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Many people in the United States have problems acquiring the prescriptions they need when needed, even though many medications are now sent electronically. Healthcare providers can send prescriptions to pharmacies using various methods. They can hand-write a drug, call it in on the phone, fax it, or send it electronically. Patients may sometimes be required to go through this process more quickly.
Recently, I got the message at Walgreens: “Prescription Delayed No Action Needed.”
Prescription Delayed – No Action Needed
If you see a message at Walgreens that perception is delayed and there is “No Action Needed,” that means that the pharmacist reviews your prescription. You will get this message in the following cases:
- Your prescription is a controlled substance. Based on the Controlled Substances Act, pharmacists can reject your medicine if they believe it is not in your best interest (lat. primum non nocere – “first, do not harm” rule).
- There is a problem with insurance. Your medicine is not covered by insurance or refilled too soon on insurance.
- Walgreens pharmacies run out of stock, so a quantity limit problem exists.
- There is a DUR problem. In that case, the pharmacist needs to check whether your drug interacts with another medication.
How to avoid pharmacy delays
A pharmacist offers three guidelines to evade a delayed prescription
There are a variety of channels via which medications may be sent from medical practices to local pharmacies. They may phone in your prescription, write it by hand, fax it, or submit it online. Other options include submitting it online. It should not be surprising if prescriptions are being filled late since so many outlets exist.
The processing of medicaments at your pharmacy may be sped up using the following three methods.
- Update contact details.
Important! Eight out of 10 times, patient information is incorrect. By verifying your identity, birthdate, address, and phone number, you assist your pharmacist in filling the appropriate prescription. They’ll contact you if there are concerns with your medication.
- Update your insurance.
If your pharmacy’s insurance is expired, you may have problems filling a prescription. Some pharmacies will fill your prescription for cash. Other pharmacies may only submit your prescription.
Providing your updated insurance details will generally reactivate your medication. If you completed your prescription without active insurance, you may pay cash and ask the pharmacist to re-bill once you get your new card.
If your new insurance doesn’t cover the medicine, this should work. Your insurance may cover your prescription based on previous authorizations or quantity limitations. Each health plan has a formulary of covered medications. Your old plan may have covered your medicine, but your new one may not. Consider a discount instead of insurance to purchase your prescription.
- Call the drugstore ahead of time.
Before picking up your medication, call your pharmacist to ensure it’s ready. Your prescription may be delayed by one of these three issues:
- Your script is out. You may be able to acquire a 1- to 3-day supply of your prescription while the pharmacy orders the rest. Or, your pharmacy may need to reorder your medicine for next-day pickup.
- Your medicine isn’t covered or has limits. If your prescription isn’t covered, you may pay out of pocket or ask your pharmacist to contact your doctor for alternatives. Before covering medicine, several plans require physicians to fill out a prior authorization form. Depending on how quickly your doctor’s office fills out the paperwork, this might take a week.
- Your medicine script is wrong. Because physicians occasionally make prescription mistakes, your pharmacy may require extra explanation. Your pharmacist may need further information from your doctor for these reasons:
- Unreadable prescription.
- Missing or inaccurate instructions, amount, dose, or refills.
- The drug may interact with others.
- Another patient’s prescription was written.
- Compare prices
Lastly, inspect that you have enough money to cover the cash fee or the co-insurance. Discover that you are unable to pay it. You may use PharmacyChecker.com to locate a local pharmacy discount card, an Aid Program for Patients, or Pharmacy Checker-verified online pharmacies in other countries.
Avoiding Problems at Your Resident Drugstore
When medications are unavailable on time, pharmacies may be very hectic and unpleasant for customers. Here are some recommendations for avoiding problems at your neighborhood Walgreens, Walmart, CVS, etc.
- Your prescription medicine is out of stock.
Because the pharmacy must order the medicine, your prescription might be overdue by at least one working day. Given the uncertainty that you are entirely out, the pharmacist could be able to provide you with a supply for one to three days until your order arrives.
Tip:
Ask the pharmacist whether the drug is in stock before you release the prescription, or call ahead of time before picking it up.
