Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Drag Kings
I love drag kings. I saw my first drag king show in Washington D.C. during the summer of 2003. I believed that I had died and gone to bisexual heaven. Girls that look like boys and wear costumes!! I had been to many drag queen shows and enjoyed them. However, I quickly tire of the diva dance tunes and the unending sequins. When I saw the suits and heard the music, I knew I was destine to become a drag hag.
I went to each show that they had that summer. I loved the creative costumes and the variety of music. The kings in D.C. seemed to love 80's New Wave and Punk that summer. I returned home for my final year of pharmacy school. I visited a couple of times over the next year, but was unable to make another show. I thought that I was only going to see drag queen shows from then on.
During the spring of 2005, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a troupe here where I live. They perform every Wednesday. Yes, every week. They perform country, rock, punk, and even Sinatra. There are 10-15 active kings at any one time. There are about 40 on the official roster. They change costumes and bring props for their shows. My sister asked me why we go every week (if we have a babysitter). I told her that it is a different show every week. We have gone so regularly that we have been dubbed "The Cabaret Couch Bunnies". We further enhanced our reputations as drag hags when we purchased a private show during their summer fundraiser.
That show was amazing. They placed our couch directly in front of the stage (normally it is off to the side) and feed us fruit. Our favorite kings performed numbers that we had suggested. Many of our friends came from out of town to share the evening with us. This is a great picture of myself on stage with my favorite king. The song was Closer by NIN and there was a whip involved. We had a great time and plan to purchase another show if it becomes available this year.
I have had an interesting relationship with the troupe. Initially, I wanted to help them with costumes and song choice. Then, I wanted to join as the femme member. Next, I decide I wanted to become friends with the kings so I could help and join. They were not interested in new friends. So, I settled for just being a fan. I think that I will probably try and perform myself one of these days. I want to buy a zoot suit and perform a Big Bad Voodoo Daddies number.
This post came about due to the year anniversary show of our troupe. I attended the show which was entertaining as always. I hope that I will be posting next year about the 2 year anniversary show. Thank you to all of the wonderful women who transform into men for my entertainment.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Blood in the water
I swear everyone got a secret signal that we got a loan. I have had 3 different people trying to get me to advertise. My telephone company and computer company both called me today. My teeth are hurting since I need thousands of dollars in dental work. I am happy that we have money, but I am also worried about it being used up too fast. We continue to get new patients every day so the business is growing.
On a fun note, I was at my friends' house this weekend to plan for our trip to Pensacola Pride over Memorial Day weekend. This will be my first big pride event. J will not be going with me, sadly, because she has a professional conference during the week before the trip. I love the beach already and then add a bunch of gay people. Guaranteed fun. I will have to hire a pharmacist to work on Friday and take emergency calls while I am gone. That is a little bit scary to me. S will be on maternity leave, but I did hire D this week. She will be starting next week and should have a handle on things by that time.
On a fun note, I was at my friends' house this weekend to plan for our trip to Pensacola Pride over Memorial Day weekend. This will be my first big pride event. J will not be going with me, sadly, because she has a professional conference during the week before the trip. I love the beach already and then add a bunch of gay people. Guaranteed fun. I will have to hire a pharmacist to work on Friday and take emergency calls while I am gone. That is a little bit scary to me. S will be on maternity leave, but I did hire D this week. She will be starting next week and should have a handle on things by that time.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers)
What is a PBM and why are they so evil? I alluded to it in my other post so I felt that the subject should be addressed.
PBM Background Facts:
Pharmacy benefit managers or "PBMs" are fiscal intermediaries that specialize in the administration and management of prescription benefit programs. PBMs contract with a range of clients, including HMOs, employers, unions, preferred provider organizations and other health plans.
PBMs purchase in huge volumes and have extensive networks of participating pharmacies. Bulk purchasing enables PBMs to negotiate rebates from drug manufacturers and discounts from retail pharmacies. PBMs process hundreds-of-millions of pharmaceutical claims per year. In addition, they run mail-order fulfillment centers and provide other services to health plans.
PBMs also develop and manage drug formularies. Formularies are drug lists that PBMs develop and use to manage drug spending. By charging less for certain brands of drugs, PBM formularies steer health care consumers and their physicians into using particular drugs for particular therapeutic needs. The consumer pays a higher co-pay (and the health plan pays the PBM more) for drugs that are not in the "preferred" category on the PBM's formulary. The health plan may provide no coverage for drugs that are not on the list.
