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Dan Abel

In article >,
(Steve Pope) wrote:

> Dan Abel > wrote:
>
> >Not only do they encourage refills by mail, but it works almost
> >automatically even if you have no refills left! You just order a
> >refill, and if there are no refills left, they send an electronic
> >message to your doctor, who can then refill the prescription. It's all
> >done on the computer.
>
> Yep
>
> >If there is no hurry, sometimes the initial order
> >is by mail.
>
> Okay, I haven't experienced that yet.

I've had it happen a couple of times that I remember. Once, the old
medicine was obsolete and the doctor recommended a new medicine that was
basically the same. OK. He said I should use up the old medicine, and
then asked whether I wanted to pick it up or have it mailed. Well,
mailed is easier. Another time, my blood pressure was a little high. I
was already on one medicine, so the pharmacist sent me an email saying
she was mailing me an additional pill to take.

> The glitch seems to be if it's a 100-day refill, and you send it
> to the pharmacy rather than doing a mail order, they often refill
> it for only 30 days. I have not figured out why this is.

My plan says that I get a three month supply. They usually round that
to 100 pills, since most of their pill bottles have 100 in them. From
conversations I've heard in the pharmacy, some plans are pushing mail
refills, so if you choose to pick it up instead, you pay the full copay
for 30 days, but the mail refill is 3 months.

> If it's a 30 day refill, there is no price advantage to refilling
> by mail. Haven't figured that out either. But overall it's a good
> system.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA