Optum RX is the worst pharmacy company I have ever had the unfortunate experience of dealing with in my life. If I could leave a negative star rating I would. I have had so many bad experiences in the short 7 week period that my insurance changed and I had to switch all my 90 day prescriptions to them from Walgreens as required by my Blue Cross Insurance. I recently changed from Blue cross of Illinois to blue Cross of Kansas City. I went from being able to get all my 90 day prescriptions filled at Walgreens to only being able to get them filled at Optum RX mail order. My life hasn't been the same since. In the past 7 weeks I have logged somewhere around 20-30 hours on the phone with them Struggling to get prescriptions filled.
I have a single prescription that I have been on the phone with them for about 10 hours over 8 different phone calls and never have been able to get it filled. It all boils down to a Copay card that they cannot figure out how to process in their system. After repeated calls and countless hours on the phone they finally were able to determine they do not have ability to process the Copay card and that I would not be able to use it with them. We only figured this out after I called the manufacturer while I had the customer service person on the phone at the same time trying to figure out what Optum RX was doing wrong. This means I cannot get my 90 day prescription from my Dr filled without paying a large amount that exceeds my budget to get the medication.
There are a number of issues with this company that just cant be avoided.
1. Every time you call in, you get a different customer service person and you have to re-explain your problem and give them the same information over and over and over again. There is no type of ticketing system where they can keep track of repeat or follow up calls for the same issue to check on status or updates.
2. The customer service representatives have very little to no ability to resolve problems directly themselves. They have to take notes or send messages to other departments or people for them to follow up on. I never once received any calls or follow up from anyone on issues that I had called in about once I hung up the phone. Horrible service. No resolutions to problems.
3. The representatives cannot make outbound calls. So if your call gets dropped, they cant call you back and you have start all over again from the beginning with a new call.
4. They lack the ability to allow me to talk directly to the person that I need to talk to for resolving my problem. For example, I cannot talk directly to a pharmacist. I cannot talk directly to the person that knows why my copay card is not being accepted. Getting real answers from the right person is non-existent.
5. This is a big one. Optum RX DOES NOT handle preauthorization requests with your doctor. I was told repeatedly that I would have to fill out a form and send it to my doctor to have them fill out and send to the insurance company. This is crazy. I have never had to manage my own preauthorization on prescriptions. This is what my insurance premiums are supposed to be paying for.
6. Their web site IS NOT real time up to date. So status of fills and prices and shipping is not accurate. Sometimes you don't get prices until its shipped and by that time its too late to cancel the order if you cant afford it.
7. I had issues with prescriptions that were automatically filled and shipped even though they were not setup for autofill and auto ship. I had several prescriptions that I canceled the same day they started filling these prescriptions. Four days later they shipped them to me anyway without notifying me and without even knowing what the cost was going to be for the prescriptions. Once they are shipped, you own them and cannot return them. Every time I was on the phone with them I told them do not ship me any meds without me knowing what the cost is. I've had problems with mail order in the past not applying my insurance and discounts properly and I don't want them shipped unless I know they are processed correctly.
8. Managing your prescriptions with Optum takes a huge amount of time and resources compared to other pharmacies. I constantly had to follow up with them on why my meds were not shipping or not ready or what they were waiting on. They would remain in various statuses for days like they were waiting for someone to look at it. It was taking days and even weeks to get issues resolved since I had to manage things manually on my own with doctors. I have several that I have never been able to get resolved in the 7 weeks I've been trying to use them.
9. Their Voice automation system does not work reliably. It does not recognize basic phrases like my birthday. I would have to repeat it 2 or 3 times before it would give up and move on. Then I would have to give it again to the customer service rep.
10. Optum uses offshore customer service from India. India accent and dialect is very difficult to understand and communicate with. 3 out of 5 times I got the offshore support and went through my lengthy process of explain my problem, they would tell me they don't have access to that information and I would have to be transferred to the Onshore team. Then I would have to start all over again explaining my problem.
11. Because they cannot make outbound calls, they do not have ability to call your doctors or copay card companies to get proper details for processing your prescriptions. This is a big problem. I was always the one playing the middle man having to make calls to get answers then call them back.
12. They cancel prescription refills with no explanation on the web site and no phone call or contact to explain why. This means another 1 hour phone call to customer service to find out why.
13. I had one prescription they wanted to charge me $225 for. Previously I was paying $30 for this filled at walgreens for 90 day supply with my Copay card. Since they could not figure out how to process my copay card, I could only get 30 day supply at Walgreens which was $10. Their pricing just doesn't seem right and since you cant talk to the pharmacy directly, you cant get answers on why.
14. Its not uncommon to spend an hour or longer on the phone every time you call in. Probably 70% of my calls I was on the phone more than an hour, and 5 or 6 times a week. Who has that kind of time to spend managing their prescriptions every week?
15. There is no compassion or sense of urgency for getting your medications filled when they have let the refills lapse or taken weeks to get them shipped. Constant unexplained delays.
16. Not customer oriented at all.
Bottom line is, AVOID using Optum RX at all costs. You are gambling with your health if you do. Its not worth the time, aggravation, and stress in dealing with this company. Everything is bad. Very inefficient, poor communication, poor follow up, poor problem solving and resolution, over priced, poor service, poor everything. I cant find anything good to say about them after using them for only 7 weeks. I cant believe a company like this is even allowed to stay in business or why insurance providers would even use a company like this to provide for their patients.