Control of formularies gives PBMs tremendous influence with drug companies. The manufacturers typically compete and pay a combination of rebates and fees to secure most favorable placement on a formulary. Drug manufacturers typically pay PBMs: (i) access rebates for placement of products on the PBM's formulary; (ii) market share rebates for garnering higher market share than established targets; (iii) administrative fees for assembling data to verify market share results; and (iv) other fees and grants.
This is taken from the National Community Pharmacist Association website. It is one of the professional associations I belong to. This is summary of how PBM's are affecting the cost of health care.
PBM$: What You Should Know
NCPA members attending the legislation and government affairs conference also let it be known that their top complaint is the conduct of PBMs. PBMs have evolved from their original role of claims processors into the unauthorized practice of medicine and pharmacy with inappropriate consequences, including the following:
PBM Background Facts:
Pharmacy benefit managers or "PBMs" are fiscal intermediaries that specialize in the administration and management of prescription benefit programs. PBMs contract with a range of clients, including HMOs, employers, unions, preferred provider organizations and other health plans.
PBMs purchase in huge volumes and have extensive networks of participating pharmacies. Bulk purchasing enables PBMs to negotiate rebates from drug manufacturers and discounts from retail pharmacies. PBMs process hundreds-of-millions of pharmaceutical claims per year. In addition, they run mail-order fulfillment centers and provide other services to health plans.
PBMs also develop and manage drug formularies. Formularies are drug lists that PBMs develop and use to manage drug spending. By charging less for certain brands of drugs, PBM formularies steer health care consumers and their physicians into using particular drugs for particular therapeutic needs. The consumer pays a higher co-pay (and the health plan pays the PBM more) for drugs that are not in the "preferred" category on the PBM's formulary. The health plan may provide no coverage for drugs that are not on the list.
Control of formularies gives PBMs tremendous influence with drug companies. The manufacturers typically compete and pay a combination of rebates and fees to secure most favorable placement on a formulary. Drug manufacturers typically pay PBMs: (i) access rebates for placement of products on the PBM's formulary; (ii) market share rebates for garnering higher market share than established targets; (iii) administrative fees for assembling data to verify market share results; and (iv) other fees and grants.
This is taken from the National Community Pharmacist Association website. It is one of the professional associations I belong to. This is summary of how PBM's are affecting the cost of health care.
PBM$: What You Should Know
NCPA members attending the legislation and government affairs conference also let it be known that their top complaint is the conduct of PBMs. PBMs have evolved from their original role of claims processors into the unauthorized practice of medicine and pharmacy with inappropriate consequences, including the following:
- PBMs dictate what medication the patient may have based on special payments the PBM receives, not on the basis of the patients' health status.
- PBMs force take-it-or-leave-it contracts on community pharmacists. PBMs claim the contracts are negotiated, but they are not. These contracts ratchet down the payment to pharmacies, but produce no savings to the health-care system. Instead, those dollars go to PBM profits and bonuses and drive up the prescription drugs costspayersayors.
- PBMs coerce patients into using unregulated mail order. Studies show that patients, especially seniors, prefer their local independent pharmacy to mail order. PBMs restrict the local pharmacy to offer a 30-day prescription and then offer a 90-day mail order prescription with special incentives. Mail order medications are exposed to extreme temperatures and even to high doses of radiation.
- Despite PBM claims of reducing the cost of prescription benefits, prices have increased more than 16.8% in 1998, 14.2% in 1999, 16.3% in 2000, 16.9% in 2001, 18.4% in 2002, 19.5% in 2003, and an estimated 18.1% for 2004. PBMs actually contribute to increased costs. For example, while the average cost of a brand name prescription is more than $70, the average price for a generic prescription is $20. The three giant PBM mail order companies dispense generics 29% of the time, while the community pharmacy rate is 53%. Do the math!
- PBM contracts payersayors incentivize unscrupulous audits that over-charge pharmacies. Ironically, because there is no state regulatory oversight of PBMs, there are insufficient checks and balances for PBMs, resulting in few, if any, meaningful PBM audits.
