Care that goes the extra mile
Helping a family access life-changing medication
When a third-party clerical error stopped payments for an expensive medication for Connie Elliott, a patient with Parkinson’s disease, her family reached out to CVS Specialty® in desperation.
“Mom’s pension plan company made a terrible mistake, and they aren’t covering the $7,000 a month for her miracle Duopa pump,” JJ Elliott, Connie’s daughter, explained. “We don’t have the money to cover that, and she needs this medication.”
Eileen LaCivita, a CVS Specialty Services patient representative, calmed their fears and immediately took action.
Eileen, a caregiver herself who lives to help her patients, prioritized sending Connie a “compassionate” dose of medication.
“So many businesses forget there’s a real person on the phone,” JJ shared. “Eileen came to our rescue and CVS Health® empowered her to do that. We are forever grateful to her and the company.”
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My average day at the job is taking phone calls, possibly 20 to 30, working behind the scenes on escalations.
The patients that I mostly help are Parkinson's patients.
You know who the favorite is?
I said, who's your favorite?
When we'd get together.
Whoever is with me at the time.
At the time, my mom was amazing.
She was a cheerleader. She was a homecoming queen.
She and my dad were high school sweethearts.
I think of our mom as this personality, and she had a passion to serve for other people.
All right, you looking beautiful, ma'am.
Seeing our mom go through all these difficulties with Parkinson's just kind of hurts us to the core.
Mom's mind is perfect, but there are days she can't take a step or she can't get out of bed.
I might always feel like I'm not doing enough.
Two thirds, Right?
Yes ma'am.
I wish that I could keep her at home.
Yes ma'am. I wish that I could keep her at home or I could afford to have someone with her all the time and we just can't do that.
When I was mom's caregiver back in 2022, she took medicine every two hours and normally it was about 20 pills a day, and that was our whole reason of taking her out of assisted living so that we could get this magical pump.
We do consider the Duopa pump a miracle for us, a miracle for Parkinson's.
The pump is programmed according to the doctor's prescription that is sent to CVS Specialty.
It's a pretty complicated medication with all the steps that you have to take.
CVS always contacts me like clockwork in regards to her Duopa cartridges because that's how the medicine works.
They verify her address, they verify her insurance, they verify, do we need batteries or not?
That's how simple it is.
So JJ called me and said, Medicare thinks mom's dead because of a returned piece of mail and a failed policy.
They didn't pay mom's claim.
When I called CVS Specialty Pharmacy to explain where we were in the situation, Eileen answered the phone.
She was at her wit's end and I told her she didn't have to worry.
We would make sure that Connie would not be out of medication.
She was my advocate when I didn't think I had an advocate.
We sent a compassionate dose, which means we sent her a seven day supply of medication at no out of pocket charge to her or to her insurance.
Eileen was a mom talking to a daughter, or she was a sister talking to a sister.
It was so personal.
There's something there that empowered her to say, your mom is going to get her medicine.
I sometimes come home from work drained, but these patients mean more than me than just anything.
JJ, so nice to meet you. You too.
It’s so wonderful to meet you.
It's wonderful to meet you too.
I don't know what we would do without you.
You are wonderful. Thank you so much.
You are an angel.
I understand that.
We will forever be grateful to Eileen and CVS Health.
We'll be lifelong customers for sure, especially when it comes to my tissues.
Pass those over.
Here you go.
Thanks.
Thanks. You have one too.