This company was okay for about the first 5 days of service. After that, it's been a complete nightmare. I cannot believe they handle people's medications legally. I have all my doctors and phone numbers and addresses of these providers written down for them to see and they ask me the doctor's names and numbers and addresses every single time. I will spend up to 4 hours of my day trying to order one simple medicine. They ask me the same questions during one phone call probably about four times, such as, can I give you this number, can I give you that number, even when I tell them no, I have no paper or pen on me, please transfer me, they will ask me three more times if I can take down a number. The staff is extremely unprofessional, they sound like a bunch of young 8th graders during training sessions, a bunch of young kids that have absolutely no professionalism, don't know how to talk to customers, they stutter and stammer and use the words umm, ummm, absolute terrible English skills, extremely thick accents so I think the company is definitely out of another country like India. I repeat my name four, five times for them and they still say it wrong. I give them simple doctor's names and they can't even pronounce them. I am begging the federal government if they are looking into this to please shut this company down or do some thorough research into who is training them. I do not feel comfortable with them handling my drugs and prescription refills anymore, these are serious pills I take, like cancer and diabetes drugs and they can't even ship them to me in a timely manner. It is really terrifying. The only reason I stick with them is because they mail my meds so I don't have to keep going to the pharmacy every single day and the meds never have any cost to them, unlike CVS, who charges for delivery fees and for the meds themselves. If you do not have to use this pharmacy, please, I'm begging you, do not do it. It is not worth the time, or the effort. By the time I finish the phone call with this company, my blood pressure and my diabetes numbers are sky high because I am so stressed out by talking to them for hours of waiting on hold to order a med. I end up hanging up several times. Very scary service to get serious drugs from that I need. Unfortunately this is the only place that ships meds for free with no cost on my meds or on the shipping charges. Please Federal government, look into this. Why aren't more companies delivering for free? Shameful.

The people you talk to when you call them can't understand English. VERY BAD SERVICE!

