Skip to main content
Contributor ⭐
January 26, 2018

Optum RX - STAY AWAY

  • January 26, 2018
  • 194 replies
  • 205242 views

If you go to a pharmacy and they hand you a prescription then tell you it cost $160, you have the choice of handing it back.  NOT WITH OPTUM RX.  Website said no co-pay.  Prescription recieved then credit card bill arrives with $160 charge.  Called Optum RX.  They will not accept any return nor issue any refund.  Called Regions Bank to dispute charge.  They refused to accept dispute but charge penalties and interest while reviewing my case and reported a late payment to credit bureaus.  The whole experience has been BAD!!!

194 replies

Contributor ⭐
June 28, 2019

I am totally fed up with this company. Will be changing Part D in October. Have had this company for 3 years. They have screwed up more scripts than I can count. I have spent endless hours with them and United healthcare. They are all the same outfit. STAY AWAY is correct. They have billed my card when not approved to. Caused overdrafts in my bank. Sent drugs when not ordered. Now there is a disputed charge and they said they would remove but will not. Bad outfil all around. AARP should be better at helping us sort this out. Get a new company. Things really went downhill more with Optima in the past 6 months. So something has changed there..Whether foreign drugs or mismanagement.

 

Contributor ⭐
May 25, 2019
Totally agree with all! This company is horribly inefficient. Something needs to be done.
Contributor ⭐
May 25, 2019

I just had another nightmare experience with Optus RX. Without a doubt, they are the most woefully inadequately run business ever. Hours on the phone with people who cannot answer questions. Here was my question...would you please email me instead of calling me when you need prior approval? The answer was ‘I’m not sure.’ No kidding, the idiot actually said that. I am absolutely outdone with them. But it appears we have no recourse. What would it take to get support from AARP on this?

Contributor ⭐⭐
May 25, 2019

I do NOT think AARP cares.

 

1. Look at Wikipedia, AARP undercut having a better universal healthcare for citizens. I don't believe in a single payer system for many reasons (1st of all the other options FUND Medicare's shortfalls).

2. They are a marketing company. Even with their Tax-aide program, they are now collecting more and more data FROM YOU. 

 

BEWARE OF AARP. I am not a member anymore.

Contributor ⭐
June 20, 2019

Fully agree -- the service has deteriorated sharply.   Instead of fulfilling my recent oprder, AOPTUM RX cancelled the entire prescription!

Back to your neighborhood pharmacy!

Contributor ⭐
April 24, 2019

I have just had yet another unpleasant, time consuming and frustrating experience on the phone with optum.  In the last 2 months there have been so many, it has consumed a total of 20 hours, with no resolutions.  I have even called United Health Care to try to give them feedback on the lack of accuracy, efficiency, and resolution  in the information they give their customers.  There have been more instances than I can recount here.  After spending yet another hour on the phone with UHC trying to straighten out a mess optum made of my statin and blood pressure meds, I gave up and decided to hit the on line sites to give accounts of their horrible service.  One of the last encounters even consisted of an employee asking me if I had ever talked to him before.  I said no and he said there are 10,000 empIoyees at optum and how should he know what any of them had told me in the past. I should give him a chance to solve my problem.  When I told him the problem he said I had called the wrong #, (Even though I was transfered to him by another optum employee) and he hung up on me.  This after I waited 45 moniutes on hold to talk to a human.  I was surprised to see how many reports of similar issues other people have had.  While it was reassuring that I wasn't crazy and not alone in this pain, I was disgusted that they continue to get away with this horrible service.

Buyer beware!  Don't use them!  They can't get it right.  And we are the ones that suffer.  Also, shame on United Healthcare for associating with them and using them to manage their prescription plan.  And Shame on AARP for having their name used in connection with them.

In this day of on line ordering and impersonal purchasing, the loops that are built into this system are trapping the consumer, giving us no way to resolve problems, talk to coherant human beings and removing our ability to problem solve.  What a sad state for all of us.

Contributor ⭐⭐
April 11, 2019

Had a medication order a couple of months ago they decided to ship fedex for no reason but they sent it signature required. 

