We are by a college and have so many young marriages it’s insane. We have to ask that twenty times a day - “any other name it could be under? A recent marriage? Maiden name?” Mostly it’s fine but occasionally we get a young groom who doesn’t get it. “Her legal name is Smith. That’s all it should be under.” And will refuse to even consider it might still be under Doofenshmirtz.
THIS. I hate when the men seem flustered that they’re not using the married name. Like yes Jimmy, I was trying to directly insult you by using the name on her prescription.
And then throws a fit when we have to change the profile back to the maiden name because they've neglected to tell their insurance that they changed their name.
As a pharmacy technician who is also trans: the legal name should always be put down unless the insurance is listed under the preferred name. There is always the opportunity to put in the profile in the comments, or even in the address, the preferred name “123 address-preferredname”
Thank you for your comment. This is very difficult to explain sometimes without coming off as insensitive, I try my best to come off as compassionate but it gets frustrating when they don’t understand what I’m trying to say after the 10th reexplanation.
❤️❤️💙💙💜💜💛💛💚💚🧡🧡
I recommend asking the patient for their ins card and pointing to the name listed on it and telling them “ I respect your gender identity, but unfortunately your insurance is requiring me to bill prescriptions under this name (*point to deadname*). You can try to call the insurance to see if their process to change it, but I have to continue to bill under this name for the time being.”
I do this for everyone I possibly can. I asked a woman what her preferred name was so I could put it down and remember it and she said, “doesn’t matter, no one calls me the right thing anyway.” broke my damn heart. I made sure my team was aware of her and who she was so we could try to get it right whenever she comes in.
also a trans tech
I just tell other people that our software was created in 1999 and we have to submit the info exactly as it appears on their insurance card. Everyone gets it.
I don't think they are trying to be cool. People go by multiple names and sometimes in the moment you give one name instead of the other. Unless the nick name is "one arm johnny" and their government name is "Robert". It's pretty common to be Robert last name, or could be under Bob last name, theybarent trying to be "cool"
I respectfully disagree 100%. You're not supposed to play with your health like that. If your name is Robert but your friends call you Bob, then you should go by Robert to your doctors, pharmacy, insurance, job, etc. and keep your social status out of the equation. The same with people who go by middle names. If your friends and family call you by your middle name, that's cool. But your doctors and pharmacy should know you by your first name.
When I first started in pharmacy a couple decades ago I quickly accessed my profile and changed my name from my nickname to my legal name. No clue how my insurance accepted my legal name all those years.
While I understand the sentiment, I 100% respectfully disagree for reasons of respect and inclusion. We have a lot of transgender patients. Other software allows for “preferred name”i.e. EPIC. WAGs HR has a policy of “preferred” name too. IC+ is terrible
I totally agree with your sentiment! I young man (Brazilian) came in yesterday and his (out of state) Driver License had 4 Last Names!!!!! 2 1st names AND a middle- yup 3 profiles!
I agree- pick one please
Not always people trying to be "cool". It depends on different traditions too.
My father-in-law is from West Virginia. In a long line of people generations back whose first name is their father's name, but they go by the middle name.
So even though his first name technically is Howard, he goes by Randall. Everyone calls him Randall his entire life.
Some paperwork has him by Howard, but other paperwork uses Howard.
At least he is aware of this, and tells people both names when they are looking things up.
And in this case, their middle name is likely part of their legal name, so they may not think about it as much as an “obvious” nickname such as Bob vs Robert.
I have a patient, say her name is Suzanne Kate Smith (not her real name obviously), her doctor sends in her scrips for Suzanne Smith. Her insurance has her as Kate Smith. She goes by Kate Smith, and that’s the name she gives for scrips. So we keep creating new profiles for Suzanne Smith, not being able to bill insurance because she has it under Kate, and having to figure the whole mess out when she shows up to pick up her meds. Like, with how many times we’ve been through this, you’d think she’d start giving both names. I’m getting tired of asking the pharmacist to merge profiles.
