Pluggers by Rick McKee for September 26, 2022

yikes

I really really hate when that happens

My uncle “banked” some of his meds by using two overlapped prescriptions. When he passed we had to return about 20 bottles of statins to the druggist.

Or maybe a poor plugger with a lousy doctor.

Maybe your doctor is giving you a hint.

Perhaps the doctor wants to see if the med works before giving out more refills ;-)

and you can’t open the bottle…….

And as I found out, the Medicare Advantage plan I have does not pay for medically necessary follow-up appointments.

That’s their way of keeping you tied to them!

I have three 90-day prescriptions, and my provider starts emailing, phoning, and texting me about authorizing my next renewal about 30 days into the cycle.

My doctor agreed to have my ‘forever’ prescription changed from a 30-day supply to a 90-day supply. My spouse has 5 prescriptions and his doctor agreed to do the same on three of them. The other two are still 30-day because they depend on his daily diabetes record. Now, if we could only figure out how to get them to run out around the same time so we don’t have to make six trips to the pharmacy!

Some real doctors might want to check with you to see how the dose is working or not.

Must have been a PA that wrote the prescription. The one that works in my doctor’s office does that all the time. I use a mail order pharmacy through my Part D provider for all my long term (forever) meds and they they notify the doctor’s office that renewals need to be 1 year in 90 day increments for long term prescriptions.

Doctors need to buy groceries as well and without seeing patients.. there is no income.

This would likely be the case if it is your first month on the maintenance drug such as a statin-doctor will want you to come in for blood test to see how you are reacting to the drug and not damaging your liver. If you are on traditional Medicare or worse an advantage plan what they reimburse the doctor is so little many doctor see Medicare patients as little as possible and they are cutting Medicare reimbursements more next year.

Not only that, the Pharmacy/Insurance company won’t authorize a refill until two days before you run out.

At my annual physical I get a scrip for 90 sildenafil, with two refills. Then I get a GoodRX coupon and go to Costco, about 30 cents per pill. If you know what Sildenafil is, and what the name brand is, you’ll know it’s a bargain.

My late MIL was a type 1 diabetic from age 14 (she was 74 when she died) and NEEDED insulin to stay alive but had to keep asking for approval for refills. The Doctor said she needed to be seen to verify that she still used and needed insulin. The Doctor said it was a requirement from the Insurance Company. I think it was for the co-pay myself.

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

CLOCK’S TICKING, PLUGGERS

CLOCK’S

TICKING

Hmmm…. Maybe your physician is not telling you his prognosis on your estimated remaining life.

Then you have to wait an extra day for them to contact your doctor to get the prescription confirmed.

I had a prescription for a skin cream that worked fine. I would have been okay not seeing the dermatologist every year, and HE would have been fine with that. He agreed that it was ridiculous to have me come in, but he said it was a government law (I think federal) that patients had to be seen once a year for prescriptions to be continued.

And you find that funny.

Did you know that you can ask to have prescription processed “off of your insurance” by just telling your pharmacy to do so? Yes, you are thinking that this is crazy thing to do – why should you pay for the prescription without it going through your insurance?

When we still had coverage through husband’s work several of his medications could only be given to us at the pharmacy on a monthly basis – we had to get by mail to get them quarterly and we did not want them by mail. By the month they cost us US$4 a month through the insurance. But if we had the pharmacy (Walmart) put it through without the insurance we paid US$10 for the prescription for the quarter – a savings of $2 per quarter per medication and we each had 3 medication like this – so we saved $12 a quarter on the medications by not having them go through the insurance company. (If we had put them put them through the insurance company by mail we would save 1 cent by doing so on each prescription per quarter over buying them this way.)