Multiple issues. Most recently told ins wouldn't cover my thyroid meds from local reliable humanly interactive pharm. Conceded to Optum rx. They informed me ins doesn't cover Brand Synthroid. Old peeve voiced by endocrine doc not to get 90day generics when you have no thyroid.
That peeve turned out to be real when later prescribed levoxylthyrine that was filled beyond my capacity to use, referred to as 'stockpiling' by Optum phone agent. It kept autoshipping more of the drug. At some point the levoxylthyrine stopped working for me and little by little symptoms crept in including muscle weakness after hip surgery that caused downtime pain and complications. It's impossible to know unless I have the buckets of levoxylthyrine tested by an independent lab whether degraded meds were at the root of this, but at the expense of spending hours on phone seeking direction for brand Synthroid I was told I needed prior auth. Faceless person at Optum asked if my doctor was XXX? A name I was unfamiliar with. I corrected her with Doctor's name and she said she would send prior auth to doctor. Optum then texts that prior auth denied. They TEXT patients, yet another barrier between understanding that we don't experience at trusty neighborhood pharm. Following up it turns out they submitted the name XXX for prior auth after I explicitly gave them doctors name. Request went nowhere and Optum just sends text that it was denied for brand Synthroid. No nuance, just 'nope'! Since I am now the administrator of my health care I contact doc. 'No.we didn't get a prior auth request'. Call to Optum: 'we sent it.' You get the idea, patient ping pong with our quality of life drugs. There's more, but I ended by putting in a prior auth at the second insurance required pharmacy: Walgreens. Guess what? Text message: they don't have it! So, as unpaid administrator of expensive health care, I ask'what now?' Pretty easy to blow people off who are trying to get medicine and get better when you don't have to face them. And what about sending stockpiles? How much more did I pay for the 'convenience' of getting 90 then 180 etc in generic thyroid meds that might have degraded in the time it took to follow doctors instructions and cause the health problems I'm experiencing now?
FYI when you Google Optum rx feedback they had NO POSITIVE REVIEWS and a 1.1 rating.

After having severe back pain, I went to the doctor and eventually got an MRI. The MRI showed a severe herniated disc in my lower back. I can't even begin to tell you how much pain this is causing me. I'm scheduled to have back surgery to fix my herniated disc, but in the meantime, my doctor has been prescribing me pain medication to help me out until the surgery. And I have to say that it's been a lifesaver for me. Before I was on the pain meds, I was in excruciating pain to the point where the only relief I had was lying down. The pain meds give me enough relief where I can get up and move around without too much discomfort. But after two refills of pain medication, Optumrx is now requiring a prior authorization before they will approve the next refill. I assumed this would have been a simple process, but I was wrong. My doctor completed the prior authorization form and sent it in to Optum, just to have Optum deny the prior authorization. Optum said that there wasn't enough information given on the form showing why I needed the pain medication. So, my doctor provided more information and resent the form. It was denied again because Optum decided that the dosage of pain medication was too much and requested the dosage to be cut in half. I was only prescribed a maximum of 8 pills a day of the weakest pain medication to start with, but now Optum is saying that I should only be using 4 pills a day. 4 pills! That's it. So my doctor had to agree with this and resent the prior authorization for a third time. He tried to expedite the approval for this medication because I was out, but Optum said that they couldn't do that and said it could take up to 4 days to approve the prior authorization. So now, I'm sitting in my house with excruciating pain without any pain medication.

If I would have know how horrible Optum would be in approving my medication, I would have not used my insurance at all to buy the meds and just paid for it out of pocket. I'm telling everyone here, it you need pain medication, do NOT go through Optum to pay for your meds but just pay for it out of pocket. Yes, you're going to have to pay more for the medication, but at least you'll get the medication you need without insurance interference. I hate Optum so much.