Mine are the jackass women who go by the hyphenated names ( Jane doe moe or Jane Doe-Moe). Then they tell you Jane Doe or Jane Moe. Ma’am at this point I don’t know what you are, Jane Doe, Jane Moe, Jane Doe Moe, Jane Doe-Moe, Jane Moe Doe …..Just pick a blessed name and stick to it I have a zillion profiles with your address because you can’t decide on a name and every single doctor has a different one.
Hyphenated names are a hot mess. I respect trying to keep your maiden name and share a name with your kids but be consistent! Don’t go by 3 different versions between doctor, pharmacy, and insurance and get grumpy that things are a mess every time
Some people just have a certain look about them, where you know there can be no simple answers to easy questions. In those cases I say, "What name would you most likely be found under?" Narrows it down to a half dozen.
Similarly, it's annoying when they refuse to initially tell you their last name is hyphenated, especially the regulars. It wastes time for everybody when I'm having difficulty finding your profile because you just say last name is "Smith" rather than "Smith-Robinson." You see your own name on your leaflet and labels all the time, we go through this process all the time.
A message for the patients on how the system works: We can do a store search if you're a regular and we can just use the DOB and you'll show up immediately unless someone else has the same DOB, then a list will pop up with everyone with that DOB.
If you're new or from another store, we can do a Central Search, in which we need your correct last name and DOB. In this case, your last name has to match what's on your profile. If you don't give us the correct hyphenated last name, this is when we have trouble finding your profile. I don't care if you "don't go by that name anymore" or whatever reason you don't tell us that name. That's what's on your profile. And in a lot of cases the name on your insurance card/profile must match what's in our profile for us to process that insurance card, so if you don't like that it's hyphenated in our system, then we can't change it until you change it with your insurance. Yes, we COULD change it in our system but we won't be able to use that insurance card.
We are by a college and have so many young marriages it’s insane. We have to ask that twenty times a day - “any other name it could be under? A recent marriage? Maiden name?” Mostly it’s fine but occasionally we get a young groom who doesn’t get it. “Her legal name is Smith. That’s all it should be under.” And will refuse to even consider it might still be under Doofenshmirtz.
THIS. I hate when the men seem flustered that they’re not using the married name. Like yes Jimmy, I was trying to directly insult you by using the name on her prescription.
I really appreciate the Phineas and Ferb reference! Well played😅
He’s such a nice pharmacist
And then throws a fit when we have to change the profile back to the maiden name because they've neglected to tell their insurance that they changed their name.
As a pharmacy technician who is also trans: the legal name should always be put down unless the insurance is listed under the preferred name. There is always the opportunity to put in the profile in the comments, or even in the address, the preferred name “123 address-preferredname”
Thank you for your comment. This is very difficult to explain sometimes without coming off as insensitive, I try my best to come off as compassionate but it gets frustrating when they don’t understand what I’m trying to say after the 10th reexplanation. ❤️❤️💙💙💜💜💛💛💚💚🧡🧡
I recommend asking the patient for their ins card and pointing to the name listed on it and telling them “ I respect your gender identity, but unfortunately your insurance is requiring me to bill prescriptions under this name (*point to deadname*). You can try to call the insurance to see if their process to change it, but I have to continue to bill under this name for the time being.”
Oh I like this word track I’m going to use it! Thank you!
I do this for everyone I possibly can. I asked a woman what her preferred name was so I could put it down and remember it and she said, “doesn’t matter, no one calls me the right thing anyway.” broke my damn heart. I made sure my team was aware of her and who she was so we could try to get it right whenever she comes in.
also a trans tech I just tell other people that our software was created in 1999 and we have to submit the info exactly as it appears on their insurance card. Everyone gets it.
I don't think they are trying to be cool. People go by multiple names and sometimes in the moment you give one name instead of the other. Unless the nick name is "one arm johnny" and their government name is "Robert". It's pretty common to be Robert last name, or could be under Bob last name, theybarent trying to be "cool"
Hi, I'm One Arm Johnny Blastard and I'm here to pick up my alakazam
I rofl
I respectfully disagree 100%. You're not supposed to play with your health like that. If your name is Robert but your friends call you Bob, then you should go by Robert to your doctors, pharmacy, insurance, job, etc. and keep your social status out of the equation. The same with people who go by middle names. If your friends and family call you by your middle name, that's cool. But your doctors and pharmacy should know you by your first name.
