CVS Prescriber Calls

[SClENCE]

At least learning this junk on will give me a nice advantage if I ever do work for CVS, and if I don't it will only make my new employer look great haha

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[SClENCE]

For action note follow through you need to dial the number and reach the person. The phone system knows if the number is dialed and it knows if the other line answered. I don't know for sure if you have to have the screen up when you dial. I think not, since what if you have more than one rx for a given patient. You don't have to call them multiple times.

The answer is to make the calls. Make as many as you can. You also always need to update the patient's phone number.

BIG HINT:
Start now to get as many people signed up for text alerts. Shortly, you will be able to text and have it count as a call made.

I thought text alerts only applied to tell a patient if a script is ready or due for a refill? Am I missing something or are you referring to a possible future function of the system?

I didn't realize that the system knows if the other line is answered... I'm surprised that this isn't the case with prescriber calls/PCQ calls.

 

[Old Timer]

I'm really glad you guys are talking about this because if I was a prospective pharmacy student who knew he wanted to do retail pharmacy, they would change their major or bust their ass to get into a hospital system.

Really. Just shows you are clueless about what pharmacies do. I have made doctor calls for the entire 33 years I have been a pharmacist. I made doctor when I worked for independents, small chains and large national chains. With almost 8,000 locations CVS needs a system in place to see the calls are being made. I'm not saying it's a perfect system, because it clearly has flaws. If you don't want to make doctor calls, go into a different field.

 

[Old Timer]

I thought text alerts only applied to tell a patient if a script is ready or due for a refill? Am I missing something or are you referring to a possible future function of the system?

I didn't realize that the system knows if the other line is answered... I'm surprised that this isn't the case with prescriber calls/PCQ calls.

Coming to a theater near you.

 

[SClENCE]

Coming to a theater near you.

This could be quite helpful. What are your thoughts on ScriptSync? I think it's a great idea but nonadherance and insurance rejections could make it a potential nightmare.

 

[Old Timer]

This could be quite helpful. What are your thoughts on ScriptSync? I think it's a great idea but nonadherance and insurance rejections could make it a potential nightmare.

Depends on the neighborhood. As long as people are willing to pay an extra copay to sync, it should work well. I try to not pass full judgement until I see it live and in color.

 

[FarmD711]

Depends on the neighborhood. As long as people are willing to pay an extra copay to sync, it should work well. I try to not pass full judgement until I see it live and in color.

A buddy of mine works in the region where it is being piloted. The rest of the region was supposed to get it yesterday but rollout has been delayed because the update is so glitchy and causing problems in the couple of stores that have already gone live according to him.

 

[dblock05]

I'm really glad you guys are talking about this because if I was a prospective pharmacy student who knew he wanted to do retail pharmacy, they would change their major or bust their ass to get into a hospital system.

I'll make an extra 30-40k to do this than to take the paycuy working at a hospital.

 

[BenJammin]

Depends on the neighborhood. As long as people are willing to pay an extra copay to sync, it should work well. I try to not pass full judgement until I see it live and in color.

Once again, in class Old Timer fashion, you completely miss the point. It has nothing to do with making the calls but the fact that you are graded on those calls. Not just on the result but the way you got to the result as well. Did you learn that in pharmacy school?

I'll make an extra 30-40k to do this than to take the paycuy working at a hospital.

Don't be so sure of yourself. Walgreens is offering 119k to new grads here in DFW and that would be a paycut for me.

 

[Old Timer]

Once again, in class Old Timer fashion, you completely miss the point. It has nothing to do with making the calls but the fact that you are graded on those calls. Not just on the result but the way you got to the result as well. Did you learn that in pharmacy school?

Yes, I did. There was always the teacher that was a *****, asked stupid questions. I did my best to give him/her what they wanted so I could get out of school and earn a living. This is the same thing. I am making six figures. I would take a huge pay cut to leave where I am so I do what is required to keep my corporate overlords happy and keep the money flowing, just like the ***** professor in school. Give them what they want, no matter what I think about it.

 

[RX2090]

I have a question about this: how come request calls increase out of the blue? I can have 17 calls one day, and the next day out of the blue I have 95 calls when I come in.

And for some odd reason, they're always due at 12 pm. So the system expects me to make 95 calls by 12 pm? It makes no sense. I know that's when MD's are in, but why the jump from 15 to 95?

Also, I've noticed most of the ones in QV are duplicates. Meaning, they are in there with a request, but the script is actually ready or was picked up a day ago. Should I delete these? But I won't get credit if I do that....a friend told me to deny them, call the patient and tell them their script is ready to be picked up....any thoughts on this?