Changed from Part F and Part D to United Healthcare (UHC) Medicare Advantage that inserts Optumrx as its Part D provider. Optumrx is a UHC company. While I like UHC, Optumrx needs to be investigated. I'm insulin dependent and have used Novolin N pens for years. Optumrx required a "prior Authorization (PA)" for the Novolin N, but does NOT require a PA for Humulin N pens. Humulin N and Novolin N are EXACTLY the same insulin - just made by different companies. 1) I've purchased a couple insulin pen timers that fit the Novolin N pen but not the Humulin N pens, which keeps me from double dosing. 2) While the same, different mfg or base ingredients may affect dosage between each - I know the Novolin N, which eliminates adverse impact or stress/fear of change. 3) Novolin N pens are nearly half the price per carton of Humulin N pens. 4) MD's script was for Novolin N and I prefer it. Optumrx also refused to cover my Contour Next testing strips and forced me to a meter/strips of their choice. Strips are covered free under Medicare B.
My UHC plan allowed within the first 60 days a "transition" a 30 day fill of existing valid prescriptions until I could get the PA completed. So I ordered my Contour strips and Novolin N pens. Optumrx denied coverage on both, which I discovered after driving from the county to town. It took over 4 hours on the phone over a couple days. When calling my pharmacy, they kept telling me they were trying to reach my Dr. and had to order the insulin in. I finally was told that Optumrx had called both my Dr. and pharmacy trying change my insulin and meter prescription to their preferred Humulin N and meter/strips. No one bothered to get my consent and I had been without insulin or strips to test glucose nearing 2 weeks. Pharmacy informed me they had my Novolin N pens and strips in stock but not the ones Optumrx demanded plus had no scripts for them. I continue to get sicker.
Back on the phone to Optumrx for over 3 hours and was finally given a "waiver" ( my plan guaranteed me transition meds) at 4:45 p.m. Saturday. The pharmacy closes at 5 p.m. and my drive time is over 40 min. The next morning, drove to town and was told the "waiver" was only good for an hour, so Optum denied coverage as I had not performed in their timeline. Going into 3 weeks - no insulin, no testing. My only way to attempt to control for high blood sugar was to stop eating any food. When finally filled, Optum charged me $60 for the "free" strips that sold for $19 off the shelf and $120 for 32 days of insulin.
I complained to UHC then later found out their apathy was related to being the Parent company. While While Medicare would allow me to switch during their reopen winder from the Advantage program to my Plan F and D, my health had not recovered yet from the insulin and stress to manage more stress.
Public research shows the intent of Prior Authorizations is to make it so hard to comply that people give up and pay out of pocket. Read all the reviews and it becomes clear that the research is correct. You pay for the coverage than go buy or pay higher for the meds, as well. They won't get a 2nd year out of me.

Optum Rx promises they will use any courier necessary to deliver an Rx on time.

My saga is very complicated...

Unbeknownst to me my former pharmacy had been filling my prescriptions despite not being an active customer any longer after I transferred my prescriptions to Optum Rx.

This of course caused an issue in getting my refills on auto refill with Optum Rx filled at all.

Optum of course thought I had received my needed prescriptions.

A pharmacy only needs to check the insurance billing to see if a prescription has in fact been filled and received by the customer.

I do not use multiple pharmacies at one time.

A refill was needed prior to May 14,2022.

May 14,2022 came and went minus receiving my refill that also had ample refills to use by 2023.

My call to Optum Rx triggered any movement from them. They stated I had received by refill from a local pharmacy.

I asked them to check the insurance billing for the prescription which of course illustrated I had not received any refill.

I waited 2 more days. No shipment was coming from Optum Rx. More calls to Optum Rx. Finally on May 20,2022 a refill request was put in their system and promised for delivery via Next Day Air or on May 21,2022.

Again no delivery arrived.

On May 23,2022 additional messaging and calling Optum Rx occurred. I was told my prescription would arrive on May 24,2022.

No delivery arrived.

I had text alerts from UPS stating a shipment from "HDP" or home delivery pharmacy was in route to Taiwan. An investigation was opened by UPS Worldwide. UPS did not know how the shipment got shipped to Taiwan nor did they know how to get the shipment back to the United States.

It is now May 29,2022. The shipment from Optum Rx will be returned to them at my request according to UPS on May 31,2022.

The shipment has been on a very long journey going from CA to Taiwan to KY to AK and is now being returned to CA.