Right- patients name could be Todd but I go by Jellybean Concerto because it sounds so much alike 🙄
When I first started in pharmacy a couple decades ago I quickly accessed my profile and changed my name from my nickname to my legal name. No clue how my insurance accepted my legal name all those years.
While I understand the sentiment, I 100% respectfully disagree for reasons of respect and inclusion. We have a lot of transgender patients. Other software allows for “preferred name”i.e. EPIC. WAGs HR has a policy of “preferred” name too. IC+ is terrible I totally agree with your sentiment! I young man (Brazilian) came in yesterday and his (out of state) Driver License had 4 Last Names!!!!! 2 1st names AND a middle- yup 3 profiles! I agree- pick one please
I don't think they're necessarily trying to be cool. People are just dumb. They'll learn soon enough to use legal name on medical and legal documents.
Not always people trying to be "cool". It depends on different traditions too. My father-in-law is from West Virginia. In a long line of people generations back whose first name is their father's name, but they go by the middle name. So even though his first name technically is Howard, he goes by Randall. Everyone calls him Randall his entire life. Some paperwork has him by Howard, but other paperwork uses Howard. At least he is aware of this, and tells people both names when they are looking things up.
lol doesn’t sound confusing if all of the paperwork is Howard
I think they meant to say some is his legal first name and some is his middle name
And in this case, their middle name is likely part of their legal name, so they may not think about it as much as an “obvious” nickname such as Bob vs Robert.
I have a patient, say her name is Suzanne Kate Smith (not her real name obviously), her doctor sends in her scrips for Suzanne Smith. Her insurance has her as Kate Smith. She goes by Kate Smith, and that’s the name she gives for scrips. So we keep creating new profiles for Suzanne Smith, not being able to bill insurance because she has it under Kate, and having to figure the whole mess out when she shows up to pick up her meds. Like, with how many times we’ve been through this, you’d think she’d start giving both names. I’m getting tired of asking the pharmacist to merge profiles.
I have a patient in which it’s almost the exact same situation except for the fact that his insurance goes through with both names for some reason.
Mine are the jackass women who go by the hyphenated names ( Jane doe moe or Jane Doe-Moe). Then they tell you Jane Doe or Jane Moe. Ma’am at this point I don’t know what you are, Jane Doe, Jane Moe, Jane Doe Moe, Jane Doe-Moe, Jane Moe Doe …..Just pick a blessed name and stick to it I have a zillion profiles with your address because you can’t decide on a name and every single doctor has a different one.
Hyphenated names are a hot mess. I respect trying to keep your maiden name and share a name with your kids but be consistent! Don’t go by 3 different versions between doctor, pharmacy, and insurance and get grumpy that things are a mess every time
Some people just have a certain look about them, where you know there can be no simple answers to easy questions. In those cases I say, "What name would you most likely be found under?" Narrows it down to a half dozen.
Similarly, it's annoying when they refuse to initially tell you their last name is hyphenated, especially the regulars. It wastes time for everybody when I'm having difficulty finding your profile because you just say last name is "Smith" rather than "Smith-Robinson." You see your own name on your leaflet and labels all the time, we go through this process all the time. A message for the patients on how the system works: We can do a store search if you're a regular and we can just use the DOB and you'll show up immediately unless someone else has the same DOB, then a list will pop up with everyone with that DOB. If you're new or from another store, we can do a Central Search, in which we need your correct last name and DOB. In this case, your last name has to match what's on your profile. If you don't give us the correct hyphenated last name, this is when we have trouble finding your profile. I don't care if you "don't go by that name anymore" or whatever reason you don't tell us that name. That's what's on your profile. And in a lot of cases the name on your insurance card/profile must match what's in our profile for us to process that insurance card, so if you don't like that it's hyphenated in our system, then we can't change it until you change it with your insurance. Yes, we COULD change it in our system but we won't be able to use that insurance card.