Mail order Prescriptions

[Mom3girls]

My husband and I use Medco by choice. We have Aetna insurance and have the choice to mail order or pharmacy. My medication is generic and costs around $8 a month and through mail order I get three months for $8 . Hubby's is $17 month and again pays only $17 for three months worth through mail order. Never have had problems with them. It's always extremely fast delivery wise.

 

[PatsMom]

I have Express Scripts and about two years ago we were forced to mail order our maintenance drugs. At first I was pretty opposed to it but now I wonder what I fussed for. I have the maintenance stuff on auto fill so it just shows up When I need to stop one of the drugs, I can do it on line. When my doctor prescribes something new, the office just faxes it in and it shows up a week or so later. For the doctor that doesn't fax, I mail in the prescription and have never had a problem with it not being filled quickly.

I like it when they suggest lower cost alternatives. I switched my Tricor to generic fenofibrate and I am saving money. I also switched from Lipitor to simvastatin (generic Zocor). The only thing that bothers me is that there are drugs that must be justified. For example, I have massive stomach problems and take Celebrex for my arthritis because I can't tolerate most other NSAIDS. Once a year my doctor's office has to justify prescribing the brand name. Its a pretty smooth process - they are familiar with it. A form letter that has to be filled out saying why NSAIDs are not suitable. I also take Cymbalta for neuropathy. Once a year my endo has to send in a confirmation of the diagnosis since they would require justification of why a cheaper anti-depressant can't be used. In my case it is because the cheaper ones don't treat neuropathy so there hasn't been any problem.

 

[Sadie22]

DH and I have been using Medco by mail for years with no problems. With our insurance we can get up to a 21 day supply from a retail pharmacy but everything else is by mail and it is much less expensive and less time-consuming and less hassle than always going to a pharmacy. Our physician tends to write prescriptions for maintenance meds for 90 days with one refill so that she can be sure we come in to have our blood tests done on schedule. I mail in the Rx for the first time and the pills come in the mail usually a week to ten days later. At refill time (when I have about 30 days worth of pills left) I get an email reminder so I go on the website and order the refill. Everything is automatically charged to the credit card on file. When it's time for the third refill I get a reminder and I authorize Medco to contact the physician to ask her to electronically represcribe the medication. In the meantime I've seen the physician for a regularly scheduled checkup and had blood tests done so she knows whether she wants to continue the same dosage, change the dosage, or discontinue that drug and prescriibe something else.

Of course there is a formulary list so that generics cost less than brand name drugs and some drugs are preferred.

 

[Sadie22]

There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding the HIPAA privacy regulations. Of course insurance carriers and physicians must share information. It is in our best interests for there to be employer wellness programs and programs where different medications or possibly less expensive medications may be suggested to us to manage our conditions. One physician cannot know everything, and many patients have no idea that their physicians are not prescribing the least expensive but equally effective medications for them. The physician may not be aware of a more effective drug. Rather than being offended by getting a phone call or letter or email, it's simply more information we can use to open a dialogue with our physicians. If the subject has already been discussed, fine, but for many patients it may be their first exposure to a new idea.

The privacy statements we get with each provider includes information on how to opt out of some things or how to specify a means of communication. Read all these carefully.

I don't know how many times I have had to explain to my mother's physicians and to my own how to write prescriptions to take best advantage of the prescription insurance. My father's physician wrote prescriptions for 30 days at a time with a year's worth of monthly refills, when the plan allowed 90 days worth (for two copays, like getting one month free) with 3 refills. My brother had been managing things and had no idea anything should be done any differently.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

Thanks for the responses. It is Medco we will be dealing with. Glad to hear a few happy stories in there. In the past letting our company plan administrator know when we are not pleased with the insurance has not generated any kind of help whatsoever. She is just a very unhelpful person all the way around, unfortunately. I am peeved about being blackmailed into mail ordering, but I also harbor another suspicion...that they are going to switch over one of my medications to a generic. They have tried many ways to do so, from charging me a higher co-pay to outright denying it, until Dr calls and explains AGAIN why generic is not the recommended treatment for my condition. I am fearful that one day I will just receive the generic in the mail!
Thanks also for the advice on how long in advance to order. I was really hopeful that it would be streamlined and computerized, taking some of the burden off of my poor memory. As in, oh her medication is about to run out, time to send more. Then I would get a call telling me they are on the way. When the refills run out they would just call the Dr and get new refill prescription. Sounds like that was a fairytale dream though...sigh.