PBMs are gouging payors, resulting in further escalation in the cost of prescription drug coverage through devious practices known as "spread pricing". For example, a pharmacy is paid $20 for dispensing a generic prescription and the payor is billed $100 for the same prescription by the PBM. - PBMs are creating chaos in community pharmacies. PBMs do not allow pharmacists to perform their professional functions because they are forced to act as plan intermediaries. Pharmacists must also contend with inaccurate patient information sent to the pharmacy by the PBM. Pharmacists must contend with a variety of inconsistently formatted PBM prescription cards. Additionally, pharmacy personnel spend at least 20% of their time, with no PBM compensation, for such unnecessary distractions.
- PBMs operations are unregulated, while pharmacists, pharmacies, and insurers are highly regulated by states.
Immoral pharmacists
I am posting this story here. I would really like to email to all of the pharmacists I have worked with the past 6 years. I have been told over and over that Republican are "for business" and Democrats are "against business".
President Bush has attacked "prescription drug pharmacists", accusing them of overcharging Medicaid through "inflated markups, inflated prices," for drugs. "People talked about how the decision to reform Medicaid was immoral," Bush said Feb. 8. "Well, it's not immoral to make sure that prescription drug pharmacists don't overcharge the system." "The nation's community pharmacists are offended by your comments," said James R. Rankin, RPh, NCPA president, in a letter to the president. "This statement is disingenuous and untrue. In fact, nearly all Medicaid prescriptions have a cap placed on them by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and by the state Medicaid programs designed specifically to make it impossible to overcharge the Medicaid system." The president's remarks came to a business group in New Hampshire, following his signing of the deficit reduction/budget reconciliation act that will slash Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement by $6.3 billion over five years. Two days earlier, the White House had released the federal budget for the next fiscal year, which includes a proposal to lop an additional $1.3 billion from Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement all from generic drugs. "It appears that the Bush administration considers pharmacy to be an easy target," said Bruce Roberts, RPh, NCPA executive vice president and CEO. "The cost associated with the dispensing of medications by pharmacists," Roberts continued, "represents a small fraction of the overall cost and holds the greatest potential for reducing the enormous economic and human cost of medication-related problems, and yet it is this component that is being targeted by the Bush White House." Rankin and Roberts extended invitations to the president to visit an independent pharmacy to see what actually goes on at the front lines of health care. Mike Leavitt, his secretary of health and human services, has visited both independent and chain pharmacies, and has praised pharmacists for their "heroic" efforts to make the Medicare Part D work.
A very healthy pharmacy will make a net profit of 5% of their sales. The average net profits for an independent pharmacy without the owner's compensation was 3.6% in 2004. If you add in the owner's compensation, the number rises to 7.8% according to the 2005 National Community Pharmacy Association- Pfizer Digbenefitn contrast, the pharmacy benfit managers, the companies that manage your pharmacy benefits such as Medco and Caremark, are reporting record profits. I can't tell exactly what their profits are net or gross since they are not regulated. They are estimated to be make ~40% gross profit yearly. Drug manufacturers are currently making about 18% profit yearly (it is not clear whether that is net or gross). So, who is immoral? We are just trying to keep our doors open as more and more people are required to fill medication through mail order.
The only business that this Republican administration is for is large corporations. The cost for pharmacy could be crippling so I hope all my fellow pharmacist think before they vote this year.
President Bush has attacked "prescription drug pharmacists", accusing them of overcharging Medicaid through "inflated markups, inflated prices," for drugs. "People talked about how the decision to reform Medicaid was immoral," Bush said Feb. 8. "Well, it's not immoral to make sure that prescription drug pharmacists don't overcharge the system." "The nation's community pharmacists are offended by your comments," said James R. Rankin, RPh, NCPA president, in a letter to the president. "This statement is disingenuous and untrue. In fact, nearly all Medicaid prescriptions have a cap placed on them by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and by the state Medicaid programs designed specifically to make it impossible to overcharge the Medicaid system." The president's remarks came to a business group in New Hampshire, following his signing of the deficit reduction/budget reconciliation act that will slash Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement by $6.3 billion over five years. Two days earlier, the White House had released the federal budget for the next fiscal year, which includes a proposal to lop an additional $1.3 billion from Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement all from generic drugs. "It appears that the Bush administration considers pharmacy to be an easy target," said Bruce Roberts, RPh, NCPA executive vice president and CEO. "The cost associated with the dispensing of medications by pharmacists," Roberts continued, "represents a small fraction of the overall cost and holds the greatest potential for reducing the enormous economic and human cost of medication-related problems, and yet it is this component that is being targeted by the Bush White House." Rankin and Roberts extended invitations to the president to visit an independent pharmacy to see what actually goes on at the front lines of health care. Mike Leavitt, his secretary of health and human services, has visited both independent and chain pharmacies, and has praised pharmacists for their "heroic" efforts to make the Medicare Part D work.