 

The fedex man ran up the front stairs left a note on my door and ran back to the truck - they won't call - he didn't even ring the bell.  I could see the back end of the truck as he drove away. I was able to get fedex to have him return and that time I was lucky enough to get him just as he was leaving ANOTHER note on my door saying no one came to the door.  I'm on the third floor and cannot reach the first floor in that kind of time.

 

I spent well over an hour on the phone with Optum that day telling them fedex delivery isn't going to work for me but since talking to anyone at Optum is like talking to a door here we are again they shipped this next order out Federal Express AGAIN. 

 

I just got off the phone with someone at Optum - after the phone system asked me several times for different identifying information - the rep who was an obvious English as a third language employee started asking me the same information all over again.  Then AFTER I explained the situation they asked me for the name of the prescription - I said its the only thing whose status on my account is 'in delivery' then they explained that a signature is necessary to which I stated BUT NOT SPECIFICALLY from Fedex. 

 

A USPS delivery could be held at the Post Office which I'm two city blocks from and I could sign there getting it at 9am when they opened.

 

That apparently is WAY TOO MUCH for Optum to process so tomorrow I will sit outside my house ALL DAY - because the delivery window is anytime before 8pm and wait for a refrigerated medication that if it doesn't make it to me will GO BAD.

 

Incompetence personified. 

Contributor ⭐
April 9, 2019

I have been dealing with this company for 18 months. More often than not, they tell me that an order is in process, when it will ship and arrive but it does not arrive. So I have to go online, check to see if I can determine what went wrong, wind up calling customer service, get little to no useful information, elevate it to a supervisor, get different information, speak to their web team and get yet different information. Almost every order I place takes over 90 minutes of my time.

 

Their system is supposed to send confirmation of orders via email and text message and is supposed to send notifications if anything is delaying an order. I NEVER have received even one notification for the 12 times orders did not ship and customer service never can tell my what went wrong.

 

I manage from the East Coast of the US the care of my mother and also my sister who live in Arizona. In virtually every case that I place an order, I have to spend more time on the phone with OptumRx than would be the case if I were to drive 30 minutes round trip to a local pharmacy, wait 20 minutes for the order to be filled, package it up, address it to my mother or sister, drive 10 minutes to the post office, wait 10 minutes to be served, and drive 10 minutes back home.

 

I am in search of another mail order pharmacy that accepts her insurance and will switch in a heartbeat. OptumRX has the worst customer service I ever have experienced. By the time I get off the phone with them, I am trembling with anger.

Contributor ⭐⭐
April 11, 2019

@bc12559187 wrote:

I have been dealing with this company for 18 months. More often than not, they tell me that an order is in process, when it will ship and arrive but it does not arrive. So I have to go online, check to see if I can determine what went wrong, wind up calling customer service, get little to no useful information, elevate it to a supervisor, get different information, speak to their web team and get yet different information. Almost every order I place takes over 90 minutes of my time.

 

Their system is supposed to send confirmation of orders via email and text message and is supposed to send notifications if anything is delaying an order. I NEVER have received even one notification for the 12 times orders did not ship and customer service never can tell my what went wrong.

 

I manage from the East Coast of the US the care of my mother and also my sister who live in Arizona. In virtually every case that I place an order, I have to spend more time on the phone with OptumRx than would be the case if I were to drive 30 minutes round trip to a local pharmacy, wait 20 minutes for the order to be filled, package it up, address it to my mother or sister, drive 10 minutes to the post office, wait 10 minutes to be served, and drive 10 minutes back home.

 

I am in search of another mail order pharmacy that accepts her insurance and will switch in a heartbeat. OptumRX has the worst customer service I ever have experienced. By the time I get off the phone with them, I am trembling with anger.


Same here my blood pressure must be sky high after dealing with them.  I'd wager there is a high incidence of stroke or heart attack with people that have to deal with them.  I can immediately tell I have reached someone who doesn't understand English from what I believe is a Philippines English accent.

Contributor ⭐
February 6, 2019

Twice OptumRx has sent medications to my husband and I that have not been requested.  Today my husband received a text message that OptumRx had reached out to his doctor and sent a refill of a medication that he has plenty of and did not order.  He called Optum and, after listening to a recorded sales pitch, tried to tell the rep that he did not request and does not want this medication. She wouldn't listen, kept talking over him, and to top it off, kept calling him "Ma'm" because his name is Dana.  Needless to say, sending medications not requested and billing Medicare should be a fraululent activity and I think they try to get away with it.  The deductible for this will be declined through our credit card company and the medication will be refused and sent back to Optum.

