Warning about mail order medictions

[Octoberbride03]

I doubt that, actually. A lot of medication has to be refrigerated in order to not spoil, I'm sure medical shipping trucks are climate controlled.

The truck may not be but I have been in the back room at target when some shipments of meds have arrived. They are in tight lockboxes, very sturdy and I would not be surprised at all if they packed these boxes with dry ice or whatever's needed to ship the meds properly. They don't arrive in simple cardboard boxes they way they do with mail order at home. Dad used to used to use a mail order pharmacy a long time ago, don't remember which 1 it was though.

 

[bgirldeb]

But you still have a "middle man" which is the mail order pharmacy. They still have to buy it from the manufacturer and ship it to you in an uncontrolled temperature environment.

Some pharmacies do have free delivery to your home or work, but the mail order companies will not allow the pharmacies to offer you prescriptions on the same terms. That's another story for another time.

I've never had to pay more for shipping, and I feel more control of the order than if I had to pick it up from a local pharmacy.

In my case, it comes packed with ice packs, which are always still frozen solid after the overnight delivery.

 

[Acklander]

I've never had to pay more for shipping, and I feel more control of the order than if I had to pick it up from a local pharmacy.

In my case, it comes packed with ice packs, which are always still frozen solid after the overnight delivery.

But in the OP's situation, the medication doesn't require refrigeration. Just being kept at a moderate temp so it wouldn't need to be packed with an ice pack and cooler. I think all standard (not refrigerated) medications state the same thing in the pamphlet. I looked thru my medicine cabinet after reading this thread, and they all say the same thing, both for prescription and non prescription meds.
Look through your medicine cabinet, I'll bet you'll see the same thing. I don't know how my tylenol got to the pharmacy before I purchased it, but I don't think it was in a special temperature regulated truck.

 

[Tinkermommy]

Drug companies have to do a lot of testing on new drugs. Establishing a temperature range for a drug is part of that. So temperature range listed in the package insert means that the company has done validated testing to assure the drugs efficacy at those specific temperatures. It does not necessarily mean that if the temp goes out of range the drug is ineffective.

That being said, pills and powders are generally more stable than liquids. And some drugs are just more hardy than others (longer shelf life, more tolerance to heat/cold).

I am pretty sure that a pharmacy (whether mail order or brick and mortar) has to have a system to assure that the drugs are maintained at the proper temperature.

We do have to ship products that have a specific temperature range. The temp range you are talking about would be a "cold pack." They are not delivered frozen but can maintain the temp within the packaging.

I would not to trust any liquid medicine that has been exposed to too hot or cold temps. As I said in my pp, that my MIL had serious problems with this.

 

[midas]

I think the mail orders still use the distributors, that would be a lot of manufactueres mailing directly to them. And why do you assume the manufacturers are not mailing the product in a controlled temp environment. If the product calls for that, of course they are, they dont want the product to spoil anywhere along the route more than the patient does. And they can charge more if it needs special shippping just like any product

I wasn't talking about shipping from manufacturer to the mail order pharmacy. The mail order pharmacies ship prescriptions to the customers in regular packaging with no temperature controls.

The only time a prescription comes with a cold pak and sent overnight is if the drug is a specialty drug (usually injections) that come from a different division than the regular mail order prescriptions.

 

[bumbershoot]

We are suppose to use medco too. What our local pharacists can't understand is they have to hand us the perscription personally,(by law in the state of WI) even refills. HOW can medco mail us drugs with out any face to face interaction?

Drugstore.com has been doing it for quite a few years...I would think that the pharmacists might be confused? I mean, in a brick and mortar pharmacy, there's not much of a choice, right? Well, though a local walgreens has that same sort of tube thing at their drivethrough like a bank does, so they aren't physically handing it to my hand...they are putting it in the pneumatic tube and then it gets to me in my car... But really obviously the pharmacists are missing something, to be confused about that.

To me it would seem for these meds that have to be shipped under special conditions like this that it would be MORE expensive for the mail order places then letting people pick them up at the pharmacy

DH takes something whose price changes each month, price to the insurance compay that is. Each month, 4 pills, each month, different amount that that covered but same price to us. If we bought it through drugstore.com (which I would like to do, as he could get 90 days for $20 instead of 30 days for $10, but their system is extremely confusing, and for something that requires taking it exactly once a week, when he travels, and they can't always guarantee that they'll have the right number of pills...is a little scary...we've tried twice, but they just cannot work it out quite yet...we're basically going to have to have two prescriptions from his endo, where one is filled at the pharmacy and the other is filled at drugstore, so he has it on time) WE would pay LESS, but drugstore charges WAY more for the total cost of the drug...so the insurance company will be paying MORE. It's mystifying to me...

 

[midas]

: WE would pay LESS, but drugstore charges WAY more for the total cost of the drug...so the insurance company will be paying MORE. It's mystifying to me...[/QUOTE]


The PBM (Medco, Express-Scripts, Caremark, etc) sets pricing for all prescriptions to pharmacies. The pharmacy must accept whatever the PBM wants to pay for the prescription as per their agreements. The cash price at the pharmacy is meaningless unless it's lower than the contract price.

PBM's set this up so you pay more of a copay at a pharmacy as opposed to the mail order pharmacy THEY OWN. The total cost that the PBM bills the insurer is not much different between mail order and regular pharmacies.

The big deal in all this is the rebates that exist between manufacturer and PBM for mail order prescriptions.

 

[tvguy]

My company switched to Medco the first of the year, so far no problems. Much easier than CVS was. My doctor e-mails the prescription in, and Medco will ship the prescription with a bill. CVS required payment before they would fill a prescription.
CVS also made a major mistake with one of my prescriptions, gave me a drug that made me ill when I tried it from the pharmacy. Luckily I knew I could not take it. They denied they made a mistake. The doctor called them, the denied they got it wrong. They destroy the prescription, so they could not produce it to prove it. Bottom line, I had to pay for both prescriptions.