A very healthy pharmacy will make a net profit of 5% of their sales. The average net profits for an independent pharmacy without the owner's compensation was 3.6% in 2004. If you add in the owner's compensation, the number rises to 7.8% according to the 2005 National Community Pharmacy Association- Pfizer Digbenefitn contrast, the pharmacy benfit managers, the companies that manage your pharmacy benefits such as Medco and Caremark, are reporting record profits. I can't tell exactly what their profits are net or gross since they are not regulated. They are estimated to be make ~40% gross profit yearly. Drug manufacturers are currently making about 18% profit yearly (it is not clear whether that is net or gross). So, who is immoral? We are just trying to keep our doors open as more and more people are required to fill medication through mail order.
The only business that this Republican administration is for is large corporations. The cost for pharmacy could be crippling so I hope all my fellow pharmacist think before they vote this year.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Finally
Today, my bank wired all of the money I owe to my wholesaler. I have a huge order for tomorrow. I was able to borrow or buy from other pharmacies so I was able to help all of my patients. Thank goodness for the kindness of other independents. My sales representative came in today and told me that he was "sick" with worry over the whole situation. He didn't want me to feel "deceived". Well, maybe someone should have called me to tell me that I was not going to get an order on Thursday. He said he didn't think to call me because I told him that the money would be wired on Wednesday. I told him what the banker told me. He then told me that no other wholesaler would have opened me up without the money in the bank. I wish I had waited too, but that doesn't help us now does it. No hard feelings? Ha. I will smile and play nice for now, but I plan to leave them as soon as we can.
Tomorrow, I get to pay my lawyer, the dentist, and maybe my student loan. I will not be less broke, but I will be in a little less debt. J and I decide to wait a week for our Valentine's Day. We got some Valentine's day underwear from her mom. It is such cute tradition and I feel very lucky to be included in on it. My parents don't even send me a card.
Yesterday, we had the baby shower for S. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was worried about feeling jealous and cheated. I had K when I was 23 and S was 21. She threw me a lousy shower. I got very few gifts. My mom did nothing to help S either. It makes me sad mostly because I feel like my mom could have made it better. To be fair, she did absolutely nothing for S's shower either. SP, S's friend, arranged the whole thing. She invited people who where happy to buy some of the big items on S's registry. I actually came away from the shower feeling very happy for S. She annoys me sometimes, but it isn't her fault I had K when I did. I also got to eat bar food so that dulled any pain I might have had.
Tomorrow, I get to pay my lawyer, the dentist, and maybe my student loan. I will not be less broke, but I will be in a little less debt. J and I decide to wait a week for our Valentine's Day. We got some Valentine's day underwear from her mom. It is such cute tradition and I feel very lucky to be included in on it. My parents don't even send me a card.
Yesterday, we had the baby shower for S. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was worried about feeling jealous and cheated. I had K when I was 23 and S was 21. She threw me a lousy shower. I got very few gifts. My mom did nothing to help S either. It makes me sad mostly because I feel like my mom could have made it better. To be fair, she did absolutely nothing for S's shower either. SP, S's friend, arranged the whole thing. She invited people who where happy to buy some of the big items on S's registry. I actually came away from the shower feeling very happy for S. She annoys me sometimes, but it isn't her fault I had K when I did. I also got to eat bar food so that dulled any pain I might have had.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
What home means to me
I accidently clicked on the HomoMojo ad when I doing my daily read of http://www.biggaypicture.com/. I read about the writing contest with mild interest. I do not really consider myself a writer. I began this blog because I wanted to chronicle the experience of opening a new pharmacy. I have also recently become estranged from my best friend and miss having someone to talk to. I decided to enter the contest immediately upon reading the topic. For my regular readers, it is probably obvious why this topic is perfect for me to blog about. For those who have not been reading my blog, I purchased a live-and-work townhome in a planned community in August. I have a small community pharmacy on the first floor. I live with my partner, J, and my son, K, on the second and third floor.