I think them getting rid of the ready fill enrollment line from everywhere except for drop off will help immensely with unnecessary MD calls

 

[SClENCE]

I have a question about this: how come request calls increase out of the blue? I can have 17 calls one day, and the next day out of the blue I have 95 calls when I come in.

And for some odd reason, they're always due at 12 pm. So the system expects me to make 95 calls by 12 pm? It makes no sense. I know that's when MD's are in, but why the jump from 15 to 95?

Also, I've noticed most of the ones in QV are duplicates. Meaning, they are in there with a request, but the script is actually ready or was picked up a day ago. Should I delete these? But I won't get credit if I do that....a friend told me to deny them, call the patient and tell them their script is ready to be picked up....any thoughts on this?

I think them getting rid of the ready fill enrollment line from everywhere except for drop off will help immensely with unnecessary MD calls

From my understanding the system has to see a phone call to the doctor's number on file to get credit no matter what the situation is. So if the script is already done/picked up, you might technically have to call the doctor before you deny it. I personally would just call the number, let it ring once, hang up and deny it. I don't know if this is true or not but based off of what I have read this would be the case. Some people claim that you have to be on the line for at least 30 seconds in which case I would just deny/delete it and forget about getting credit but nobody seems to know how long you really have to be on the line.

Like I said this info is purely based off of what I read here and as long as you are doing the calls to the best of your ability and using your best judgement you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

[RX2090]

Can we confirm the 30 second thing? Everyone tells me something different. My rx Sup said it literally has to be at least ONE second. Meaning the phones have to connect, and the timer has to say at least 1 second and you get the credit. No matter what, as long as the timer starts.

Another Sup told me 10 seconds. One of us should muster up the courage and call the help desk and ask. Lol

 

[SClENCE]

Can we confirm the 30 second thing? Everyone tells me something different. My rx Sup said it literally has to be at least ONE second. Meaning the phones have to connect, and the timer has to say at least 1 second and you get the credit. No matter what, as long as the timer starts.

Another Sup told me 10 seconds. One of us should muster up the courage and call the help desk and ask. Lol

Is there a way to view your score in live time? Is the score measured daily? There has to be a way of testing it... knowing how the metrics work is the first step in meeting the target so you would think this info would be available lol.

 

[RX2090]

It's a weekly thing. I'm testing something with prescriber follow up, so I'll know more Next Wednesday when the scores come out. I've been calling the doctors once, since one call gives you credit for multiple patients. I then hit the WCB and call the patient and tell them to follow up with their prescriber. If I'm up against the clock that is. Most of the time they don't even answer, at which point I hang up and hit left voicemail. Easy pickings.

I should be at 80% prescriber follow up AND ANFT next week using this system. If I'm not, it's because of the timer. I'll report back I guess

 

[SClENCE]

It's a weekly thing. I'm testing something with prescriber follow up, so I'll know more Next Wednesday when the scores come out. I've been calling the doctors once, since one call gives you credit for multiple patients. I then hit the WCB and call the patient and tell them to follow up with their prescriber. If I'm up against the clock that is. Most of the time they don't even answer, at which point I hang up and hit left voicemail. Easy pickings.

I should be at 80% prescriber follow up AND ANFT next week using this system. If I'm not, it's because of the timer. I'll report back I guess

Are prescriber follow up calls the refill request calls/PA requests or something entirely different?

This system should work assuming the system counts the single call for every patient like they claim.

 

[RX2090]

Same thing. Prescriber follow up includes refill requests, PA Calls, and prescriber consult (if anyone actually uses this function) calls. It's only 45% too, which makes me think it's so easy to get to. Meaning CVS only expects you to get to half of the calls in it to achieve full points. So if you have 30 calls, and you only do 15, you get full credit on wecare.

It's not that bad. It's just I need to fully understand how it's scored to ensure I'm doing it properly.

 

[SClENCE]

Would it be correct to say that every metric either falls under WeCare or MCE? I really only have a basic understanding of the metrics and should probably figure out what goes into each of these... is this information available anywhere?

 

[RX2090]

Yeah, it's in the wecare toolkit under the wecare scorecard portal on radar. They are extremely vague when they talk about it, however. I think it's by design. They don't want to tell you too much about how it's scored to deter people like you and I who want to just meet the number. They want people doing the actions, which in their minds will result in the number. I don't have a problem doing it, as it makes sense and it DOES impact patient care. I would just hate to know I'm not getting a good wecare score because I'm deleting scripts that already have been filled and yet are in the QV request screen....

