Too many prescriptions and all are to be refilled at different times. Where do I turn?

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Too many prescriptions and all are to be refilled at different times. Where do I turn?

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Refills require several calls to pharmacy and Dr. I am alone, both require 48 hrs to fill. Weekends, vacations, holidays, forget it. One can't be done more than 2 days before expiring. I am 84 with no back up, where do I turn?

Care Decisions Medication Management Medications

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Is it possible to discuss with the Doctor to see if all the prescriptions can be timed so they are all needing a refill at the same time?
There are companies that will pre pack all the prescriptions together, they must have some way to get them timed so they can pack and send them in a timely manner. (I think I saw an ad for Amazon that does this...like what doesn't Amazon do now!)
I am sure there are medications (opoids probably) that would be a problem.

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Good answer, Grandma. Make sure to get scripts mailed to the house. What a pain to pick up all of those scripts at the pharmacy! Three months supply is helpful too.

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You may want to see if the pharmacy has somekind of reminder thing. My insurance requires 90 day refills for maintenance drugs. They will call when its time to refill or do it automatically. My doctors call my prescription refills in. Walgreens call when they are ready.

I suggest, too, that you call ur doctor's office and explain your circumstances. Maybe there are meds that can be dropped like Cholesterol.

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JoAnn, good point about seeing if some of the meds can be discontinued.

My doctor had prescribed pills for cholesterol but I decided not to take them as the numbers weren't that far out of whack. The doctor was ok with that.

Sometimes we need pills to help with the side effects of another pill we are taking. Time to re-evaluate the pills that are being used.

For myself, give me a pill that has been around for 25 years, thus all the side effects have been noted. I don't like trying brand new stuff that hasn't been tested long enough :P

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Contact your local office on aging for the names of pharmacies that deliver...I'm in OH and I believe there was some sort of legislation passed where rx's can be cooridinated in some way so that they can all be brought up to speed and require only one trip. If money saving is an issue you may still be the one who has to do the legwork and update so you can get the price matching. I've used Good Rx. You also don't have to be a Costco member to use the pharmacy.

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Mom gets almost all of her meds from Optum RX via mail, 90 days at a time. We just call when something is getting low, they go over everthing that can be refilled.. you just say Yes.. and they come in the mail in a few days. They also call the Dr for refills if we have forgotten to tell him. I have always had to get her OXY from the local pharmacy ( like you said.. within a few days and no earlier) but this time somehow they were able to get Optum to send them too, 90 days worth!! I was amazed. Hubs had to sign for the delivery,, but small thing! My employer likes us to use CVS Caremark mail order, it works well for me also.

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Some pharmacies offer a service that is free, where they will coordinate your prescriptions so you can get them all at once. I get my prescriptions at Walgreens, and am a type 2 diabetic. They called me and asked me if I wanted to do this. It takes about a month, because you start off with partial prescriptions, but within a month, you get them all at once. When I was caregiving for my mom, we had good luck with mail order pharmacies, too. She could call, or I could, and take care of her prescriptions easily.

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Would things like pill pack, be too complicated for her to use?

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I feel your pain. For the longest time I would have to go to the pharmacy every other day to pick up something for someone. It's those darn insurance companies rules. But the thing is, they give you a couple of days slack. So you can fill a prescription a couple of days before it's due. Just keep walking them together and sooner or later, they'll be synced.

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I also feel your pain.

My husband takes about 25 pills each day, only few OTC.

I fill the little boxes for each day two weeks in advance. But I don't order the new pills that I need until the week of refilling, about four days before. That way they are less likely to be rejected and, therefore, needed to be ordered again. It works.

Oh, sometimes there is a glitch. And the whole process is a royal pain. But basically it works. and I am MUCH happier now that I only have to fill the thing every two weeks.

The pills themselves have been a real barometer of his motor skills as the months/years passed. Sadly. My husband used to take them by himself after I organized them. Then I had to get them out for him. Then I had to put them on a plate so that he wouldn't knock them on the floor. Then I had to separate them on the plate so that it was easier to to pick them up. Now I have to pick them up and put them in his mouth. I resented this for a while, a long while. It is kind of sloppy and yucky. Wet. But now I just listen to a podcast and it is all good.

Good luck to all of us. May we be patient and have lots of other things going on in our lives that are fun!

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Talk to your pharmacist. Explain to him or her your problems concerning this. Ask if your pharmacy could synchronize your medications to be filled around the same time a month. Also ask if they would deliver the medications to you as well or if not mail them to you. Both of these services have been a God send to both my 89 yr old mother and myself as we live a half an hour away from town and we have no vehicle.

I wish you the best of luck and I hope your situation improves for you.

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I found a local pharmacy that pre packs and delivers Dad’s medicines. They also service local skilled nursing centers. I started with a national service, but really appreciate the quick response of the local pharmacy if there is a change in medicine mid month. I realize this doesn’t solve all of the problem, but may ease some of the challenges. It’s not easy.

