I was employed as a pharmacy technician for over three years. It had its better days, but now those days are behind me and I couldn't be happier. Unless you want to become a pharmacist or you like working in a medical field with terrible pay and challenging customers, I highly advise you to stay away from this job. Here's why:
1. The pay is not that great.
Even if you're an experienced pharmacy technician, most of the time the compensation is rather low. I will not state my exact pay rates at my previous positions, but I will say that my hourly wage was below the median hourly rate.
2. Deciphering written scripts.
I sincerely believe that pharmacists must have taken some sort of course in interpreting written prescriptions. On the rare occasion that even the pharmacists are unable to read the script, they have to call the office for clarification.
3. Customers assume we create and/or automatically know their copays.
How hard is it to understand that all we do is bill your insurance company and they determine your copays? We are just the messengers in this equation. It's your plan, why shouldn't you know anything about your own insurance and its costs?
4. Insurance issues.
Techs input prescriptions into the system and submit it to the insurance company to process. Sometimes customers have a new insurance company and/or card but failed to give the pharmacy the updated information (and often assume that we automatically know it somehow). This issue is most common in the beginning of the calendar year.
5. Prior Authorizations.
Another issue regarding insurance is prior authorizations. It essentially means that the patient's insurance will not pay for a particular drug for whatever reason. The pharmacy then issues a fax to that doctor's office to either explain to the insurance the necessity of that particular drug or they may simply prescribe something else similar to the initial drug. At best, these can take 48-72 hours to process. Not fun for anybody involved.
6. People taking advantage of the drive-thru.
I understand that pharmacies having drive-thru's make customers lives easier. Some people seem to perceive a pharmacy drive-thru as more along the lines as a fast-food or convenience store drive-thru.
7. Having to hear people describe their medical issue(s) to you in detail.
I am not a doctor or a pharmacist. I do not want or need to know what hurts or what something on your body might indicate about some medical condition. Pharmacy technicians are legally not allowed to provide medical advice.
These are just some of the reasons why I highly advise you to stay away from being a pharmacy technician. I thought it was a great job. We can't be always right.