 

[SClENCE]

Yeah, it's in the wecare toolkit under the wecare scorecard portal on radar. They are extremely vague when they talk about it, however. I think it's by design. They don't want to tell you too much about how it's scored to deter people like you and I who want to just meet the number. They want people doing the actions, which in their minds will result in the number. I don't have a problem doing it, as it makes sense and it DOES impact patient care. I would just hate to know I'm not getting a good wecare score because I'm deleting scripts that already have been filled and yet are in the QV request screen....

Yeah, I think going out of your way to try to manipulate metrics is a waste of time, however by understanding the metrics you may be able increase your score while still putting in the same amount of time for the same outcome. An example being "left message on voicemail" or running a discount card as opposed to "phone busy/no answer" which I have been selecting for the past year on non-covered OTCs and stuff of that nature lol

 

[dblock05]

Yeah, I think going out of your way to try to manipulate metrics is a waste of time, however by understanding the metrics you may be able increase your score while still putting in the same amount of time for the same outcome. An example being "left message on voicemail" or running a discount card as opposed to "phone busy/no answer" which I have been selecting for the past year on non-covered OTCs and stuff of that nature lol

You know that if you say you left a VM without actually calling the pt...you are not gonna get credit right??

 

[SClENCE]

You know that if you say you left a VM without actually calling the pt...you are not gonna get credit right??

Yes - Just let it ring once and hang up and select left voicemail to get credit on every ANFT opportunity right? Or does the timer have to start? I'v been waiting for the timer but I will have to test this. Either way selecting no answer is not going to get credit and that's what I personally was doing in the past.

 

[Old Timer]

Yes - Just let it ring once and hang up and select left voicemail to get credit on every ANFT opportunity right? Or does the timer have to start? I'v been waiting for the timer but I will have to test this. Either way selecting no answer is not going to get credit and that's what I personally was doing in the past.

No, the phone must be answered to get credit. Phone systems are smart enough to know what number was dialed, the result, not answered, busy, answered, (by a person or a device), or a technical issue, wrong #, out of service or other issue.

Just make the calls and stop trying to game the system.

 

[NateRobinson]

So if the timer starts, and it goes to voicemail, and you hang up, then hit left voicemail....you don't get credit?


I'm confused. I thought all the items on the left "CONTACT MADE" counts towards your score and everything on the right doesn't count.

 

[Old Timer]

So if the timer starts, and it goes to voicemail, and you hang up, then hit left voicemail....you don't get credit?


I'm confused. I thought all the items on the left "CONTACT MADE" counts towards your score and everything on the right doesn't count.

Forget the timer. It's urban legend. Just make the calls and then call the people.....

 

[farmadiazepine]

You guys have 2 full pages on this, and still nobody has a real answer. Do you not see a problem? This is what a pharmacist at CVS talks about? A timer, and how long to leave voicemail for credit.

 

[Old Timer]

You guys have 2 full pages on this, and still nobody has a real answer. Do you not see a problem? This is what a pharmacist at CVS talks about? A timer, and how long to leave voicemail for credit.

No, only people who are clueless. Just make the calls, the same way it's done everywhere....

 

[Rouelle]

Agreed. Sometimes concocting elaborate schemes to cheat the system are actually harder and more time consuming than just doing the job you're being paid to do.

 

[SClENCE]

I'm just trying to figure out why my action note follow through is only 40% when the only thing that I don't legitimately call people on is non covered OTCs that cost 3 dollars. I'm not trying to get credit while not making the call.

 

[Rouelle]

I'm just trying to figure out why my action note follow through is only 40% when the only thing that I don't legitimately call people on is non covered OTCs that cost 3 dollars. I'm not trying to get credit while not making the call.

Do you hang your credentials on a scanner where other people could be using them?

 

[SClENCE]

Do you hang your credentials on a scanner where other people could be using them?

No. I think about everyone in the store is around 40-55%. I did catch myself call someone today on an OOS and didn't get to the screen until after we spoke so this could potentially be part of the issue but still I think as a store we do much better than 50%... we call on everything that would be necessary to call on and the other techs even run discount cards on OTC items to avoid the prompt to call.

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

That is one of the crazy making realities of working for CVS. You are being judged on an activity like prescriber calls and just doing the calls is not enough. There is some secret method that gets you to 80+% but you don't know what it is. You do them the way you are told and are only at 40ish %. At some point, after you have spun your wheels for awhile looking for the right combination of steps that gets your score higher you start to ask yourself, "What the F !!!!, why is this such a big f'ing secret?!? Why don't they tell you what you need to do to achieve the high score? Real simple....step 1). Then step 2).

