Express Scripts

Absolutely one of the worst customer service companies in the medical industry -- formally a profession. Offshore people that can't understand English without repeating the question 3 times.

Express Scripts flat out told me I'd have to pay for my child's prescriptions out of pocket (I'm talking hundreds of dollars) when we have disability insurance that covers his meds at 100%. The 24/7 pharmacy hotline reps do not speak much English and (several times) used this as their advantage to tell me they simply "did not understand." We ended up finding a new pharmacy to get the scripts transferred and Express Scripts ANSWERED THE PHONE but yet told them they are CLOSED and refused to send extremely important med scripts so we could get them filled. I have never cried and spent so much time on a phone over prescriptions as I did with them. Never, EVER will I go back to them. Unprofessional and liars.

This is the most terrible company I have ever worked for. I have been here since February 2018 and can tell you if you have a choice of your pharmacy benefit manager, do NOT choose this place. I have never met a company with such low morals. I get penalized for trying to help patients and actually put in an effort to get them what they need. Its completely unethical and unintelligent for a place that gives a 3 week training course and suddenly were supposed to decide which medications are relevant for a patient over a doctors order and experience. I hope as a mother that they never have to experience being told no to even LIFE saving medicines because the questions for authorization were answered "incorrectly." I can assure if you have ever had the pleasure of receiving me as your authorization rep, you were not disappointed because unlike most of the people in this company I am not cold hearted. I will go out of my way to help any patient and rest assured it is NOT for this $#*!ing companies benefit. I cannot stand by while I have a husband, wife, child, elder or any person crying or screaming calling just to get what they need. I am so sorry for you recipients of this company, but if you ever have the pleasure my name is Nicole and I will go to any lengths to help you, express scripts you can $#*!ing fire me if you want I don't care anymore.

My teenage daughter is a Type
1 diabetic and I was needing her insulin refilled. I placed an order approximately 1 week prior to her running out. There was an issue with the medication without me knowing until I checked the status of the refill 3 days later and it was not processed. I called to see what was happening and they processed the order. However, this would put her going approximately 2 days without insulin. The agent was pleasant but did not offer any solution (like expediting the medicine) she sent me to a pharmacist to tell me what would happen if she went without this medication. We have lived with disease for over 7 years, we know what would happen. The pharmacist was extremely rude and did not accurately tell us what would happen if she went 2 days without insulin, which would have most likely resulted in death. The pharmacist verbally "huffed" like a teenage girl. Completely unprofessional. This company knows that customers like us have no other option except to pay more at a retail pharmacy, so they do not care how they treat customers. I finally reached spoke to customer service after being on the phone for 30 minutes and she informed us that we could expedite the medication. Something the agent never mentioned. This would cost $21, but what else could we do? Let our child die? Totally incompetent and horrible customer care.

There does not seem to be an easy way to talk directly with a person when calling customer service. A simple key entry would be most helpful when given options on the automated directory.

There's Nothing professional or knowledgeable about their SO-CALLED company. They lie to cover THEIR mistakes, SEND Wrong medication, HOLD LIFE SAVING medication for RANSOM for $20 That YOU DON'T owe because of what they SCREW UP and then Expect you to pay for. THEY SHOULD BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS BEFORE THEY KILL.

Express Scripts is a complete and total waste of money. The only people they are interested in serving are themselves. They will routinely deny medications that your doctor prescribes, claiming that their doctors think you should go through different therapeutic processes --- all of which they wouldn't be responsible for paying for. In short: they will take your money every month, then deny your claims right afterwards. Doesn't matter if you need the medication to exist or not, all they care about is keeping your money in their hands. Even if they have 'authorized' a prescription once, they will turn around and deny it the next time. Check CostPlus as they have been able to cover every single medication for less than the cost of even getting the same drugs with Express Scripts coverage. They will tell you they feel there are better options, but at the end of the day it is not insurance's job to determine what my healthcare should be: that's a choice between myself and my doctor. The only thing that insurance should do is open their wallets and pay the damn bills, which they will do EVERYTHING in their power to avoid. Scammers, heartless, soulless.

It is such a pain in every way to deal with Express Scripts. Unfortuante we do not have an option!
Every department gets a 1 rating. The specialty pharmacy is worse than awful.

