Glitch strips employees of prescription benefits

A computer glitch caused 7,000 IU employees to temporarily lose prescription drug insurance this weekend. \nAll students, faculty and staff covered under the program were charged the full price for medications purchased Friday through Monday. Fortunately, many local pharmacies realized the error and allowed their customers to take small amounts of their prescriptions for free and defer payments until after the problem was fixed.\nA system error at Anthem -- IU's health insurance provider -- resulted in a delay in updating IU's 2006 insurance benefits, said Anthem spokesman Tony Felts. Because of this, computer systems at pharmacies did not recognize IU's insurance coverage. Felts stressed that the problem has since been corrected.\nThe University offers a co-pay for medications. With the plan, employees pay only a fraction of the actual costs of their prescriptions. Employees pay a flat rate of $35 for any prescription costing more than $60 per month with the 2006 coverage.\nJohn Kinzer, director of \naudience development at the IU Department of Theatre & Drama, said he was shocked when the cashier at Osco Drug rang up a $136 bill for a prescription that normally cost him about $25.\nRon Foster, a pharmacist at Osco, said about 50 employees came in to buy their medication only to find they weren't covered Saturday and Sunday. He said he suspects the number was much higher Monday. \nFoster said Osco responded by giving trusted customers enough medication to last through the weekend and allowed them to wait to pay after their insurance was restored. CVS pharmacy had a similar policy, said CVS pharmacist Ted Tedeschi.\nUnder IU's policy, employees can be reimbursed if they paid full price for their drugs during the insurance lapse.\nBut, this was not an option for Kinzer.\n"I certainly am in no position to pay full price for the medications that my family needs," he said.\nWhen IU learned of the error, Human Resources contacted pharmacies in the area to inform them of the issue as well, said HR Director of Health Care Susan Brewer. Human Resources also worked with the many employees, like Kinzer, who contacted the University about the problem, she said.