Sweet Gummi Mary! Somebody at the pharmacy or doctor nurse practitioner office is as off their rocker as my Sweet, Sweet Juno!
You may recall that I've been trying to get all 3 of my refills on the same schedule. Two had one month left, and the other was out. I called the pharmacy on Friday, and the tech said they would contact the doctor nurse practitioner for me. Then on Monday night, I called in my refills to their prescription automated line.
Tuesday, I got a message that 1 of 1 prescriptions were ready! What in the Not-Heaven? I didn't even bother to call and ask. Their automated line had told me in a robotic voice that one prescription was out of refills, and it would take an extra day to contact the doctor nurse practitioner. So I figured I'd wait. The plan was to swing by there Wednesday evening on my way home from errand day.
Well! Wednesday morning at 10:00, I got a text that said 3 of 3 prescriptions were ready. Yes. I hear you saying how happy you are that things worked out for me. But what you don't know is that when I opened up the bag once I got home, I discovered that two prescriptions are out of refills, as I expected, and the one in question
NOW HAS 4 REFILLS LEFT!
So much for getting them synchronized. I don't even know where to go with this. I'll just make my appointment for my 6-month checkup within the next 30 days, and tell the doctor nurse practitioner that I need refills. I figure he'll write them for all three, and when I come up short after the four refills, there will be another scrip on hold for them to refill it again as the other two expire.
This really shouldn't be so hard for them to understand...
Here's what you do: when the doctor writes the new prescriptions for all three, get them all filled and tear up the old prescriptions without using them. Then you'll be starting fresh with everything in sync.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure you're trying to get me arrested for breaking-and-entering, and destruction of property! My nurse practitioner has not written paper prescriptions for many years. He sends them electronically to the pharmacy. So to tear them up, I'd have to break into my pharmacy and bash all their computers! I'll be starting fresh in the Crossbars Hilton, as Farmer H calls jail!
Don't mean to sound like a know-it-all, but the insurance company dictates when you can be refilled. Even the paper prescriptions are kept at the pharmacy and considered legal documents. It is almost impossible to synchronize the refills, as the insurance company will pop up in the computer at the pharmacy and say "refill too soon". So much for control over your destiny! Insurance knows all! The only way to do it would be to pay for some of your drugs to make the 30 or 90 day supplie come out right. I had a man once at Walmart Pharmacy screaming at me, because he painstakingly did just that, then his docyor added a prescription to his regimen and it screwed it all up. This man was an inteeligent man, but refused to listen to me as I tried to tell him what had happened. Then he screamed at the pharmacist and we finally had to get the store manager and security over to us to get the guy to calm down. That vein in his temple was HUGE and I was afraid he would have a stroke or heart attack. I know how to do CPR, but I don't know that I wold have volunteered to breathe for him lest some of his rage transfer to me!!
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad about not having paper prescriptions. BUT...maybe you could ask the pharmacist to only fill the three new ones and delete the older ones? Explain that this would have all your meds back in sync so it's easier to keep track of them. Surely that couldn't be too hard.
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteI understand the concept of refills as decreed by insurance. I just don't know how I went for over 10 years with my three prescriptions coordinated, and then something went haywire with the timing. They are all due for refills on the same date of the month. I don't know how the thyroid med got either one refill behind, or five ahead! All mine are for 30 days, since there is no way our mail delivery and ne'er-do-wells make it safe to order a 90 day supply.
Also, I have no way of knowing if I have a prescription "on hold" and ready to be refilled when my bottle label shows ZERO refills remain. When I called, they told me NOTHING at the pharmacy. Just that they would contact the doctor if I was out of refills.
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River,
It wouldn't be HARD, but I will never ask them to delete refills! That's asking for a major snafu in my med supply chain! If anything can go wrong, IT WILL!