My wife started using Express Scripts (ES) last October after being with Cigna for a year using a retail pharmacy. We have had a major problem with a tier 3 drug but limited issues with a tier 1 or 2.

When you do have a problem communications and resolution is impossible, either directly or through Cigna who owns them. I spare you the details but here is reality:

ES refuses to use the phone to contact you, your doctor, your retail pharmacy or anyone else. It takes weeks before you know your order was not processed and another week after you personally solve the problem.

You must fill out multiple forms for anything but they can just send a text.

Cigna Customer Service provides information but will not administer or resolve anything. They can not reach ES and just transfer you to ES who does not answer the call. It is up to you to collect the data and fill out a form. You are encouraged to start over.

You can not leave a call back number or message with either Cigna or ES. They simply refuse to take a message or call back!

A typical call takes 10/15 minutes for CS to answer after the computer collects your information and another 30 for CS to check it out and try to reach ES followed another wait at ES before you give up, typically over an hour.

In essence, the onus is on you, not Cigna or ES to take any responsibility or solve the problem.

This is not unique to me. Check out the ST Louis Better Business Bureau rating.

All this for a Tier 3 drug which can cost hundreds of dollars or more and can be bought at any in network retail pharmacy for another $20!

Diabetes is a terrible disease to have. Dr's nurses, everyone tells you to keep close watch with your body when it comes to this disease. They only tool we really have to work with are testing machines. The machines are cheap, but the test strips are what costs. I need to test at least twice a day, but express scripts refuses to pay for more than 25 a month? Average days in 1 month is 30. I can't even test ONCE a day because they won't approve more than 25 strips a month. I called into see if I could get more than 2 a month. That person told me, no problem the next time you refill your strips, tell them to call us we will explain the way the need to make a claim for 50 test strips a month. The next time I went for a refill, i gave them the exact information I was told to. They made the call, in front of me. They said there is NO WAY the are going to approve 50 test strips a month. The rotten $#*! lied to me. And made me look like a fool to my pharmacists. This company is WORTHLESS and does NOT give a $#*! if you die or not. Don't trust them for anything. They'll only pay for the cheapest $#*! they can.
Liars, don't give $#*! about you or your medical issues. I have no choice, this is who my company pays to see to it I stay healthy. If you have ANY OTHER OPTION than express $#*!, take it.

ES changes your prescription with no notification to you, then they will not fill your prescription because it does not match what the doctor prescribed. Also periodically ES makes you get a new authorization (several times a year) from your doctor for your existing prescriptions, but ES does not notify you that a new authorization is needed until you try to pick up a refill and it costs $500 because ES decided you needed to jump through another hoop. This has caused my daughter to go through a few weekends with no medicine, because I pick up the medicine on Friday afternoons after I get paid. When I get to the pharmacy they tell me it has been denied by insurance but I can buy it for $500. So I sit on hold for several hours and get hung up on a few times before talking to someone that can't speak English, just to find out ES decided to require a new authorization from the doctor. By this time the doctor's office has closed and we have to wait until the next week for the new authorization to be completed. This company will cause people to die because they cannot get their medicine when needed.

First, I dislike being forced to use mail order. It cannot be trusted. I had one package go missing for several days - post office told me it was lost - and Express Scripts will not refund or send a replacement order. Thank goodness it showed up the following week, because otherwise I would have been out for at least 2 months until I could get another order. Completely unacceptable.

Now though, they are also micromanaging pills that cost pennies per day. Last month, they refused to cover a TEN DAY supply of a drug without "prior authorisation" which I was told could take weeks or months - it was given to me by an urgent care office for an acute situation. NOT an expensive drug and NOT for long term use.

Now this month, my primary physician sent them a prescription for a drug that costs ONE DOLLAR for a 3 month supply. First they sent me a message saying my plan limits how much I can have. Then they sent me a message that I'd ordered less than my plan allows. I called to ask which is it… customer service couldn't figure out what the problem is but said it would take 4-5 days to research it. They recommended I have my doctor send a prescription to a local pharmacy. I'm pretty sure that won't go through either, but I have a GoodRX coupon as a fall back position.

