Wellness

[granddi]

I realized that it can be a hardship if a patient does not have access to a hard copy of a prescription Rx.

I was in a doc office and a young man was asking for a written copy of his Rx. Staff said the office does not do that. Receptionist said, In fact they don't have Rx pads. (But  she fails to say that they do have computer programs that print out the Rx's) 

She said they HAVE to send the Rx to a pharmacy. He politely told her that he just named a pharmacy near his home but had never used them. He told her he would like to check out prices at other places. The office said said NO. 

[Mz iMac]

"In fact they don't have Rx pads."

Yes, they do.  It's no longer left out in the open inside the exam room to prevent forgeries.  Now the drs keep them inside their pockets.

Also, the dr can print out the rx.  I always ask for a copy if she does not feel like writing one out w/her chicken scratch handwriting.  Sometimes my regular pharmacy has "supply" or "vendor" issues w/my migraine meds.  So I make my rounds to other pharmacies until I hit the "jackpot."

The young man should have asked to speak w/his doctor & that it was urgent and/or important.  He does not need to tell the staff what the urgency is.

[Meowingkitty]

I was at my eye doctor a couple of weeks ago and he gave me a hard copy of a prescription to use for my YAG surgery. Maybe eye doctors are different. 

[catter70]

My doc either does mine by electronic mail to my mail order provider or prints off a copy for local pharmacy or they will call it in if need be.

[Carmie]

The only RX's that I am aware of that doctors will not give you a hard copy of is opioids.

This is standard procedure.  No amount of begging for a  copy will get you one.

They will only call in this type of prescription.

Most doctors call in prescriptions.  This practice cuts down in errors (bad handwriting) and stops people from forging and duplicating the script.  

Patients have been known to steal whole prescription pad from the exam room.

If you wanna shop around for a price, you can call the office and ask them to call whatever pharmacy you wish.  

[Laura14]

This sounds like a big misunderstanding.

He can check prices without the actual prescription in hand. Pull up GoodRx and type in the medication and he's done.

And if he forgot the name, most people have access to My Chart or something similar to pull it right up on their own. No office can deny you access to your own medical records. 

Probably true these days that a prescription must come directly from the doctor to avoid fraud, although we accepted them at Walgreens as long as they were verifiable several years ago. We filed the controlled substances hard copies in a special file which we had to keep for the DEA in case of audit. 

[CalminHeart]

A lot depends on the medication being prescribed. I, for one, am happy to not have paper prescriptions. 

Maybe that doctor doesn't provide paper scripts. It might be their policy. Who knows.

Now that he's filled it at one pharmacy, he can price shop and/or use GoodRX to decide on a pharmacy for future use. Once he decides, he can have the pharmacy transfer his prescription.

[PINKdogWOOD]

@Laura14    Not all pharmacies honor Good Rx, I know the CVS we use does not, will not. The phamacist tells us "your Part D does not accept/use Good Rx" (Part D if you're on Medicare that is).

My husband and I were just talking about CVS in particular. We both use CVS as our Part D but not anymore, we will be changing next time around. CVS is the major pharm that controls drugs prices and dictates what to charge for drugs. That's total BS for consumers. The pharmacist will then tell us it's your Part D, he says THEY won't allow us to use Good Rx, we've tried and he gave us a song and dance about it. What happened? We paid the price they told us because we did not have the paper prescription to go elsewhere to try for a better price and/or try Good Rx. Flip side, had we been able with hard copy in  hand gone somewhere else who knows how it would play out. 

[Carmie]

@PINKdogWOOD   You can not use Good RX with any health RX insurance at any pharmacy.

You can use one or the other, but not both.

You can ask the pharmacist to not use your RX insurance if the price is lower with Good RX if you wish.

For most people, your price is lower with your RX insurance than it is with Good RX.

[PINKdogWOOD]

@Carmie   I did not know this - one or the other. Pharmacist did not offer this option when we tried to use the GoodRx coupon. On the other hand I do not know if he would have honored the coupon vs our Part D or not quite honestly.