Refills require several calls to pharmacy and Dr. I am alone, both require 48 hrs to fill. Weekends, vacations, holidays, forget it. One can't be done more than 2 days before expiring. I am 84 with no back up, where do I turn?
Mumsie, the other answers here are spot on about having the pharmacy synchronize your refills--it may take a couple of months to work it out. If you happen to live in a rural area, the chain pharmacies may not have delivery, but an independent store, locally owned may. When my mother was living in a rural area, that was the pharmacy who was able to deliver. Good luck!
Many drug stores can set up refills on an automatic basis and will also deliver your prescriptions to your home. See the pharmacist in the store and make the arrangements with credit card. If this is not practical, transfer your prescriptions to Health Warehouse in Ketucky they mail the prescriptions to you, but will not use insurance.
Speak to pharmacy about consolidating refill schedule. They should be able to consolidate that if not make all refilled on one monthly date. I know Walgreen's does that for me.
I know Publix can synchronize prescriptions as well. Wish it were so easy here. Due to so many prescriptions for us two seniors, and the crap Medicare drug plans, I get so tired of the prescriptions games. Manufacturers constantly increasing prices, plus the PDMs constantly moving generic drugs to non-generic drug copay tiers means I have to price shop our medications every single time one is due for a refill. Getting nurses here to order 90-day maintenance drug supplies instead of 30-day supplies (not talking the controlled drugs), is ridiculous. I keep telling these nurses I am not going to the pharmacy three days a week because they won’t order the 90-day Maintenance drug supplies. Even educated some nurses on the price break some get for the larger quantities, yet they continue ordering 30 days. Some insurance companies and some pharmacies give the customer a break on the copay when getting 90-day supplies, instead of 30-day supplies. When is a contract not a contract? When it’s one-sided, one-year drug plan premium rate, but the above-mentioned bad actors aren’t required to sell the drugs at the same price during the contract year. It’s a racket, and the big losers are the elderly. Just last week I went to Publix to get a maintenance drug refill. Publix increased the price over 20%, which may have been due to the wholesaler price. Used GoodRX, didn’t even use my insurance, as the SilverScripts preferred pharmacy closest to me, CVS, price even higher. Ridiculous when Medicare can’t negotiate drug prices. So much wrong with the system, broken. Due to our heat and high humidity, plus possibility of theft, I don’t like mail order drugs. One time I had a USPS worker hang my medications on the newspaper hook on my mailbox, out in the sun. Was there all day, til I got home from work, waiting to be stolen. We’ve also had internal package theft with USPS. If you use mail order, make sure you know if the meds will be replaced if stolen in the delivery system, if you will have to pay for them again. Many insurances won’t pay. And USSP is notorious for showing a package was delivered, when you sit by the door waiting, and they never knock or ring the bell. USSP theft was so bad in south FL, that one year all our W2s and 1099s were stolen before making it into our locked cluster mailbox. The USPS actually assigned a detective to our USPS theft problem. So, just know the fine points, if you go with mail order. As another person said, many insurance companies will let you refill a couple days early, depending on the drug. If you do it every refill, you can gradually move your pickup date over the year as well. Now I don’t pick up maintenance drugs at pharmacy immediately. Wait til 2-3 of them are ready, save gas, time, and sanity.
O I I live in Florida, and boy did you hit on a lot of good points. Publix knows they can get away with price increases. And the heat does make mail order unsafe. What to do? Write to congress?
I found a local pharmacy that pre packs and delivers Dad’s medicines. They also service local skilled nursing centers. I started with a national service, but really appreciate the quick response of the local pharmacy if there is a change in medicine mid month. I realize this doesn’t solve all of the problem, but may ease some of the challenges. It’s not easy.
Talk to your pharmacist. Explain to him or her your problems concerning this. Ask if your pharmacy could synchronize your medications to be filled around the same time a month. Also ask if they would deliver the medications to you as well or if not mail them to you. Both of these services have been a God send to both my 89 yr old mother and myself as we live a half an hour away from town and we have no vehicle.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope your situation improves for you.
My husband takes about 25 pills each day, only few OTC.
I fill the little boxes for each day two weeks in advance. But I don't order the new pills that I need until the week of refilling, about four days before. That way they are less likely to be rejected and, therefore, needed to be ordered again. It works.
Oh, sometimes there is a glitch. And the whole process is a royal pain. But basically it works. and I am MUCH happier now that I only have to fill the thing every two weeks.
The pills themselves have been a real barometer of his motor skills as the months/years passed. Sadly. My husband used to take them by himself after I organized them. Then I had to get them out for him. Then I had to put them on a plate so that he wouldn't knock them on the floor. Then I had to separate them on the plate so that it was easier to to pick them up. Now I have to pick them up and put them in his mouth. I resented this for a while, a long while. It is kind of sloppy and yucky. Wet. But now I just listen to a podcast and it is all good.