The meaning of home has changed for me over the past 2 years. I used to consider the city I moved to when I was 15 my home. I moved to South Carolina about 5 years ago to complete pharmacy school. I only moved a hour away though. I maintained several friendships there and often spent weekends there. I did not make many friends here as a result. My parents and my sisters also lived there. I continued to attend church there and considered moving back after pharmacy school. Then, I met J.
J chose to do her residency here because she liked the program, and she also liked the city. She was not interested in spending every weekend at someone else's house in a less diverse and interesting place. I started spending less and less time there. Then, we made the huge decision to open a pharmacy. We found this place and signed the contract. I lost contact with many of my friends from church as they had children or moved. My youngest sister decided to make drug addiction her new profession and moved away. My parents moved out of that town. We moved in August. This house is the first place that belongs to J, K, and I.
Home means the location where you live as well as space where you can be yourself. I have felt at home in church, in classes, and at work. I have felt at home at a UU retreat center in North Carolina. I have felt at home in friends' homes. I have lived places that never felt like home. This house/pharmacy serves as the location where I live and the space where I can be myself. It is the home that I have created with J and K.
My home is the place that I practice my profession that I dearly love. I get up in the morning and come downstairs to work. I spend my day providing medication to sick kids and parents. I answer questions about medication combinations and make recommendations of over-the-counter products. I call physicians for refills on medications and insurance companies for patients. I talk to people about their elderly parents and their children with chronic health conditions. I come down at 9 pm after I am closed for the evening to provide pain medicine for a broken tooth. I get to make the ethical decisions whether to lend someone medication to get through the weekend or to not fill a questionable prescription. I can hire my transgendered friend and know that she will not be discriminated against. I carry the morning after pill and any other type of birth control. I also play Scrabble with J and help K with his homework when we are not busy. Some day, it will be the place that I provide flu shots and educate people on how to best manage their diabetes.
My home is the place that I practice one of my favorite hobbies, cooking. I have an open kitchen where people can sit at the counter while I cook. I spend my lunch hour at the grocery store or preparing for the evening meal. I go upstairs for a half hour around 5 pm and start cooking the food while S watches the pharmacy. She calls me if I am needed. I make pancakes from scratch most Saturday mornings before opening the store in my kitchen. I spend 45 minutes after dinner most nights cleaning up and getting ready for the next day. Some nights, I make cookies from scratch because I love the routines of cooking. I store my cookbooks and internet recipes on a shelf above the oven. My kitchen is my home within my home. We invite guest to join us for dinner at least once a week. I love my home and intend to stay here for a long time.
The meaning of home has changed for me over the past 2 years. I used to consider the city I moved to when I was 15 my home. I moved to South Carolina about 5 years ago to complete pharmacy school. I only moved a hour away though. I maintained several friendships there and often spent weekends there. I did not make many friends here as a result. My parents and my sisters also lived there. I continued to attend church there and considered moving back after pharmacy school. Then, I met J.
J chose to do her residency here because she liked the program, and she also liked the city. She was not interested in spending every weekend at someone else's house in a less diverse and interesting place. I started spending less and less time there. Then, we made the huge decision to open a pharmacy. We found this place and signed the contract. I lost contact with many of my friends from church as they had children or moved. My youngest sister decided to make drug addiction her new profession and moved away. My parents moved out of that town. We moved in August. This house is the first place that belongs to J, K, and I.
Home means the location where you live as well as space where you can be yourself. I have felt at home in church, in classes, and at work. I have felt at home at a UU retreat center in North Carolina. I have felt at home in friends' homes. I have lived places that never felt like home. This house/pharmacy serves as the location where I live and the space where I can be myself. It is the home that I have created with J and K.
My home is the place that I practice my profession that I dearly love. I get up in the morning and come downstairs to work. I spend my day providing medication to sick kids and parents. I answer questions about medication combinations and make recommendations of over-the-counter products. I call physicians for refills on medications and insurance companies for patients. I talk to people about their elderly parents and their children with chronic health conditions. I come down at 9 pm after I am closed for the evening to provide pain medicine for a broken tooth. I get to make the ethical decisions whether to lend someone medication to get through the weekend or to not fill a questionable prescription. I can hire my transgendered friend and know that she will not be discriminated against. I carry the morning after pill and any other type of birth control. I also play Scrabble with J and help K with his homework when we are not busy. Some day, it will be the place that I provide flu shots and educate people on how to best manage their diabetes.
