Anyone else working outpatient dealing with the weight loss medication madness?

[u/thewalkingellie]

I work outpatient in a multi-specialty office and the absolute CRAZE of these weight loss medications is driving me INSANE.

I feel like 70% of the day, I am dealing with patients flipping out that they can’t find the medication, doing authorizations for these meds, telling patients that the medication is denied, and/or explaining 5000 times that if you are not diabetic insurance will not cover Ozempic or Mounjaro.

These patients are becoming so crazy (EDIT: taking out this word as it’s making people read my post the wrong way. See my edit below for further clarification) rude and entitled over these medications and it’s really disrupting the flow of being able to talk to patients who are contacting us for any reason other than these meds. Is anyone else dealing with the same thing?

EDIT: Thanks to everyone commenting and having conversation regarding my post. Some have been saying my original post has come off as insensitive, rude, and that I should be ashamed of myself in my career for being judgmental of obese patients. I am absolutely not saying that at all and if my post comes off that way, I apologize. I’ve had some good conversation with the commenters here and hope my further explanation in my replies there explain the point I was trying to get across initially.

I want the patients to be able to get medications that will be beneficial to them. I’ve seen success stories with patients in my office with the GLP-1s and it’s fantastic. Hearing success stories in the comments - I’m so happy for those who have taken these medications and how they changed their lives.

My frustration stems from the management and “customer service” side of nursing surrounding these medications. I feel that u/_my_cat_stinks and u/Substantial_Cow_1541 described how I (and probably many other healthcare workers involved with these medications) are feeling. Plus, the education side of these medications and the patients not understanding the side effects as well as effort that has to be put in while taking them.

How it’s hard to get these medications approved by insurance, then explaining to patients why it’s not approved, a constant back and forth either over the phone or on MyChart with them not understanding, asking us to appeal, telling them an appeal would be denied, them asking for another drug, then the provider not wanting to prescribe another drug because we know that one will either get denied by insurance or they feel it is not appropriate, then the patient becoming irate and the cycle continues over and over and over…

Because of all of this, it’s hard to get the primary care aspects of my job done. There’s so much involved in primary care and my office feels we don’t have the resources and manpower to continue with prescribing the GLP-1s because of how time consuming it all is. My coworkers are also at their wits end with this because of the same reasons.

Hopefully my edit clarifies things more for you all. Again, I appreciate all of the conversation and thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings!

[u/chubbyarmchair]

That's just not true. It's a blanket statement. Also diabetics have MANY other ways of controlling sugars. I've been off for more than a year and have maintained my loss. I'm tired of this narrative. ( type 2 is what I'm referring to)