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I know Publix can synchronize prescriptions as well. Wish it were so easy here. Due to so many prescriptions for us two seniors, and the crap Medicare drug plans, I get so tired of the prescriptions games. Manufacturers constantly increasing prices, plus the PDMs constantly moving generic drugs to non-generic drug copay tiers means I have to price shop our medications every single time one is due for a refill. Getting nurses here to order 90-day maintenance drug supplies instead of 30-day supplies (not talking the controlled drugs), is ridiculous. I keep telling these nurses I am not going to the pharmacy three days a week because they won’t order the 90-day Maintenance drug supplies. Even educated some nurses on the price break some get for the larger quantities, yet they continue ordering 30 days. Some insurance companies and some pharmacies give the customer a break on the copay when getting 90-day supplies, instead of 30-day supplies. When is a contract not a contract? When it’s one-sided, one-year drug plan premium rate, but the above-mentioned bad actors aren’t required to sell the drugs at the same price during the contract year. It’s a racket, and the big losers are the elderly. Just last week I went to Publix to get a maintenance drug refill. Publix increased the price over 20%, which may have been due to the wholesaler price. Used GoodRX, didn’t even use my insurance, as the SilverScripts preferred pharmacy closest to me, CVS, price even higher. Ridiculous when Medicare can’t negotiate drug prices. So much wrong with the system, broken. Due to our heat and high humidity, plus possibility of theft, I don’t like mail order drugs. One time I had a USPS worker hang my medications on the newspaper hook on my mailbox, out in the sun. Was there all day, til I got home from work, waiting to be stolen. We’ve also had internal package theft with USPS. If you use mail order, make sure you know if the meds will be replaced if stolen in the delivery system, if you will have to pay for them again. Many insurances won’t pay. And USSP is notorious for showing a package was delivered, when you sit by the door waiting, and they never knock or ring the bell. USSP theft was so bad in south FL, that one year all our W2s and 1099s were stolen before making it into our locked cluster mailbox. The USPS actually assigned a detective to our USPS theft problem. So, just know the fine points, if you go with mail order. As another person said, many insurance companies will let you refill a couple days early, depending on the drug. If you do it every refill, you can gradually move your pickup date over the year as well. Now I don’t pick up maintenance drugs at pharmacy immediately. Wait til 2-3 of them are ready, save gas, time, and sanity.

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O I I live in Florida, and boy did you hit on a lot of good points. Publix knows they can get away with price increases. And the heat does make mail order unsafe. What to do? Write to congress?

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Speak to pharmacy about consolidating refill schedule. They should be able to consolidate that if not make all refilled on one monthly date. I know Walgreen's does that for me.

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Many drug stores can set up refills on an automatic basis and will also deliver your prescriptions to your home. See the pharmacist in the store and make the arrangements with credit card. If this is not practical, transfer your prescriptions to Health Warehouse in Ketucky they mail the prescriptions to you, but will not use insurance.

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Excellent replies - hope it works out for you - I’m in a similar boat but it’s because mine are classified as “controlled “ medication.

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CVS will synchronize and is great about reminders. They also offer delivery to home, at least by me. But they are more expensive.

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Mumsie, the other answers here are spot on about having the pharmacy synchronize your refills--it may take a couple of months to work it out. If you happen to live in a rural area, the chain pharmacies may not have delivery, but an independent store, locally owned may. When my mother was living in a rural area, that was the pharmacy who was able to deliver. Good luck!

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Uggg, I remember those days. Mom was still in her home and I was trying to manage it all while working full time and living in my own home. Her meds were a full time job! It was so frustrating and that was one of the reasons that an assisted living facility made sense. They manage all of that...contacting the physician for refills, filling the meds and actually giving the meds to her twice a day. It was never so grateful for those tasks to be handled.

You didn't say what your current living situation is...have you considered assisted living? There are many wonderful places to live now and they do all the dirty work. No more grocery shopping, no more pharmacy calls and pickups, no more yard work. You could spend your time making friends, doing activities, etc. They have planned trips to stores so you could get out when you wanted to shop for personal items or just to walk around.

Another option is mailed prescriptions. I believe if you sign up for these services you get three months worth at a time and from what I am told it's cheaper. Check with your insurance company and/or the pharmacy for assistance with this.

Just a couple of suggestions. I wish you well.

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i was using CVS for years and felt that I was always picking up a prescription. Then her insurance wouldn't take CVS any longer and moved to Express Scripts. I was leary about online but it's worked out great. They are delivered in the mail on time. They send you reminders on whether you need a refill or want to delay the date to refill. They will contact the doctor's office for you when a new refill sequence is needed.

