Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke right? And yet, it's how the Shanahans roll these days.
We are waiting on the specialty pharmacy to give me a letter stating that they will deliver to me at Osan. The Air Force understandably wants that in writing. We've been working on it for almost 2 weeks now.
Today when I spoke to the pharmacy, we learned that the delay is because this all has to be done through their legal department. Again, a pain, but I understand. He went on to explain that there is no problem...and they aren't changing what they agreed to do, but when he says the legal department is working on it, this is no small feat.
You see, my pharmacy is the pharmacy that runs or is part of Express Scripts. Express Scripts is the mail order pharmacy for all of Tricare. Tricare pushes Express Scripts a lot because you can get your meds 3 months at a time, automatically delivered, and the cost is cheaper. I prefer to get them on base where it's free, but it's a good option in some situations.
Since there is an existing contract between the pharmacy and the DoD, it complicates the issue. The lead pharmacist of the company is working with the legal department of the company and they are all working with the DoD up in Washington. The people who negotiate and oversee the contract between Express Scripts and Tricare are now involved. They want to write the letter very carefully so that they don't change or affect the contract that is already in place. They are also setting a precedent by agreeing to ship meds to me and so it's being carefully evaluated as to how they want to word it.
They keep reassuring me that there are no problems, it's all about the legal department and the DoD writing the letter so that the contract in place isn't affected. He described it as "we are asking the DoD what they want us to write in the letter that we are writing for them."
Charming isn't it? Yesterday we find that our case with the adoption agency is approaching their longest case ever...EVER. And today we find that the simple request of asking them to write down what they agreed to do now has people at the Pharmacy, their legal department, and the Pentagon assessing every word and sentence, so the contract between Tricare and the Pharmacy is not affected. All I need is that 10 x 17 x 8 box sent to an APO box once a month. Really...it's just not hard people!
I don't know what's about to go down. I just know to pray for God's hand in all of this. I figure He's gotta be rolling the His eyes by now, and thinking that we sure do make this difficult. It's quite inane. I'm sure Paul didn't ask the Ephesians what he was supposed to say so that he could write them a letter and say it.
Gotta love when lawyers and the government get involved. I'm pretty sure I'll be living in Korea, getting my meds shipped, and living the good life...and the DoD and the pharmacy will still be haggling over nouns, verbs, and prepositions!
And we're another day closer to bringing our sweet girl home. Her birthday is April 5th...I pray she's home or that we are at least with her there on that day. Pray. Pray. Pray!
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