This has caused me to go on "loaner" refills from my original pharmacy I left in January 2022 because they no longer offered home delivery. They now have home delivery again.

Please understand that on prescription bottles from Optum RX it states the date a prescription is filled. It also states when said prescription can be refilled--in my case the date was April 18,2022.

Optum RX immediately after a delivery begins to bill the insurance for the next refill months in advance.

If you are an individual that desires to phone a pharmacy for every refill then roll dice and use Optum Rx.
If you are an individual who wants prescription refills done on auto refill then do not use Optum Rx.

CVS Pharmacy is a very dependable pharmacy to use.

Returning back to your original pharmacy is not an easy situation. I have had to FAX letters to all my physicians explaining my situation with Optum Rx and why I am requesting they return my prescriptions back to CVS Pharmacy.

This of course involves a physician's office time to do this. It is a nuisance.

Optum Rx tried to solely blame UPS.

I have yet to receive an apology from Optum Rx.

Of course UPS does not know what is inside the package. In my correspondence to UPS I could not disclose that they had medication inside the package.

If you have a dependable pharmacy you are using then by all means stay with them. Optum Rx is just not a dependable pharmacy to use if you desire your prescriptions on time.

The lady from Optumrx who helped me was excellent and very patient and handled all my needs and questions. I do have high spectrum autism and get confused easily, this lady went above and beyond for the way she had helped me. I have been treated horribly for my high spectrum autism for my last job, lucidly I have a job that they really appreciate me despite my disability. Another specialty pharmacy wasn't helpful at all, the specific medication not all pharmacies carry only some specialty pharmacies carry it. The original one that my insurance didn't cover where supposed to call me back they never did even though my dr and his staff told me they were supposed to call me and I know my dr didn't mess up cause he gave me the exact address and phone number and my dr was surprised that they never did call me. That pharmacy instead of getting back to me told me that it got transferred to another pharmacy and gave me that number for optom rx which I don't have any issues with optum rx what I have an issue with is that if I didn't call the other specialty pharmacy I wouldn't have even known my prescription was covered from another pharmacy. I don't understand why optum rx got bad reviews. I have given bad reviews before only for another business from its owners that treated me horribly and other people I know as well, I have also given good reviews for a couple of places that I enjoyed there food. Also I will only give good reviews if I believe in them. I used to volunteer for one of the locations at fair trade certified stores for Ten Thousand Villages and learned how to you onsite of it is actually fair trade while when I used to volunteer there plus, I understand good and bad customer service cause one it is common sense and two I have worked in the past with retail store with clothing, accessories and home essentials and also a supermarket and saw a difference of how costumers vs a couple non customers at that grocery store I used to work at a couple of people who were a non customer there were descriminated against which directly affected me not only because the person he descrimanated against and gossiped about in another language which I know cause I speak that language he was gossping and was also something that for personal reasons I have had the same experience from other people outside of that job with the same descrimination as him. The point is if I didn't believe that the person who helped me over the phone was helpful then I wouldn't have written such good reviews. Also I understand Covid and hard times which it took me a while to find a job during the pandemic and heard people losing their jobs and people with kids who can barley afford to pay rent, so I am really wanting to give my all to give a great review cause they really deserve it and I want to also be able for getting my future refills for this Pharmacy without having another possible hassle from another specialty pharmacy.

First of all, the Optum Rx website is pretty much useless. It's impossible to determine what prescriptions they have received from my PCP, what has been shipped, and what will be shipped and when. This holds true not only for their website, but their iOS app as well. The only information you can count on is their text messaging service letting you know when a medication has been shipped.

Second, when my doctor sends prescriptions to Optum Rx, and the prescription is not eligible to be filled right away, Optum Rx often loses the delivery in never-never land and I run out of medications. When I call to find out where my medications are, they apologize and tell me to go to my local pharmacy and tell them Optum Rx authorizes them to give me a weeks worth to hold me over. Seriously? For a controlled substance? Ya think so? My local pharmacy got a good laugh out of that. Then I have to go back to my doctor to get another prescription for a one week emergency supply, then pay full price out-of-pocket because the insurance will not cover cover it since there is already an outstanding prescription to another pharmacy.