My home is the place that I practice one of my favorite hobbies, cooking. I have an open kitchen where people can sit at the counter while I cook. I spend my lunch hour at the grocery store or preparing for the evening meal. I go upstairs for a half hour around 5 pm and start cooking the food while S watches the pharmacy. She calls me if I am needed. I make pancakes from scratch most Saturday mornings before opening the store in my kitchen. I spend 45 minutes after dinner most nights cleaning up and getting ready for the next day. Some nights, I make cookies from scratch because I love the routines of cooking. I store my cookbooks and internet recipes on a shelf above the oven. My kitchen is my home within my home. We invite guest to join us for dinner at least once a week. I love my home and intend to stay here for a long time.
Saturday
I have found that I can do a decent post on Saturday since I am usually the only person working. I had a nice long post last Saturday, but it got eaten by blogger. It was about the shooting at a gay bar last week. Oh, well. I cannot rewrite something once it is lost unless absolutely necessary. I think my business plan is lost. I had it on a flash drive that has been wiped. I plan to call the pharmacy association or the bank to get a copy of it.
I met a woman yesterday who is moving in here in June who made me want to rewrite the business plan. She did a community pharmacy practice residency last year. She is interested in working here and possibly helping me expand this practice. She would like to do diabetes educations and teach pharmacy students. I mentioned that I wanted to turn my garage into a compounding lab and she seemed interested in learning how to compound. We talked for a half hour. It was nice to get excited about my business again. I definitely needed after this week.
No, I still don't have the loan. I should have the money by Tuesday unless something is not signed properly. I am no longer receiving medications from my wholesaler. They did not deliver on Thursday or Friday. I understand the business decision to stop delivering to us until we can pay, but it did not end there. No one called to let me know that I was not getting the medication. When I called them, my sales representative made it seem like I was not telling them the truth. I thought that I was being paranoid. Then, yesterday the credit manager called me directly.
"This is T, the credit manager for your wholesaler."
"Okay" Long pause. What am I supposed to say?
"I need to clarify somethings about this loan."
"I have signed my papers. I spoke to the person providing the collateral and he put his papers in the mail yesterday." Longer pause.
"So we will get our money today?"
"I don't know. It may be Monday before my banker can release the funds."
"Monday. What kind of loan is this anyways?"
"It is a line of credit." Longest pause yet. I break the silence.
"Would you like to speak to my banker?"
"Is that this RH? Yes, I want to speak to her."
So you are looking at the commitment letter and you know exactly what kind of loan it is and for how much. Fucker. I give him her direct line and her cell line. He asks me to call her and give her permission to talk to him about the information. I call her later in the afternoon. She tells me that he was not very nice. She tells me that he asks her if she is sure that I am not trying to pull some scam. She defends me and tells him that I have good credit and a great location. She lets him know that I have the support of friends and family and that is how I have been able to stay open.
What she did not tell him is that I sold my beloved Mini Cooper because I couldn't afford it anymore or that I haven't paid my student loans since November. She did not tell him that without J's family, K would have had a crappy Christmas or that I haven't had a haircut since August. J is staying at a friend's house this weekend instead of at the hotel where her conference is being held because we can't afford to pay for the room now and be reimbursed later. These are all part of the sacrifice we knew we were going to have to make for this business. I am angry at the suggestion that we are deliberately not paying them and keeping the money for our own use. I believe that one should do some research before flinging those kind of allegations around. Oh, well. I will be finding a new wholesaler as soon as I straighten this crap out.
I have been able to buy or borrow from some other independents so none of my patients have been affected. I hope that I will be able to get an order on Tuesday. I am worried that they will try to make me prepay for my orders from now on. I will then start calling the pharmacy association and people I have met at my wholesaler and it will get nasty. Or not. I don't know.
In other news, I am planning to write a post about what home means to me and submit it to a blogging contest on HomoMojo.