Finally you realize continuing to care is a type of mental illness and you stop caring to maintain your sanity or what you have left of it. Eventually you realize, especially if you have worked anywhere else, that the folks who have come up with this stupid convoluted system are nuts. Now realize that there are many crazy metrics...20 to 40ish at any given time that you are being judged on. In fact that would be a great topic....listing all the metrics currently scored by CVS. I am out of touch now since I have been free from CVS for six months now and many of them have probably been changed.

LOLOL....that is right just when you get a handle on a few of the metrics they change them on you. During one of my last rotations I did a corporate CVS rotation. I spent six weeks reorg and training new CVS pharmacy technicians on the I heart binder. I was a pro by the time graduation came around. Two months later when I passed Naplex and started working as a pharmacist low and behold it wasn't there anymore. They had replaced it with the Impact statements. It is one thing to be an innovation company but another thing entirely to make so many rapid changes that it is like working inside a revolving door. If it was such a good program/idea it should last/be useful for more than 6 to 9 months.

 

[M0df]

What I was told, and I did not actually bother to check if it improved my scores, is when you have Action Note window up on your screen, dial. Keep that on your screen through duration of the call and only put in reached/not reached/busy line/voicemail after you hang up. I'm not aware of time requirement but I would think it has to be at least 10-20 seconds. Again, I was told there is no time requirement. The only way to 'cheat' is to say 'spoke to patient' when it actually went into voicemail (my own logic).

 

[Sine Cura]

My sup (who was a previous Paragon Award winner FWIW, so maybe he is privy to information that most people don't know about) says that ANFT calls require 30 seconds (to prevent waiting for the call to go through and just hanging up immediately after) and the call is supposed to be logged within the 2 hours prior to the action note execution and 2 hours after (so you could do the call before the action note, as this makes sense as you might have to do multiple action notes for the same patient but don't need to make more than one call). The WeCare toolkit says stuff on the left side counts as having made contact (except for "spoke to in person" for not-written scripts; using option 1 merely removes that action note attempt from the denominator).

There's no way to cheat calls really. You still have to do the action note for 3rd attempts (to let the pt know you tried) and if you can't do prescriber update for the right office fax number or phone number, you can always just do the call for the wrong office (so it counts) and then call the real office number

 

[SClENCE]

My sup (who was a previous Paragon Award winner FWIW, so maybe he is privy to information that most people don't know about) says that ANFT calls require 30 seconds (to prevent waiting for the call to go through and just hanging up immediately after) and the call is supposed to be logged within the 2 hours prior to the action note execution and 2 hours after (so you could do the call before the action note, as this makes sense as you might have to do multiple action notes for the same patient but don't need to make more than one call). The WeCare toolkit says stuff on the left side counts as having made contact (except for "spoke to in person" for not-written scripts; using option 1 merely removes that action note attempt from the denominator).

There's no way to cheat calls really. You still have to do the action note for 3rd attempts (to let the pt know you tried) and if you can't do prescriber update for the right office fax number or phone number, you can always just do the call for the wrong office (so it counts) and then call the real office number

Do you know if the 30 seconds starts after you dial or does the actual timer have to reach 30 seconds? I don't think I'v ever left a voicemail that lasted 30 seconds and in some cases I think I'v actually reached patients on the phone and the call probably lasted under 30 seconds. I am also told that choosing "Chose not to call" also removes the action note attempt from the denominator even though it is on the right side, any confirmation of this?

Thanks

 

[Sine Cura]

Well I just wait 30 seconds on the timer just in case (you would have to ask the masochist who came up with WeCare to know for sure).

"Chose not to call" is supposed to remove the attempt as well but I heard (from the same sup) you get "penalized" for doing it too much. Again who knows for sure. Fortunately just making an honest effort on all WeCare aspects is good enough at least where I am (don't need to be 100 but above 50 at least and not totally tanking one category to avoid getting written up at this point)

 

[SClENCE]

Well I just wait 30 seconds on the timer just in case (you would have to ask the masochist who came up with WeCare to know for sure).

"Chose not to call" is supposed to remove the attempt as well but I heard (from the same sup) you get "penalized" for doing it too much. Again who knows for sure. Fortunately just making an honest effort on all WeCare aspects is good enough at least where I am (don't need to be 100 but above 50 at least and not totally tanking one category to avoid getting written up at this point)

I believe I read somewhere (on an actual CVS document) that the target for "chose not to call" is 15% or less.

I don't think our sup has specifically addressed our ANFT score but he has implied that we are not calling on insurance rejections and highlighted the inefficiency of doing this (though we do call on them).

