My friend just went to a Rite Aid Pharmacy in San Bernardino, CA, and all computers were out. He tried to refill a prescription and could not, even though most of these chair pharmacies have their computers linked. Could they all be out? They did not refer him to another Rite Aid so it makes me wonder if there is a system problem. It's amazing none of this makes the news... could they be worried about stock prices?

-- Cyndi Crowder (cyncrowder@aol.com), January 03, 2000

Answers

Response to Rite Aid Pharmacy Computers out

I deleted three bits of "commentary" from this thread as they were not related to this incident. We are looking to report and understand Y2K impacts, please keep it on-topic...

Thanks

-- SYSOP (y2kgicc@yahoo.com), January 04, 2000.

The issue with the San Bernadino, CA Rite Aid was a localized computer failure, store wide and did not affect other local or regional Rite Aid sites. In cases such as these, unless the medication is critical, it is unusual for the Pharmacist to send the patient/customer to another store unless they are holding a written prescription. There have been no other reports of Pharmacy System failures to date.

Laurene West

National Patient Advocate

-- Laurene West (llw@integrityonline3.com), January 04, 2000.

I've heard of RiteAid pharmacies being unable to fulfill orders following the cross-over -- and now hear that Rite Aid is delaying its quarterly report until July.

-- Gary G. Gach (y2k@word.to), January 12, 2000.

This is interesting..

PCS Handles Record Number of Year-End Prescription Claims; Flu Season, Plan Changes Drive Highest-Volume Day Ever

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 13, 2000--PCS Health Systems, one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBM), closed out 1999 with its busiest single day ever -- handling a record 2 million prescription transactions on Dec. 28.

PCS administers prescription benefits for more than 50 million people and works with virtually all retail pharmacies to process more than 300 million prescription claims online each year.

"We typically see high volume toward the end of December as patients hurry to get prescriptions filled before benefit plan changes take effect in January," said Jean-Pierre Millon, president and chief executive officer of PCS. "Also, the cold and flu season is in high gear, which drives medication usage."

High prescription volumes have continued into the new year. Through electronic links with nearly 56,000 pharmacies, PCS computers are efficiently handling up to 64 transactions per second -- each within one second or less.

An intensive Y2K readiness program ensured that PCS computers and pharmacy software would be unaffected by the millennium bug. There were no reports of PCS plan members experiencing problems getting prescriptions filled over the New Years weekend due to Y2K computer glitches.

The use of advanced computer technology has helped to make prescription benefits affordable and has lead to dramatic growth in the number of people covered by prescription programs.

After PCS pioneered the nation's first online, real-time, paperless pharmaceutical claims adjudication system in 1987, administrative costs for processing a prescription decreased from about $6 per claim to less than $1.

Now, nearly 80 percent of prescriptions dispensed in the United States are covered by some form of prescription benefit program according to IMS Health -- up from 37 percent 10 years ago.

PCS Health Systems Inc. (http://www.pcshs.com) is one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers, providing drug and health management solutions for health plans and patients.

As America's premier pharmaceutical care system, PCS works to encourage proper drug use and helps to lower the cost of drugs for its clients. PCS manages and monitors more than 300 million individual prescriptions each year representing $10 billion in drug expenditures. PCS Health Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE:RAD),(PSE:RAD).

CONTACT:

PCS Health Systems, Scottsdale

Blair Jackson, 480/391-4138

KEYWORD: ARIZONA

-- Cyndi Crowder (cyncrowder@aol.com), January 13, 2000.