I received a call from this number this morning. It was a recording that started out "don't hang up this is not a sales call." Then told me as a BC/BS customer I could receive free pain medicine alternative at no cost to me.
If you receive this call...
1. Do NOT give them any personal information whatsoever
2. Try to obtain as much information from the caller about the company as possible (name of the person calling, name of the company, name of the pain cream, etc.)
3. Write down the number from your caller ID
4. Report the incident to your State's Board of Pharmacy
5. Report the incident to your Prescription Insurance Company
6. Talk to your elderly parents, neighbors, members or your church, etc. and let them know to beware of this practice
I received the same call on multiple occasions. Being that I have BCBS insurance, I pushed "1" to see what this call was all about. This time there was actually somebody on the end of the line. Now I'm paraphrasing here, but it kinda went like this...
The person stated that call was to "pre-qualify" me through my insurance to receive new pain cream because pain pills are so incredibly dangerous and addictive. The caller asked me if I was over or under the age of 65. She asked some questions about my pain..."where is your pain located"..."how long have you been experiencing the pain" and so on. Sierra (at least that's what she said her name was) then began to ask questions about the type of insurance I had..."do you have Medicare or Medicaid"..."are you insured through the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare"..."is your insurance through your employer". Much to my surprise, Sierra was able to get me "qualified" for this miraculous, new, non-addictive, pain cream. She informed me that she would transfer me over to one of their "doctors" and after about 5 minutes with the "doctor", I would be able to receive this wonderful, new, pain cream.
I explained that I had a few questions before she transferred my call to a "doctor". I asked her the name of the cream and she responded that it was a compounded prescription that would be sent directly to me within 24 hours. I asked her if it would be coming from a pharmacy like Walgreens or the pharmacy of my choosing. She responded that it would be coming from one of their "partner pharmacies" and that it would be extremely convenient for me as the patient. I told Sierra that it sounded incredible and that I needed to explain a couple of things to her before she went any further. I told her that I am completely aware that I do NOT have compounding coverage through BCBS, so there is no way possible that she could have "qualified me". Then, I finally let the cat out of the bag and let Sierra know that I AM A LICENSED PHARMACIST and that I would be reporting the company to the State Board of Pharmacy.
To my surprise, the she said "okay". She went onto say that what she was doing was completely legal and that if it wasn't, then her company would not be in business. That may be true, but what this company is doing is deceitful and completely scamming people into thinking there is some miracle drug to cure all that ails them. Furthermore that their insurance company is backing these claims is totally ridiculous. Insurance companies do NOT promote medication products or services. Reputable compounding pharmacies would NEVER engage in such practices and no person should use or take any medication from a pharmacy that would.