Third, good luck understanding the person you are trying to talk to. When you have an issue that needs to be documented and/or an explanation for, you have to call back two or three times, each time asking for a supervisor until you actually get irate enough to get a supervisor.

Regardless of anything that they may do to try to do to correct a situation, it still boils down to the hard fact they they repeatedly run customers out of their medications, and it takes one week minimum to receive what should have been sent weeks prior.

My current situation is for a controlled substance pain reliever in which they received the prescription renewal on the 7th of March. I ran out on the 28th of March. They said they would expedite the shipment and I would receive it on the 29th. Now I have a tracking number from USPS telling me it should be here on the 2nd of April. I have been on the phone with them for the past five hours, having called three times, trying to come up with a solution. The first time she did nothing, even when I insisted on speaking to a supervisor. The second time I called and was transferred to a supervisor over mail order, and I was told the doctor did not send the prescription until the 28th of March. The third time I called, I told her I am going to continue to call until I get to speak to someone who will document this problem and do something about it. I finally spoke to Erin, who was very understanding, wrote down everything, and has contacted my doctor for a weeks supply, and is currently planning on following up with my doctor to insure the prescription is sent to the local drug store, then will contact the local drug store to set up billing direct to Optum Rx so that there is no charge to me.

There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of poor service from a mail order pharmacy. I will have missed nine doses IF it arrives on Saturday, which I do not put that much faith in USPS, and 12 doses if it doesn't arrive until Monday. Simply inexcusable!

Near the end of 2021 I was trying to spend the rest of my funds in my FSA account. I made it to the Optum Store online and found two items I thought I could use and purchased them with my FSA debit card. I was emailed that my estimated shipping date was 3-5 business days after my purchase date. I waited ~2 weeks until I tried reaching out to them to see what was going on with my order as I had not been contacted or updated on anything regarding the status. The customer service rep I spoke to was polite but informed me that the two items I was trying to purchase were out of stock and that I could either keep waiting or ask for a refund. It now being 2022 and the purchase was on my 2021 FSA I thought waiting longer wouldn't be an issue.

So I waited and after a few more weeks tried calling back again to see what was going on with my order (still no updates from their end). Beforehand, though, I went to the online store and confirmed that the two items I had ordered were on the site and were in stock. I talked with customer service and first they tried to tell me that my items were out of stock. I informed them that both of the items were on the site and were in stock. They then checked something else and said that one of the items was in stock but the other item wasn't and was no longer available. After some more discussion she said that she could refund the item that was no longer available and I could still receive my other item. Not a great resolution/getting mad at this point, but I thought fine I just wanted to get at least part of my order. Within an hour of this conversation I received an email stating that I was refunded THE WRONG ITEM.

So, back to customer service I go to see why I was being refunded the 1 item that I thought I could get. That person really didn't know much but was trying to cancel the refund. He didn't want to keep me on the line but was "taking detailed notes" on the situation and that he would call or email back within the hour. An hour later still nothing, so I called back in. This time I'm being told that the last person I spoke with refunded the other item, but they could not cancel the first refunded item. The issue is that all of this was spent on my 2021 FSA and it is now 2022. Any 'refund' they are doing will not come back to me and is lost money from my point of view because that FSA is now closed except for reimbursement on purchases made in 2021.

It is now well over a month from my original purchase and I have:
(1) Nothing that I ordered
(2) Lost FSA funds (> $150) that I could have used elsewhere
(3) Lying customer service reps (those detailed notes that were being taken were "trying cancel refund")
(4) No resolution or concern about my case
(5) BOTH of the items I originally ordered are still on the website as in-stock. Why/How are they selling items that apparently they do not have in-stock?