Mail order pharmacy jobs

[prairie42]

I recently received a job offer from Cigna, a large mail order pharmacy in my hometown. I guess it would be in their clinical department. Does anyone know what working for a mail order pharmacy is like? The hours are nice (M-F) plus no customers or insurance hassles. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks.

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[shiningxstar29]

Hi,
I never knew any pharmacists that does mail order. How is the pay for those? are those similar to that of retail, clinic, etc.. How are your hours like?

thanks

I recently received a job offer from Cigna, a large mail order pharmacy in my hometown. I guess it would be in their clinical department. Does anyone know what working for a mail order pharmacy is like? The hours are nice (M-F) plus no customers or insurance hassles. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks.

 

[prairie42]

Hi,
I never knew any pharmacists that does mail order. How is the pay for those? are those similar to that of retail, clinic, etc.. How are your hours like?

thanks

Pay is similar to retail, maybe a bit less in some areas, it depends. Hours are M-F only, no weekends. There is a 1st shift that starts around 6:30am and the second shift starts at 2:30pm. Both are 8 hour shifts.

 

[genesis09]

I once toured a mail order pharmacy (Caremark). My impression was that all a pharmacist does is sit in a station and wait for the prescriptions to come down on a conveyor belt. Then the pharmacist verifies the prescription.

 

[Trancelucent1]

I once toured a mail order pharmacy (Caremark). My impression was that all a pharmacist does is sit in a station and wait for the prescriptions to come down on a conveyor belt. Then the pharmacist verifies the prescription.

I've spoken to pharmacists who had experience with it. To me it sounds like an assembly line kind of a job. They described it the same way. It sounds boring to me and you don't really get to counsel patients, which could be important!

 

[sdn1977]

I recently received a job offer from Cigna, a large mail order pharmacy in my hometown. I guess it would be in their clinical department. Does anyone know what working for a mail order pharmacy is like? The hours are nice (M-F) plus no customers or insurance hassles. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks.

So...prarie - what does the job description entail? Given that your pay & benefits are comparable to the local area, what is the enticement for this particular job? I could speculate, but I'm curious what they offered or you inquired about......

 

[prairie42]

So...prarie - what does the job description entail? Given that your pay & benefits are comparable to the local area, what is the enticement for this particular job? I could speculate, but I'm curious what they offered or you inquired about......

I guess the enticement is no drive-thrus, no third party insurance claim problems and no rude customers to deal with (at least not face to face). In addition, I would get a real lunch break and be able to go to the bathroom if need be. I have 3 other job offers on the table but this one is different, so I thought I would look into it more. I would have a set work schedule during the week, with no weekends. The clinical department, where I would work, has different jobs available such as a call center pharmacist or clinical consultant pharmacist. They have offered a sign-on bonus which would be helpful to get me started right out of school. However, I did speak to a former employee and he suggested that mail order might not be the place to start right out of school. He said most pharmacists that work there are burnt out retail pharmacists who are sick and tired of dealing with the public and with insurance problems. SDN1977, if you have some suggestions or opinions, I would be more than willing to listen. Thanks.

 

[sdn1977]

I guess the enticement is no drive-thrus, no third party insurance claim problems and no rude customers to deal with (at least not face to face). In addition, I would get a real lunch break and be able to go to the bathroom if need be. I have 3 other job offers on the table but this one is different, so I thought I would look into it more. I would have a set work schedule during the week, with no weekends. The clinical department, where I would work, has different jobs available such as a call center pharmacist or clinical consultant pharmacist. They have offered a sign-on bonus which would be helpful to get me started right out of school. However, I did speak to a former employee and he suggested that mail order might not be the place to start right out of school. He said most pharmacists that work there are burnt out retail pharmacists who are sick and tired of dealing with the public and with insurance problems. SDN1977, if you have some suggestions or opinions, I would be more than willing to listen. Thanks.

Well....I'd be interested if it would really involve clinical skills. Personally, I would loathe sitting at a computer putting rxs in the computer. However, I'd be very interested if I were in the position to oversee DUR, formulary additions or deletions, nonformulary requests, prior authorization reviews, inservice training, etc....Also, sometimes insurance companies provide educational written materials for their members - would you be involved in the submission of materials for this? Every pharmacy must provide one-on-one counseling, who does this - the clinical staff? What about therapeutic management?

So...this might be a place to "stretch" your clinical skills. Yeah...I think places like this can be a place for burnt out pharmacists - but, that is not what you want as a new graduate, so hopefully you'd indicate that during the interview. It could be a grand opportunity for a nontraditional setting - nothing wrong in that!

Its funny - I sat next to a guy on coast-to-coast flight - he just happened to be a district manager for one of the 4 (or 6 - I can't remember) McKesson (a drug wholesaler) districts. We had 5 hours together & I found out he was a pharmacist who in a previous life had been in business. He found a good "fit" in the wholesale end of pharmacy. So...go figure....there is something for everyone.

My advice - go on the interview with a good set of questions! Be sure to ask for a site visit. Also, remember, each job you take can give a positive spin to a resume - you just have to think of it in those terms.

Good luck!!!

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Tell them to call me next year. Mail order sound great.

 

[kwizard]

I recently received a job offer from Cigna, a large mail order pharmacy in my hometown. I guess it would be in their clinical department. Does anyone know what working for a mail order pharmacy is like? The hours are nice (M-F) plus no customers or insurance hassles. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks.

I'd agree with SDN1977 about what questions to ask and whether this is the kind of place you'd want to go straight into out of school (depending of course what you want). I agree with the description of genesis09 about the atmosphere in mail order. I've only interviewed at one before for part time experience and have a known a few people who have gone that route and it have also got the impression that it is for the "burned out retail pharmacist". However, if you already realize that you have grown a short tolerance for the retail life then you might not want to go down a road where you already have an idea on the outcome. On the other side you may not want to go down a road straight out of school that doesn't challenge you intellectually and build upon your knowledge from pharmacy (it all depends and can be fairly subjective to the situation).

Clinical work...well I'd be skeptical of that given that most of the clinical stuff done in mail order would tend to be formulary decisions mixed w/ pharmacoeconomics to justfiy the which drug should be on the formulary (the price from wholesaler may also determine a lot of this). Given the formularies with private sector insurance are so vast I'm not sure how much time you'd spend doing "clinical work" but I'd ask during the interview and ask to meet other clinical people if you aren't already scheduled to do so and what credentials they have. Depending on how competitive your geographic area is I'd be very skeptical of jobs offering clinical roles straight out of pharmacy school as they may typically require some type of residency training (depends on the area and there is an exception to every rule). However, a lot of places tend to overembelish what is and is not clinical so I would just ask them to elaborate on your job duties and potential for promotiion. Good Luck.