What do you do when you lose a whole bottle of pills?

[dreamshark]

Shortly after we returned from vacation (Apr 1) Richard picked up a 90-day prescription for his diabetes medicine, refilled his pillbox, and promptly misplaced the bottle in the post-vacation chaos. 10 days later when he tried to refill his pillbox he couldn't find the bottle. We've looked everywhere. This is the first time either of us has misplaced a bottle of maintenance meds and we don't know quite what to do. 

This is complicated by the fact that he was in the middle of getting his dosage increased, so he had two prescriptions on file from two different doctors but still doesn't have any pills on hand. He's talked to the pharmacy, which gave him a few extra pills while they "tried to contact the doctor" but it is not 100% clear which doctor. They claim "the doctor" is not replying despite repeated attempts.

Since it is now effectively impossible to talk to your doctor in person without a 2-3 month lead time, I've been sending MyChart messages. The nurses who respond to these messages seem confused by the complexity of the situation and are assuming that we weren't able to fill the 2nd prescription, which is not the problem. 

The problem is that he had the pills and LOST THEM. I'm not sure how that situation is supposed to be addressed. Do we really need another prescription? An early refill?  A refill that we pay for out of pocket (since I doubt insurance will pay for lost meds)? 

Has anybody here ever been in this situation? 

Comments

[guppiecat]

Most insurance companies have a policy for lost meds. Don't talk to your doctor. Talk to your pharmacy and to your insurance. You may be able to resolve it with just them.

If you can't, get the answers in writing from both of them and take them to urgent care or schedule a virtual visit. There's no guarantee that will work, but you will be able to talk to a doctor, who should be able to help.

You are absolutely not the first people to lose a 90 day fill.

[dreamshark]

Thanks. The pharmacy was unable to figure it out, but we finally located the number for the Blaisdell Clinic (where we get our care). A human being answered the phone, a nurse called back within 15 minutes, and she got it straightened out. Richard should be able to pick up his meds in a couple of hours at the local Walgreens, which is a relief.

Apparently when you lose a prescription the remedy is that a doctor needs to write another one. The nurse wasn't sure if insurance would cover it, but was able to tell us that this is a cheap medication (under $50), so it's not a big deal.

Health Partners/Park Nicollet can be hard to communicate with, but when you finally get through to someone they are always pleasant and competent. I just wish they would stop revamping the websites and hiding the contact info.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Many people have had the experience of lost pills. Based on what I've seen, the most effective is for a woman to cry over it. Sometimes this works over the phone. But if you go and make a scene in person, sometimes they will give what you want to make you go away.

The system isn't set up for a sane response to this common human experience, so it has to be worked around.

[redbird]

I had this happen a few months ago, and had to get the relevant doctor to write a new prescription; I think this involved a partial fill (30 days' worth instead of 90).

This was more difficult than it should have been, because that department at Mt. Auburn insists on hearing from the patient for a new prescription, rather than letting the pharmacy ask for it. This sort of makes sense, in terms of wanting patients to be in touch with their psychiatrists, but they also warn you that it's likely to take them a couple of days.

[pameladean]

I'm glad you got it resolved. I once needed a new bottle of 30 pills because I'd had the existing one in my backpack and my water bottle leaked and somehow got into the pill bottle and reduced all the pills to mush. This story was greeted with surprise and initial incredulity, but since I had the mush, I got a new bottle. Insurance did not pay for it.

That was with HCMC years ago. More recently, the HealthPartners mail-order pharmacy, which until then had been stellar, somehow just lost my renewal for metoprolol. They too claimed that they could not get through to my doctor. In my opinion pharmacies of all sorts claim this automatically and you have to chivvy them to actually do anything. I honestly wonder if they all have some null number that they can call and then pretend they couldn't get through. It is UNREAL. They can never, ever get through to my dentist -- they claim -- and I have to call the dentist's office, whereupon the phone is answered promptly and the pharmacy called, and then the prescription goes through with no problem. Who are they calling? Are they all goddamned liars?

ANYWAY, with the metoprolol I also eventually got a nurse at the Minneapolis clinic, and she suggested an interim prescription for 30 days at a local pharmacy of my choice, followed by somebody at their end speaking clearly to the mail-order pharmacy about the long-term prescription, and getting them to send a two-month supply to start with and renew for a three-month one. This was both to get me the metoprolol before I ran out -- people are not supposed to go off it suddenly, which causes heart attacks and other unpleasantness -- and to get insurance to pay for it.

The Walgreen's I picked told the nurse that they no longer contracted with HealthPartners, and before she called me back to let me know that, she asked them what the out-of-pocket cost would be, and enabled me to tell her to tell them to go ahead. It's a cheap generic, fortunately.

P.

[dreamshark]

Wow, that sounds like a hassle. Actually, both Richard's pharmacy (Walgreen's at 54th and Lyndale) and mine (Cub Pharmacy, 60th and Nicollet) have always been successful at getting prescriptions renewed (with Health Partners). But that's for a standard renewal, not a weird situation where you just filled the prescription 3 weeks ago and now mysteriously need another one. R now has 3 different prescriptions for the same medication registered at Walgreens. If it were for something with more street value than Glimeperide I'm sure that would seem pretty sussy.

[pameladean]

It was not my favorite thing to be worrying about!

David is getting meds perfectly easily from several Cub pharmacies.

The Walgreens in question is the one on York Avenue in Edina, which is open 24/7 and drive through only after 10 pm, which is why I prefer it. I should call them when there isn't an emergency and see if they have really stopped contracting with HP.

I hope Richard doesn't have more problems going forward.

P.

[carbonel]

The Walgreen's I picked told the nurse that they no longer contracted with HealthPartners

How weird. I'm with HealthPartners, but my prescription coverage is through a Medicare prescription policy, and I had to switch from CVS to Walgreens when I went to that, because that was the only one that they worked with.