benefits, some things have changed and a number of problems have arisen.
Our Program works with a select drug list, or Formulary. The medications of the formulary are selected by an independent group of doctors and pharmacists. Unfortunately when the provider changed, the formulary also changed. Some drugs on the old formulary are not on the new one, and visa versa. This caused some medications to raise in price. The plan also calls for generic or formulary alternative substitutions whenever possible. This must first be approved by your doctor. The problem is Express-Scripts is not notifying the members in a timely manner when this needs to be done. The prescriptions are not being filled until the member calls Express looking for their medication. They then have to have their Doctor call Express and explain why he doesn't want you to use a generic substitution. (You can imagine how thrilled the Doctors are about wasting their time doing this). Finally, if they agree with the Doctor,(they don't always) you should have your prescription filled. While the rules have not changed, Express-Scripts interpret and applies them differently than Medico did.
We feel that much of this is unnecessary and gives Express-scripts to much authority over our benefits. (Who knows what you need better than your Doctor?) It has caused some of our benefits to be lowered (higher prices) as well as great inconvenience to some of the membership. To help make our case we have come up with a form to document each individual problem. The information is then faxed to both the manager of insurance benefits, Carnegie pension fund, and the manager of insurance benefits for the U.S.W. in Pittsburgh. This is being done, with help from the International, at all USS local unions across the country. Hopefully this united effort will help resolve these issues soon.
Anyone having any problems with Express-Scripts should call me at the union hall so I can document and send off all the cases. (Including price changes)
Copies of the formulary list are available at the hall or on the internet at www.express-scripts.com Other important numbers are.
Express-Scripts patient care advocate call center………1-800-287-4508
(member phone in refills / check on order / questions / anytime day or night)
Doctors use only ..Phone in prescription……………………1-800-763-5502
Doctors use only..Fax in prescription……………………….1-800-305-2290
Doctor use only…Prior Authorization………………………1-866-247-5005
Full-time student dependent certification forms (use the same USS form as Highmark)
Fax to………..1-314-919-4451
Mail to
Express Scripts Inc
14000 Riverport Drive
St.Louis Mo. 63043
Attn: Manual Eligibility Dept-STLT65
In Solidarity
Donald B Tribby….Benefits Committee
Hopefully all of our members have received their new P.I.B. books in the mail. For anyone that has not received their book, you can use our website to link into the U.S. Steel Benefits site (click on links, click on US Steel Employee Benefits and log-in with your ID and password).
United States Steel has contracted with a new prescription drug administrator, as of January 1st. The previous administrator was Merck Medco, and they are replaced by Express Script. We are told that our members will not need to turn any paperwork in, as a result of this change, and that we will be receiving new prescription drug cards in the mail. Of course, our negotiated benefits on prescription drugs will remain the same. Please contact the Local Union 1066 hall, and ask for the Insurance Committee with any insurance questions (887-0591).
