Jul 2, 2009 4:09 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Tough Bill To Swallow
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
A Lodi woman says she was charged for prescriptions, she never ordered.
When she couldn't get the fees dropped, she called Kurtis.
She says she never gave the green light to the drug store CVS to mail her those prescriptions.
And it didn't just happen once, but twice.
"What in the world... What is this? I didn't order this, I don't need this and oh my gosh, they've charged me $195 for something that I don't even want," says Kimberly Journagan, Lodi resident.
Kimberly says out of the blue, an acid reflux prescription, twice the strength of the one she takes showed up in the mail from CVS and it came with a $195.
"I tried to explain to them I didn't need the prescription, I never ordered the prescription," says Khimm.
She ordered her normal prescription with CVS online 10 days earlier. It showed up, she paid the $10.
So why is she getting more pills double the strength that cost 20 times as much?
"If you're going to charge me for $200 dollars, don't you think you should talk to me first?" asks Khimm.
CVS said her doctor ordered it.
So she called Dr. Syed Ali of Lodi and says he apologized, admitting he ordered the drug.
She says he told her he tried to fix the issue with CVS, but couldn't.
"The doctor changed the prescription, yet I'm stuck with the bill," says Khimm.
And two months later, Khimm says again out of the blue, CVS sent her a different drug prescribed by the same doctor.
This one came with a $78 price tag.
"What in the world!" says Khimm.
She refused shipment.
CVS now said she not only owed for the first prescription, but this one too... totaling $283.
And she says after calling her doctor, she couldn't get the charges erased.
"It's extremely frustrating, extremely frustrating," says Khimm.
We contacted Doctor Ali's office at Sutter Gould.
They tell us "... While we do not comment on specific patient care situations... " they say ".. if there is an error in our communications with a pharmacy regarding a patient's prescription, we work with that pharmacy to correct the error."
So we contacted CVS.
They wouldn't discuss her case either but responded in an email:
"... We have confirmed that this plan participant's issue has been researched and resolved, and the plan participant has been informed of the steps we have taken."
Which according to this CVS statement, the charges are gone.
"I hope nobody else goes through this," says Khimm.
If a prescription shows up to your house you didn't order, the state tells us you may not have to pay for it.
But you need to have a conversation with your doctor and straighten out the charges.
In this case, that didn't seem to work.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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