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Deal with CVS Caremark at your peril. I'm on Medicare and switched to Healthnet Orange which uses CVS Caremark as their mailorder prescription arm.I placed my first medication prescription with them. It is an expensive prescription (several hundred dollar copay).

The doctor's office made a mistake and prescibed half the dosage for 90 days. When it arrived I discovered the error and called CVS. They informed me that the doctor's office would have to call in and correct it and there would not be a second copay. What followed next involved about 5 hours of my time, a discussion with a dozen people and no satisfaction. The events:

1. Doctor's office called in about their error, talked with 5 people and was told there was nothing they could do. Any correction would have to be treated as a new prescription (new copay). The doctor's nurse, greatly frustrated, gave them a prescription for the right dosage. She then called me and said they wouldn't correct it.

2. I called CVS Caremark customer service and was told there was nothing they could do. Not only would I have to pay twice, they would not fill the new prescription for 90 days as the first shipment, with the wrong dosage, was still active. They said the only way I could get it corrected was to to Healthnet Orange.

3. I went to Healthnet Orange customer service. They said there was nothing they could do as the CVS Caremark pharmacy controlled the copays, etc.

4. I escalated my problem two management levels in Healthnet. Initially management still said there was nothing they could go, it was CVS that had to make the correction. I pointed out that there has to be a mechanism to correct a problem as humans do make mistakes. When I pushed real hard, the manager escalated me to a higher department. That person got CVS on the line, provided an override to allow the prescription correction to be shipped, and said CVS would handle the double charging problem and call me back that day.

5. Surprise, CVS never called. I called CVS Caremark pharmacy and went through the whole explanation scenario again. Response there was nothing they could do as the doctor's office made the initial mistake. Once again, I pointed out that there has to be a mechanism to correct a mistake. I asked to talk to a manager.

6. Waited on line for 40 minutes. Went throught the whole explanation again with the manager. She told me to go to Healthnet. I informed her I had been through that loop several times. She went to a higher management and then came back to me and said they couldn't do anything since the doctor's office made the initial mistake. It didn't matter that they called in to correct the mistake. I would have to pay twice. She asked if there was anything else she could do for me and informed me it was a pleasure talking with me.

It appears CVS Caremark has a company policy to screw the customer whenever an opportunity presents itself.

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