Speaking of GoodRX, there are times that price is less than Express Scripts, so what good is my insurance?!?!?

Completely unethical and disgusting business practices. I would never voluntarily choose insurance coverage that uses them.

Express scripts fills generic prescriptions from Manufacturers (mostly from India and China) who received violations warning letters from the FDA. The one company they used to fill my generic Lipitor RX is Apotex.
Research it and you'll see Apotex Group's Indian manufacturing company, Apotex Research, picked up a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration following an inspection last November that revealed a number of significant violations of current good manufacturing practices (cGMP). The company has been on import alert since April 2018. Always check to see who manufacturers you medicine.

I have a bad experience with this company. The medications they send me have short expiration date, so it is not as effective as the one I used to get from a physical pharmacy. Now I have to trash my medication before the expiration date on it because it is not as effective. For my last order with them, they sent me a large ointment tube with short expiration date. I communicated the company twice explaining that I use this ointment as needed and I need a medication with later expiration date in order not to waste my money trashing the tube while it's hardly used. I received weird replies not related to my inquiry. I called customer service, had to speak with 3 persons for a long period of time, explaining the issue to each one of them without any progress. Finally, I spoke to a manager/supervisor, who spoke with arrogance and did not care when I mentioned that I am not satisfied and will share my experience with other customers. Conclusion, no more Express Scripts. Will switch to another physical pharmacy to save my money and get better customer service.

I was a member of Express Scripts as recently as 2017. Now in 2022 I tried to log back into my account as my physician sent my prescription there. I couldn't log in and when I clicked to get help, I also got no help. A phone number was listed. Before calling the number I tried to make a new account. After filling out all the information it just said again that I had to call. I first called over the weekend and the person who answered said my benefits office would have to call them! What? I work at a large university with thousands of other people -can you imagine if the benefits office had to call for each person? What a ridiculous policy. So I decided to call back during the week to see if I would get a different answer. I have now been on hold for more than 30 min. Why is it that every other company in the world can you help through the combination of a web form and email. But no not express scripts. I've now asked my physician to just go back to Walgreens - which in case you didn't know also now has 90 day scripts. The 90 day and the mailing of the medicine used to be the two things unique to express scripts that made it worth it. Since you can now get both at Walgreens. Don't even bother with Express Scripts. They just leave you on hold and never answer the phone.

I have lived insurance free for over 10 years. So when I ended up married and with insurance, my eyes were opened to a completely different world. I was being told that "I had to have my medication fill thru the mail", and no I don't. I want to see the hands that are touching the pills that I am going to consume. I want to judge how competent those hands are. If they want to punish me by making me pay more money, so? I lived with out insurance for over 10 years? Big deal. But there happens to be one medication, that I haven't found a work around for, yet, express-scripts insists that I must keep a credit card on file with me for me to be able to get the medication. They will not allow me to go elsewhere to get it. They will not send me an invoice. They want to bill my credit card when they feel like it. I don't permit that kind of activity with any of my credit cards or checking accounts. Demanding that I have a credit card on file to get my drugs. Refusing to send an invoice to my email account. I can't trust their business practices.

Express Scripts is absolutely the worst and most incompetent company I have ever had to deal with. I was penalized for not using them (because they could not fill my prescriptions for over 3 weeks and needed them right away) and for using my local pharmacy. One prescription cost me over $700 out of pocket. I paid this for 3 months and then called to ask why I had not met my deductible. They told me I HAD reached my deductible but was being "penalized" for not using their service. I have since tried to get my prescriptions filled through their service but told I will have to wait 3 weeks before I will receive them. I have talked with their customer service 4 different times and have been told each time that I could get an "override" to get my prescriptions since I am out and need them immediately. Each time I go to pick them up at the pharmacy they told me to go to, there is no record of me or the prescription. When I asked my local pharmacist to call the Express Scripts pharmacy help desk to ask for the override, they were told that my account is not authorized for an override. I have been caught in this catch 22 nightmare for the past four days and I still don't have my prescriptions. I HATE this company!

I don't have the energy to go into all the issues I've had or time I've spent trying to get them to do the right thing. Do yourself a favor and go through your local pharmacy if you can.