pharmaceuticals

[beany]

Hey All...
As a 60 year old man who's wife has just retired we are planning , of course , to take RV trips. We live in Southern California so any where is a LONG ways from home.
Problem is how do people get their controlled prescriptions filled if they are away from home ???
There has to be other seniors out there with the same dilemma.
Thanks a bunch..The BEAN, the wife and two yellow labs.

[SRT]

rvten wrote:
Dumped CVS and went back to Walgreens. Think there re more of them also.

Have used Wal-Mart. There are lots of them.

[2gypsies1]

Controlled drugs are treated much differently than regular prescriptions and most those replying are talking about regular prescriptions.

If you need controlled drugs then your only answer is going to come from working with your physician on how you're going to get them while traveling in different states. It can be worked out. Happy camping!!!

[MTPockets1]

There are some states that won't fill certain prescriptions from out of state. I know from experience. We use mail order and have all prescriptions sent to our mail forwarding service address. They in turn send to whatever/wherever address we tell the forwarding service.

[bjcarpetguy]

beany wrote:
Hey All...
As a 60 year old man who's wife has just retired we are planning , of course , to take RV trips. We live in Southern California so any where is a LONG ways from home.
Problem is how do people get their controlled prescriptions filled if they are away from home ???
There has to be other seniors out there with the same dilemma.
Thanks a bunch..The BEAN, the wife and two yellow labs.

I use a local Pharmacy. I have used them for a lot of years. With that being said, I had used Wallmart,CVS. ect/.
With controlled meds, the problem you can run into is you can only have a script transferded once. So I worked it out with my Doc for
90day fills and a couple refills.

Then when I get close to running out I call pharmacy and have it refilled, give them my card and an address to ship to. If its a park
or a General delivery. Has not been an issue for last 3 years.

[JEBar]

TOMMY47 wrote:
I was gone 15 weeks. Used Walmart. They are everywhere. They even filled a prescription for Xanax, which is controlled.

agree

we travel 6 - 7 months a year and use WalMart's pharmacy .... used to use CVS but couldn't find one in many of the places we go, seldom have that problem with WalMart

Jim

[TOMMY47]

I was gone 15 weeks. Used Walmart. They are everywhere. They even filled a prescription for Xanax, which is controlled.

[MarkTwain]

Now if I only had a Walgreens near by. Ahh, the cons of living in the boonies!
hello Wny Pat,
Just for grins i called my local Wallgreens where I have a prescription account, I asked them about your situation, specifically could prescriptions be mailed to you. The answer was yes. But, you have to contact them and give them information regarding your insurance policy and a credit card to charge your prescriptions etc, etc. So, just go on line and get the phone number of the nearest Wallgreens and tell what you want to do.
Let us know how it works out:)

[wgriswold]

My wife has been dealing with this problem for many years. She gets a 90 day RX four times a year. The regulations for narcotics are incredibly complex and differ from state to state.

The RX is good for either six months or a year in Calif. (I can't remember which) but only 14 days in Nevada unless in a pharmacist hands when it is good for six months. If using mail order one must comply with the rules of the state that is filling the RX.

Finding the way through all the rules is challenging. There are many bureaucracies involved; doctor, state (maybe several), federal gov., insurance company, and the pharmacy. Some pharmacies allow individual pharmacists to make up their own personal rules.

So advice about what works for one person may not apply to another.

The best we can do is get a 90 day supply and plan to be back in three months.

[wny_pat1]

Now if I only had a Walgreens near by. Ahh, the cons of living in the boonies!

[Spleenstomper]

It depends on the schedule. Schedule II (2) can only be filled with hard copy prescriptions, no refills. Schedule III (3) can be called in over the phone and you can have refills. Schedule III can't be electronically transferred. Schedule IV (4) can't be electronically prescribed either.

You really do need to talk with her doctor. Perhaps they can mail each month's prescriptions to a forwarding address. This will be an inconvenience for you having to deal with this part of your life.

[resmas]

There has to be a way to get it done. My MIL is on 2 controlled drugs, and has been for 15 years. She sees a Dr. once a year, so I know she is not getting a hand-written 'script every month. She doesn't even go to the pharmacy to pick the meds up, she is home-bound - family members pick up her meds, or they get delivered by pharmacy employees or USPS.

I would talk to your Dr.'s office and to a chain pharmacy. They should both be aware of the regulations. I am sure you are not the only one with the issue of needing controlled drugs on the road, you just need to ask the people that know for the answer.

[bob_nestor]

Jim Shoe wrote:
The only person that can answer your question is her Doctor. Unless someone that's already answered here is her Doctor and knows the restrictions on any prescription he may write for her, we're all just guessing.
Make an appointment for both of you to talk to the Doctor so that you have 2 sets of ears listening.
My doctor writes my scrips for 90 days x 2, because I see him every six months and he knows I travel. My medicine requires a prescription, but they aren't "controlled substances". The only way I can abuse mine is by forgetting to take them. 🙂

I've actually had CVS refuse to fill a prescription because they claimed the doctor hadn't written it correctly. They didn't like that the doctor had written the script for 30 days with 2 refills rather than as a single 90 script. My ex-employer had an arrangement with CVS that pretty much forced me to use them, but with the script written for 30 days I could take it to any pharmacy, but I later discovered they couldn't precess the refills. By having it written for 90 days I could only get it filled at CVS. The reason I asked the doctor for the 30 day with 2 refills is that I could get the drugs MUCH cheaper at any other pharmacy. But given the arrangement my ex-employer had with CVS I didn't have any way to exercise control over the costs. Plus where I live most CVS pharmacies employ pharmacists for whom english is a second language and their service is slower than Christmas.

[Bob___Ann]

I know that there are a lot of choices out there but Walgreens has worked best for us. We found out that CVS had very few locations around the Rockies where we planned to spend much time. Working it through CVS was difficult as we had to keep transferring our prescriptions from one pharmacy to the next. Walgeens is everywhere and when we walk in and order there is never any question as to weather or not we will get it. At the end of the year they print out our list of prescriptions purchases for insurance and all purchases from everywhere are on it. Works great for us.

[NCWriter]

For our last long trip, the Walgreens clerk at the counter gave me some resistance about filling a 90 day supply ahead of schedule. When I explained where we would be, she helpfully suggested, " just go to the Yellowstone Walgreens, and they'll fill it for you."