I met a woman yesterday who is moving in here in June who made me want to rewrite the business plan. She did a community pharmacy practice residency last year. She is interested in working here and possibly helping me expand this practice. She would like to do diabetes educations and teach pharmacy students. I mentioned that I wanted to turn my garage into a compounding lab and she seemed interested in learning how to compound. We talked for a half hour. It was nice to get excited about my business again. I definitely needed after this week.
No, I still don't have the loan. I should have the money by Tuesday unless something is not signed properly. I am no longer receiving medications from my wholesaler. They did not deliver on Thursday or Friday. I understand the business decision to stop delivering to us until we can pay, but it did not end there. No one called to let me know that I was not getting the medication. When I called them, my sales representative made it seem like I was not telling them the truth. I thought that I was being paranoid. Then, yesterday the credit manager called me directly.
"This is T, the credit manager for your wholesaler."
"Okay" Long pause. What am I supposed to say?
"I need to clarify somethings about this loan."
"I have signed my papers. I spoke to the person providing the collateral and he put his papers in the mail yesterday." Longer pause.
"So we will get our money today?"
"I don't know. It may be Monday before my banker can release the funds."
"Monday. What kind of loan is this anyways?"
"It is a line of credit." Longest pause yet. I break the silence.
"Would you like to speak to my banker?"
"Is that this RH? Yes, I want to speak to her."
So you are looking at the commitment letter and you know exactly what kind of loan it is and for how much. Fucker. I give him her direct line and her cell line. He asks me to call her and give her permission to talk to him about the information. I call her later in the afternoon. She tells me that he was not very nice. She tells me that he asks her if she is sure that I am not trying to pull some scam. She defends me and tells him that I have good credit and a great location. She lets him know that I have the support of friends and family and that is how I have been able to stay open.
What she did not tell him is that I sold my beloved Mini Cooper because I couldn't afford it anymore or that I haven't paid my student loans since November. She did not tell him that without J's family, K would have had a crappy Christmas or that I haven't had a haircut since August. J is staying at a friend's house this weekend instead of at the hotel where her conference is being held because we can't afford to pay for the room now and be reimbursed later. These are all part of the sacrifice we knew we were going to have to make for this business. I am angry at the suggestion that we are deliberately not paying them and keeping the money for our own use. I believe that one should do some research before flinging those kind of allegations around. Oh, well. I will be finding a new wholesaler as soon as I straighten this crap out.
I have been able to buy or borrow from some other independents so none of my patients have been affected. I hope that I will be able to get an order on Tuesday. I am worried that they will try to make me prepay for my orders from now on. I will then start calling the pharmacy association and people I have met at my wholesaler and it will get nasty. Or not. I don't know.
In other news, I am planning to write a post about what home means to me and submit it to a blogging contest on HomoMojo.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Hold ups
I keep waiting to post about finally getting the money I need. Well, I still don't have it. There is a hold up in the process of securing the collateral. My wholesaler is getting angry. I am sick with stress.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Freedom
So, the game did not result in the numbness I was seeking. I only finished 2 beers in the 51 minute speech. I think I should have chosen "freedom" instead of "health care"as it was said 27 times. Here is the word count from Don't Lose the Question.org:
our 97 america 38 freedom 27 terror.. 27 Iraq.. 27 nation 22 countr.. 18 government 18 democra.. 15 world 15 war 13 peace 12 Liber.. 8 force 8 leader.. 7 strong 6 Justice 4 ememy 4 coalition 4 United States 4 Iran 4 NATO 3 Europ.. 3 United Nations 1 oil 0
Oh, wait. That was last year's speech. I skimmed through the entire speech which was also posted at this site. They are ridiculously similar. I realized that this was last year's speech since Bush stated clearly that we are addicted to oil this year. I will put a the new word count as soon as I find one.
our 97 america 38 freedom 27 terror.. 27 Iraq.. 27 nation 22 countr.. 18 government 18 democra.. 15 world 15 war 13 peace 12 Liber.. 8 force 8 leader.. 7 strong 6 Justice 4 ememy 4 coalition 4 United States 4 Iran 4 NATO 3 Europ.. 3 United Nations 1 oil 0
Oh, wait. That was last year's speech. I skimmed through the entire speech which was also posted at this site. They are ridiculously similar. I realized that this was last year's speech since Bush stated clearly that we are addicted to oil this year. I will put a the new word count as soon as I find one.