My understanding is that they can't send you a generic if your doctor writes the prescription stating name brand is medically needed. My reasoning is simple, if they send you something other than the name brand, they are not sending you what was prescribed.

We have no health insurance, My wife and I use CVS, we pay $10 per year and get 9.99 90 day supplies of our medications, which is better than Wal-Mart because if I take two pills a day, it's still 9.99, at Wal-Mart it would have been $20. We also use one online pharmacy which has done an excellent job of getting me the only prescription that is not on anyone's cheap generics list for $10.50 for 90 day supply. It's HealthWareHouse.com and it's kinda a paid, but it's $30 cheaper than any place locally, so we deal with the pain.

 

[arminnie]

I had Cigna and my dad had Medco - it was so convenient to use the mail order. I would just go sign in and order what was available for refill.

The problem I have now is that a presciption without ins. at most pharmacies is $10 for 90 days. I have to pay a $40 copay for 90 days of mail order. When you have 5-6 prescriptions that adds up.

I hate having to go to the pharmacy even if it is in my grocery store. I can't order it too early or they won't refill it. Online I order and they send it when it is available - at about 2 months. The local pharmacies can't refill until 2-3 days before it expires. I am always going in and asking what is available for refill - major PIA. I feel like I am some addict trying to get more presciptions than is allowed when they tell me they can't refill it (even if it is just blood pressure meds).

 

[Melynny]

I just wanted to say that I feel your pain! I have tried to set up mail order prescriptions several times and I obviously must be too stupid to do it! I am an intelligent person, I hold down a high responsiblity job for a very large company and work regulalary with the FDA regarding audits etc. AND I have yet to accomplish the task of getting our prescriptions by mail! It's becomming a joke at our house. I follow the instructions exactly, then I get a letter saying, I did not enclose this or that, OR once I even mailed the whole thing to the wrong place, even though I used the address on the form... My list of errors or Whatever you want to call it just keeps going on and on. I am so glad it's just not me. I have no idea how people who are required to recieve their meds that way do it... I hold them in high esteem! Best of luck to you, I gave up!

 

[riley2008]

Just make sure your prescription is written exactly. For 4 years my ob/gyn had written my bcp script as "take one active pill daily - 4 packs/90 days supply". (He also underlined "active".) Fine for 4 years (4 scripts with 3 refills each); no problems. THEN whoever filled the 5th prescription (no change in doctors or anything), decided that a 90 day supply would only be 3 packs, as the script did not address the placebos! So now my anual prescription says "do not take placebos - discard package when active pills complete and begin new pack the next day".

The bad part is too, that "90 day" supply that was in actuality supposed to be 84, was really only 63 days. Even with the new prescription from my physician, I had to pay for the extra day oop.

Other than that, no problems. I do price check and if a med is cheaper for 3 months OOP, then I pay that and then ask Medco for reimbursement. If they question it, I tell them my DH saw the script and took it to have filled (or saw that I needed a refill). Medco has always reimbursed me, or applied the cost to my deductible, depending on the type of insurance I have.

 

[book_junkie]

We tried mail order scripts a while ago, and just had a horrible time with it. We couldn't get our scripts on time, they sent the wrong meds... The final straw was when we got a call from a stranger in Chicago (we were in Austin, Texas, at the time) saying BTW, I have your prescriptions and it came with your address, phone number, group plan numbers, work ID numbers, credit card number, and social security numbers. Do you want me to send it on? And do you happen to have mine? Unfortunately, we didn't have this nice guy's drugs, so while ours was sent to Chicago, HIS stuff was sent elsewhere- and the person who got his could have used all that to steal his identity, make charges...

Have not gone back to mail order, and would not unless we're forced to by our insurance.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We had to switch to Medco about a year ago when we got new insurance. It was a little bit of a pain to get things set up initially but now things are running fairly smoothly. The cost savings is awesome. Our family has 6 or 7 regular prescriptions that we could previously only fill once a month so I was constantly running to the drug store and paying $10 a pop. Now we can get 3 months of each drug mailed to us for $10. One drug was costing $25 a month. Now I'm paying $25 for 3 months. It's easy enough to request refills online and let Medco deal with contacting the doctor if authorization is needed. I do have to be on my toes and not let the supply get too low because it can sometimes take a little longer to get a refill. A few weeks ago, I watched my doctor send a refill request on her computer for one of my meds. I got an e-mail a few days later saying my doctor had not yet responded to their request. I called and asked her to put it through again which she did. It wasn't a big deal but these little glitches are fairly common and I need to plan a little extra time in case they happen.