General
How to you manage 30 day supplies with travel?
March 4, 2023
in General
I'm now experience the joys of OptumRX that several others have posted about. Only allows 30 day prescriptions and no automatic refills.
Was wondering how people are managing things like travel? I have a trip for 2 weeks coming and it falls during that precious refill window they gave me...
Do you skip a dose now and then to stock-pile a little bit? Do you talk to your local pharmacist and see if you can get extra?
I've had the luxury of being on 90 day mail order for a long time now, so just not sure how to manage this new normal.
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Well I’d say definitely DON’T skip meds every once in a while. Check with your transplant team, tell them about your situation and see if they can work it out to get you more meds built up. Also, I’ve had meds delivered to different locations if I’m going to be gone visiting family for an extended time.
What Shelbycreates said. Please do not deliberately skip prescribed medications. Also check with your pharmacy - they may sell you less than a full dose early -but your insurance/Medicare may or may not cover, if it is early.
Thanks - That's a good idea to talk to the transplant team. It looks like the way to handle it with this bad insurance company is to have the transplant team send a prescription for the days you anticipate missing to https://costplusdrugs.com/ where you can get it for about what my co-pay is on my insurance. It won't go against your insurance deductible which is the down-side, but if you plan ahead, it looks like I could get a few weeks to cover me while I'm out of town during my "reorder window," for Optum. The transplant team said that was usually how they handle the 30 day scripts when you will be out of town for the refill. Seems easy since Optum doesn't allow retail purchases with our specialty drugs, but at least the Mark Cuban gives us an affordable alternative to big insurance. At little easier than trying to coordinate an Optum shipment to an out of town location. I'm still waiting for them to ship to my house, I can't imagine what an address change would do! (Day 102 since my last 90 day refill and still fighting with Optum to ship).
Appreciate the ideas and help.
Transplant Patient
I'm in Canada, so I don't have the same prescription drug issues you all in the states seem to be having. Transplant Meds are covered by the government, I get 3 month (I think) supplies of my medication, my coordinator arranges them to be sent through my transplant centre directly to me.
I would definitely suggest talking to your coordinator or transplant pharmacy to see if you can get some extra medication for your trip. That's what they are there for. Your social worker might also be able to help you or have some ideas for things that are more local to you in terms of dealing with insurance and accessing meds. I echo what everyone else said - skipping doses isn't a great idea
Thank you Alim14, I wish the USA was like Canada.
@Travis I’m glad you’ve found an alternative. It’s ridiculous what we have to do in order to take care of ourselves sometimes. I remember how much the transplant team hammered into me to never miss meds, but then there are things that are outside of your control (like insurance policies). I know that my transplant center said if I was ever without meds for any reason at all to contact them and they could get me emergency meds no matter what—which I think they’d want to help you be proactive with planning ahead of time too. Let us know how it goes with cost plus drugs
Travis, what state are you located in? States have varying laws regarding health plan coverage and access to medications. If you are traveling, most the insurance companies can / will do an early refill if you will be traveling. (I recently did that myself in Virginia.)
I would call your pharmacist and see if they can help you get authorization for an early refill.