Good luck to all of us. May we be patient and have lots of other things going on in our lives that are fun!
I feel your pain. For the longest time I would have to go to the pharmacy every other day to pick up something for someone. It's those darn insurance companies rules. But the thing is, they give you a couple of days slack. So you can fill a prescription a couple of days before it's due. Just keep walking them together and sooner or later, they'll be synced.
Some pharmacies offer a service that is free, where they will coordinate your prescriptions so you can get them all at once. I get my prescriptions at Walgreens, and am a type 2 diabetic. They called me and asked me if I wanted to do this. It takes about a month, because you start off with partial prescriptions, but within a month, you get them all at once. When I was caregiving for my mom, we had good luck with mail order pharmacies, too. She could call, or I could, and take care of her prescriptions easily.
Mom gets almost all of her meds from Optum RX via mail, 90 days at a time. We just call when something is getting low, they go over everthing that can be refilled.. you just say Yes.. and they come in the mail in a few days. They also call the Dr for refills if we have forgotten to tell him. I have always had to get her OXY from the local pharmacy ( like you said.. within a few days and no earlier) but this time somehow they were able to get Optum to send them too, 90 days worth!! I was amazed. Hubs had to sign for the delivery,, but small thing! My employer likes us to use CVS Caremark mail order, it works well for me also.
Contact your local office on aging for the names of pharmacies that deliver...I'm in OH and I believe there was some sort of legislation passed where rx's can be cooridinated in some way so that they can all be brought up to speed and require only one trip. If money saving is an issue you may still be the one who has to do the legwork and update so you can get the price matching. I've used Good Rx. You also don't have to be a Costco member to use the pharmacy.
You may want to see if the pharmacy has somekind of reminder thing. My insurance requires 90 day refills for maintenance drugs. They will call when its time to refill or do it automatically. My doctors call my prescription refills in. Walgreens call when they are ready.
I suggest, too, that you call ur doctor's office and explain your circumstances. Maybe there are meds that can be dropped like Cholesterol.
JoAnn, good point about seeing if some of the meds can be discontinued.
My doctor had prescribed pills for cholesterol but I decided not to take them as the numbers weren't that far out of whack. The doctor was ok with that.
Sometimes we need pills to help with the side effects of another pill we are taking. Time to re-evaluate the pills that are being used.
For myself, give me a pill that has been around for 25 years, thus all the side effects have been noted. I don't like trying brand new stuff that hasn't been tested long enough :P
Good answer, Grandma. Make sure to get scripts mailed to the house. What a pain to pick up all of those scripts at the pharmacy! Three months supply is helpful too.
Is it possible to discuss with the Doctor to see if all the prescriptions can be timed so they are all needing a refill at the same time? There are companies that will pre pack all the prescriptions together, they must have some way to get them timed so they can pack and send them in a timely manner. (I think I saw an ad for Amazon that does this...like what doesn't Amazon do now!) I am sure there are medications (opoids probably) that would be a problem.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope your situation improves for you.
My husband takes about 25 pills each day, only few OTC.
I fill the little boxes for each day two weeks in advance. But I don't order the new pills that I need until the week of refilling, about four days before. That way they are less likely to be rejected and, therefore, needed to be ordered again. It works.
Oh, sometimes there is a glitch. And the whole process is a royal pain. But basically it works. and I am MUCH happier now that I only have to fill the thing every two weeks.
The pills themselves have been a real barometer of his motor skills as the months/years passed. Sadly. My husband used to take them by himself after I organized them. Then I had to get them out for him. Then I had to put them on a plate so that he wouldn't knock them on the floor. Then I had to separate them on the plate so that it was easier to to pick them up. Now I have to pick them up and put them in his mouth. I resented this for a while, a long while. It is kind of sloppy and yucky. Wet. But now I just listen to a podcast and it is all good.
Good luck to all of us. May we be patient and have lots of other things going on in our lives that are fun!
I suggest, too, that you call ur doctor's office and explain your circumstances. Maybe there are meds that can be dropped like Cholesterol.
My doctor had prescribed pills for cholesterol but I decided not to take them as the numbers weren't that far out of whack. The doctor was ok with that.
Sometimes we need pills to help with the side effects of another pill we are taking. Time to re-evaluate the pills that are being used.
For myself, give me a pill that has been around for 25 years, thus all the side effects have been noted. I don't like trying brand new stuff that hasn't been tested long enough :P
There are companies that will pre pack all the prescriptions together, they must have some way to get them timed so they can pack and send them in a timely manner. (I think I saw an ad for Amazon that does this...like what doesn't Amazon do now!)
I am sure there are medications (opoids probably) that would be a problem.