 

[catalyzt]

My sup says that she uses common sense when looking at the denominator for the ANFT calls. If the denominator suddenly drops very low from one week to the next and it stays that way for a certain employee, then she knows that's not realistic and that person is obviously choosing option 1 too many times instead of making the phone calls.

 

[Old Timer]

My sup says that she uses common sense when looking at the denominator for the ANFT calls. If the denominator suddenly drops very low from one week to the next and it stays that way for a certain employee, then she knows that's not realistic and that person is obviously choosing option 1 too many times instead of making the phone calls.

Your supervisor is a complete and total *****, let me say that louder *****
If he or she is micromanaging to that level, they can't possibly be doing their job which is to put the right people in the right stores and providing them with right information and motivation to get the job done. The answer to this is clear and I will repeat it over and over.

JUST MAKE THE DAMN CALLS​

 

[SClENCE]

Especially considering there has to be... what... 250+ pharmacy employees in a district?

 

[catalyzt]

This person sends out an e-mail *weekly* with the action note stats broken down by each employee and sometimes faxes the whole table out to the entire district. lol.

 

[BenJammin]

No, only people who are clueless. Just make the calls, the same way it's done everywhere....

You have technicians for a reason.

 

[SClENCE]

Our DM calls us sometimes on Saturday afternoon to see our progress on PCQ. Since their bonus is a significantly higher percentage of their paycheck and most likely all metric based this behavior is expected and endorsed by CVS. This would all be fine but since CVS can't seem to find the 8 dollars to pay someone to run the cash register these calls go from no problem to quite annoying.

 

[cinnatozt]

Yes. What nobody knows is how long you have to be on the line for it to count/register in the system. Is there a way to look up find your score I wonder? Like I said earlier I'v only been delegated to do this once but I hate this task... half the calls the office says they don't see that patient any longer/the doctor left/the doctor sees them at another location/closed for 2 hours for lunch = pain in the ass.

Best practice is to time it like a PCQ call.

 

[cinnatozt]

I have a question about this: how come request calls increase out of the blue? I can have 17 calls one day, and the next day out of the blue I have 95 calls when I come in.

And for some odd reason, they're always due at 12 pm. So the system expects me to make 95 calls by 12 pm? It makes no sense. I know that's when MD's are in, but why the jump from 15 to 95?

Also, I've noticed most of the ones in QV are duplicates. Meaning, they are in there with a request, but the script is actually ready or was picked up a day ago. Should I delete these? But I won't get credit if I do that....a friend told me to deny them, call the patient and tell them their script is ready to be picked up....any thoughts on this?

I think them getting rid of the ready fill enrollment line from everywhere except for drop off will help immensely with unnecessary MD calls

When your techs are making PCQ calls on the weekend, there are calls that they make for "No refill" remaining. They ask the patient if they want the pharmacy to reach out for additional refills. If the patient accepts, whomever is making the call is responsible for setting the promise time for the patient. They're probably unintentionally setting the promise times all for the same day.

 

[BenJammin]

What exactly is a PCQ call? Is it what CVS does to dance around most state law requirements of counseling on every new medication?

 

[cinnatozt]

What exactly is a PCQ call? Is it what CVS does to dance around most state law requirements of counseling on every new medication?

CVS doesn't employ any practices to dance around new medication counseling. Pharmacists that don't like to engage with patients do.

 

[FarmD711]

When your techs are making PCQ calls on the weekend, there are calls that they make for "No refill" remaining. They ask the patient if they want the pharmacy to reach out for additional refills. If the patient accepts, whomever is making the call is responsible for setting the promise time for the patient. They're probably unintentionally setting the promise times all for the same day.

This is wrong. The techs have no control over the promised time for a script that needs to be requested from the physician.

The real reason that you typically have a ton on Wednesday is that all the refill requests that are added on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (including the PCQ ones) all automatically get a promised time of Wednesday at 12 PM

 

[SouthernRetailRPH]

What exactly is a PCQ call? Is it what CVS does to dance around most state law requirements of counseling on every new medication?

Ironically it is the complete opposite, as they are calls reaching out to patients who are past due refilling maintenance medications to see if they would like them refilled, or calling to follow up on new meds such as Metformin that may have troublesome side effects to see if they have any problems/concerns

 

[Old Timer]

Our DM calls us sometimes on Saturday afternoon to see our progress on PCQ. Since their bonus is a significantly higher percentage of their paycheck and most likely all metric based this behavior is expected and endorsed by CVS. This would all be fine but since CVS can't seem to find the 8 dollars to pay someone to run the cash register these calls go from no problem to quite annoying.

The DM' bonus is zero dependent on PCQ calls....