Contributor ⭐⭐
February 6, 2019

My recommendation:

 

Start calling United Healthcare AARP enrollment line in your state. Let them know you will NOT be renewing.

 

Additionally, I am starting to wonder if they are in violation of Medicare rules. Does anyone know an attorney or an advocate agency? 

 

It won't let me paste link. Search Modern healthcare CMS fines 17 rx...... it lists MN UHC in that article. 

 

Even if they have an agreement on their website or app agreements to terms to use, if they do not let you OPT out of prescriptions:

1. YOU didn't approve and/or you did NOT give dr authorization to do so,

2. or they told me by not keeping credit card on file then no rx would be sent (baloney they did anyway), they told me to follow their rules BUT didn't matter.

 

I think they are violating rules! 

 

I didn't renew. Call YOUR local MEDICARE AARP line and start to complain. 

 

Contributor ⭐
February 26, 2019

I am a long time AARP member but also a Health Insurance for Medicare agent & I sell only Med Supps as well as Part D Rx Drug Plans. This being the case, one of the health insurance companies I represent is UnitedHealthcare for the past 9 years.  I am curious as to what kind of problem you have been having with which I assume is UnitedHealthcare's Mail Order Pharmacy Rx OPTUM Rx and when you call UHc's membership desk & explain the problem, what is their response?

 

 

Contributor ⭐
February 1, 2019

😩 bad idea here but i like readimg these. I am an advocate with optumrx. I read these so i can anonymously send management tickets on what wr can do better. I agree with some of this. But pricing wise please know we get prices from the insurance and they tell us what youll pay. Just know im here to express these concerns! Im so so sorry yall were not treated right!

Contributor ⭐⭐
February 5, 2019

So I went down the rabbit hole and tried to discuss why the formulary was changed so that previously covered drugs were no longer covered. All I can say to you is that the almost 2 hrs being bounced around United Healthcare (OptumRx) got me nowhere. They want their money and they dont care about you.

As an fyi I should have done my due diligence better and compared companies on my drugs.....shame on me for not being better informed. SHAME on AARP for not having the seniors backs and stepping up not just on this but all of the take aways United Healthcare did....silver sneakers etc......

Contributor ⭐
December 4, 2018

Hi, I'm Greg and have been disabled since 2012. I had no other but to use SSDI due to moving from N.Y. to S.D. and osing my Health Ins. and clould not pay enough to get another company to pick me up. I wasn't even able to join S.D. risk pool due to prior condition ( L-4,L-5 ) fusion. I have so many problems here with the system here and recently presciption refills even with prior auths. I only last week found out from a Nurse trying to help me have my regular medications refilled that OptumRx is contracted by S.D. for mdication refills. I'm stepping into a huge mess at the moment because there is no accountability from anyone. Social Security is stone walling me as well as this " company" .I have only now also found an Advocacy group out here but they seem unsure as they have " never heard " of what's going on. This term is all I seem to hear.

Contributor ⭐
October 25, 2018

I did a price check on 3 drugs with the new AARP Optumrx discount plan.  None were covered making the cost very high on each drug.  Don't bother signing up for this bogus savings plan.  The prices with goodrx are much better.  Check all of you presciption prices on the goodrx  website before purchasing.  On certain medications they have saved us from 10 to 30 dollars compared to the costs of the part D plan that we have.  The aarp optumrx plan had us paying up to $200 for the same pills goodrx had for around $10 to $20  I agree, stay away from the aarp optumrx plan and don't even bother.

Contributor ⭐
November 11, 2018
You can't use good rx if your on Medicare/Medicaid.
aruzinsky
Conversationalist ⭐⭐
November 11, 2018

@timlay wrote:
You can't use good rx if your on Medicare/Medicaid.

Wrong.  There is no law that forces you to use insurance that you already have.  You just have to tell your pharmacist to use the GoodRx coupon instead of your insurance.  And, most amazingly, that coupon price can contribute toward your insurance deductible.  See

 

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/ways-to-beat-your-insurance-copay/