- Your medicine is either not ensured or requires pre-endorsement.
If your plan does not insure your medicine, you may ask your pharmacist to contact your medical-care supplier about switching to a drug enclosed by your project, or you can reimburse for the prescription yourself. Before covering a medicine, plans may need physicians to complete a form if your drug requires prior permission. This can proceed for up to a week, so keeping in contact with your medical-care benefactor and the insurance company is essential. The chemists can only re-claim the drug to comprehend whether your insurance now covers the medication.
Tip:
Ask the pharmacist whether the medication is insured when you drop off the prescription or contact the pharmacy before picking up the medication to confirm coverage. Alternately, the minute your medic gives you a new drug, ask whether it often requires previous authorization; this will allow the office to be prepared to complete the documents swiftly if necessary.
- Your medicament is illegible or poorly written.
Uncertainty: If your dispensing chemist cannot declaim your prescription or detect a mistake, they must call your healthcare practitioner for clarification before filling it out. Typically, this process takes at least one day.
Tip: Call your healthcare provider’s office to see if they can electronically transmit or fax a reviewed medication script to your drugstore. Before leaving your doctor’s office, ensure that you understand the prescription and that it has guidelines on how to take medication, including the dosage, amount, strength, and number of fill-ups. Ensure that your physician is aware of the drugs you are presently taking.
The Walgreens app
The Walgreens app offers various services associated with a full-service drugstore on a mobile device. Users may transfer or renew prescriptions, have a quick conversation with a drugstore professional, view daily sales ads and form a spending list, and quickly buy pictures from their tablet or smartphone.
- Sufferers may order medicine restocks through the application by opening an account in the drugstore. To authenticate their pharmacy account ownership, existing Walgreens customers must respond to security questions about their previous houses or automobiles. This application has a wide-ranging list of acceptable uses for patient information.
- Users may refill their prescriptions by retrieving them in their user account, scanning the label, or using the drug’s serial number. A drugstore recommendation is picked by city, zip code, or GPS location. When the patient has selected a drugstore, Google Maps directions or a map with a link to Apple are shown.
- The app has a medication cue that you may use to get reminders for daily dosages or refills. The user can customize alerts and activate a mechanism that records when the medicine is taken. A code established by the consumer may protect this information. Exporting the data to provide the physician with the patient’s medication list is also feasible.
- The app includes medication grade and antiquity and insurance card submission functions. Once the patient’s profile has been authenticated, these features become active. Verification takes many days. The Pharmacy Chat services and Live Doctor Consultation do not need a login. The $49 medical consultation includes a twelve-minute time lag and a live video conference. MDLive and Walgreens are partnered to provide this facility nationwide with no urgent visits, for instance, for allergies, acne, respiratory diseases, and urinary problems. This is not insured but may be charged to an HSA or FSA account. The patient’s chosen pharmacy may get prescriptions. There were no narcotics prescribed. Patients may schedule an appointment using the app if there are local Walgreens healthcare clinics.
- Pharmacy Chat connects users to real-life pharmacists. There is no audio or video. Patients may inquire about costs and drugs. An instant link may be established with the pharmaceutical specialist, but not more than twice. Among the productive connections was a drugstore specialist. I am unsure of state regulations regarding which pharmacological inquiry a drug store specialist may answer vs. those that must be responded to by a druggist. The application lacks explicit guidelines for forwarding a patient’s question to another professional.
- Additionally, the app enables the user to use merchandising amenities like clipping coupons from the weekly ad, monitoring the Walgreens rewards card, and spending on various objects found at a local Walgreens site or that may be mailed to the user.
- By integrating Apple Health with this Walgreens application, iPhone users may receive rewards for achieving health-related objectives such as blood pressure and workouts. WebMD offers this functionality. It benefits Walgreens rewards members, but I found it to be intrusive.
- The application’s Photo function may attract more Walgreens customers. Photos can be printed, emailed, and shown on mobile devices. The application can access photographs from Dropbox, Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr. Pictures can be transmitted to the user’s chosen storage and retrieved within an hour.