I can't speak for anyone else, but I do not get my enbrel from medco as
the couple of times I have ordered it through them, it has never arrived
at the proper temperature.    In fact, they enclose a note when they
ship it, that from basically oct through march or april, they ship it in
a cooler without any ice paks or anything because it is cold enough with
winter to keep the meds at proper temp.   I don't find this to be true
at all, but that is just my experience with them.    I have also had
problems with them on a number of occassions where they say they are
going to ship a med within the next 3-5 days and then the change the
date of shipping several times and sometimes I have ended up running out
of meds before they finally ship it.   As you can see, I'm not a huge
Medco fan.   The prices are right, but the service sometimes negates the
extra savings.  

Donna G

I had problems with Medco for mail order enbrel.
I wouldnt get it from them.
Amgen even told me to avoid using them if at all posssible, as they were one
of two of the worst
mail order places to get enbrel from, based on their
feedback/problem/complaints.

My father has a similar prescrition plan.

He doesn't use Enbrel, but we've had so many problems with Medco Health
that we prefer to use a local pharmacy and pay more.

I get my kineret from them and have never had a problem. I mailed in my
RX last Weds. They called monday to confirm shipment and it arrived on
my doorstep as scheduled yesterday, packed in a cooler with ice packs
and lots of bubble wrap. One week from the day I put the RX in the
mailbox til the meds arrived at my door.

~KJ

If so,

Nann- You've had a wide variety of responses here regarding Medco. I
don't use them for my Enbrel but did have problems with my Mail Away
company. Originally it was how it was packed and we got that covered
but then I found out an interesting thing that may also effect the
efficacy of the medicine.  Even after I had the temp/packing figured
out, I still went 3-4 months without getting much of a good response
from my Enbrel. So before I ordered it, I called to check into the
shipping process at the pharmacy.

The main thing I learned that concerned me is how many times it was
packed and shipped before I actually got my hands on it.  It was first
shipped from Amgen to a warehouse for the pharmacy company who then
shipped it to my Mailaway company who then shipped it to me.  We know
that when Amgen ships it that it is done correctly.  What we don't know
is how it is handled at the Warehouse. How long does it take to get
from receiving to the pharmacy and then into the fridge?  And then how
do they package it to ship it back to the MailOrder Pharm? Does it sit
on a shipping dock in the sun for half a day till it's picked up? On
some secretary's desk all day till it's picked up? Is it shipped
overnight? Two Day?  Etc. The MailAway pharm was unable to provide an
answer to those questions. They were also unable to answer those same
questions about their own process as far as receiving and shipping.
Based on these issues and the fact that my rheumy was thinking about
changing me to another med, my human resourse dept arranged for me to
pick up my Enbrel at a local pharm for the same co-pay as MailAway.  I
get it now at Target who gets it shipped directly from Amgen. From the
UPS or FED X guy straight to the pharmacist to the fridge.  Better
efficacy.

So that's my imput.  You never know what human resources will say till
you ask.  I did make a bit of a stink with the Mailaway Pharmacy. I
told them I was going to take the temperature of each box that was
delivered and for each box that was over 45 degrees, I was refusing the
shipment and sending it back at their cost. They weren't too excited
about that prospect and encouraged HR to go along with local pickup.

DianeW