Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Going Crazy

Sorry for the quiet. Going crazy trying to get everything done before I have to be out of the country for what may be a month and a half. The biggest hassle has been trying to get enough of several of my prescriptions for the trip. Thought I would save some money and hassle by trying mail order through the online pharmacy connected to my health insurance and it has been one of the most frustrating experiences I have had in a long time. First, they kept insisting that the multiple faxed prescriptions from my doctor were not received. I was getting emails letting me know that while I was also receiving emails telling me that some were shipped. I get half the prescriptions in the mail today and instead of a 90 day supply they are for thirty days and after 15 minutes trying to get to a real live human via they automated customer service I find that since the doctor wrote the prescriptions for a month but refillable 6 times they can only fill a 30 day supply. The gotcha here is that the fine print says that they charge you the copay for a 90 day supply regardless of the presciption filled. So now I have only a months worth of drugs but I got to pay for 90 days worth twice. Some deal. Now I will have to go down and beg my local pharmacist to sell me enough to get me through and pay full price for them since my health insurance won't pay anymore this month. If you use Medco/365Wellst be prepared for the hassle of you life.
Second, since Citibank ATMs are the only option for American issued cards in Japan I called Citibank to alert them that I would be in Japan and was informed that since I hadn't charged anything on the Platinum Citi Mastercard in 6 months they had cancelled the card. No notice. At least I found out before I was standing cashless in the Ginza wondering why my card didn't work. Will have to carry enough cash to cover me for the stay which is not really a problem in Japan since it is probably the safest country in the world. The hotels will at least take AmEx.
Last but not least I see on the news this morning that Tokyo is flooded due to massive rain. I guess I had better pack waders as well.
The joys of travel!

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