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I find that using a 90 day mail order prescription service saves me time, money and the hassle of running to the local pharmacy every 30 days for a one month refill supply. You could check with your prescription insurance company to see if you can do the 90 day mail order service with your meds. It would make ordering your meds online and receiving them in the mail a much easier and simpler process of getting your meds. I hope this helps you. Good luck!

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Amen to mail order. The three waiting lines for every prescription refill at WalMart was too much. Some of my medicines are now free because they can ship them with my eye drops (Travatan Z). In warmer weather, the eye drops are sent in a cooler. My expensive eye drops are cheaper for three months worth than they were for one month from WalMart. Email reminders are great. My dad used the VA mail order option, and my 94-year-old mother now uses OptumRX thru the insurance company just like me. And a big plus, there are no waiting lines at my mailbox.

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As others have said, ask to talk to the pharmacist. And make sure it is a pharmacist and not a clerk or "manager." Can the Rx's be consolidated to one pharmacy and synchronized? Can they do automatic refills? Delivery may be an $ option or a mail-order pharmacy might help.

Also, talk to your Dr.'s office. You may see different doctors, but sometimes a primary care doctor can coordinate things. It is worth asking.

Now, be sure you are taking care of yourself.

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The AL homes near me all use a prepackaged daily dose that is delivered directly to the home on a monthly basis. I see those services offered on the TV, might want to give one a call. It is Medicare approved.

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As others have said, mail order with auto refills is the way to go. I have heard many good things about Pill Pak, which is advertised on TV all the time. All of the day's meds are pre packaged into doses to be given at the right time each day. This service should simplify your life immensely. Good luck!

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Pill Pack is really helpful, particularly if the meds don't change very much. They are super helpful and immediately responsive!!

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Ask your pharmacist for assistance. Some places can consolidate your refills. Some can mail your medications to you. Some places will also package your pills in little packets for each day.

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Contact your pharmacist and ask to have them refilled all at the same time. That's what happened with my mom's upteen prescriptions. I gave the pharmacist an exact count of what I had on hand. The pharmacist adjusted the amount of each prescription so that when they were refilled the next time, they bottles contained an odd number of pills, but they all ended up running out at the same time. After that, they all refilled automatically at the same time.

Some medicines, such as an inhaler or insulin box, can not be adjusted though.

Bliss!

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I had the same problem but Walgreen's told me that they could work with the Doctor and Insurance Company to get them all on the same refill schedule. This way I only have to go once a month to pick up my Dad and my Hubby's Rx's. It took a few weeks for them to sync but it was so worth it in the end. They can also put them in an automatic refill status. This eliminates the worries on your end to getting them called in on time. I hope this information helps.

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I did this too but they would just get messed up again. Same pharmacy so I have mine on auto refill and I just go get them anyway at different times. I gave up! LOL We only live 2 1/2 miles from the pharmacy so it is not a headache and I just use the drive thru.

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Make an appointment with the druggist at you drug store - that's part of their job & partly paid for with each & every time you get a Rx filled so should have no charge

If you never ask the question you never get a 'yes' - so ask that it be not 2 days but 4 days on that particular one - set it up that they automatically fill all of the Rx at the same time for a set period of time - if possible they should email or call that they are ready -

Make sure you use only 1 drug store [I was told this by a druggist] so that they can double check about inter reactions between the drugs which safe guards you even more - make sure it is one that is open week-ends & holidays - also set up with your dr that the drug store can call for 1 refill if the refills are used up - ask dr for enough refills to get you through a few months

My drug store has a free service with a 'dosette' which the drug store sets up all you meds for the week including vitamins [you provide] & will do a few weeks at a time - it is 10 X 12 inches so big enough not to loose or misplace, is acceptable by customs as it is done by the druggist, there are 4 clear pods per day & the 7 days so 28 pods that will hold several meds at a time - you just push on the pod & the pressure breaks tin foil & pills pop out into your hand [otherwise do it over a plate] - you then will notice if/when you miss a dose

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Let the pharmacy do the auto refill. They fax the MD the refill request and he sends the approval. For the one that is a 2 day window ; they should refill that too. Let them know and they should be able to schedule that also. A lot of pharmacies will deliver like CVS. This really shouldn't be a major issue. I always put our pills in a daily pill holder on Sundays for the whole week. I called in the ones that were close to being out by phone (automated or on Monday if preferred. Hope this helps. Makes life easier.

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coincidently, I got a phone call from one of the major drug chains were I have my own meds (I have only three for myself) where they are offering to time these so you only have to go once a month. I suppose any pharmacy will do it.

and mine anyway can be auto refilled, for a few months anyway

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ASK PHARMACY TO BE ON AUTOMATED REFILL LIST, IT'LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN MEDS ARE READY TO BE PICKED, SIMPLE

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Too many prescriptions and all are to be refilled at different times. Where do I turn?

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