It’s that time again. You only have a few tablets left of your daily medication, so you’ll need to get more. But when you check the bottle, it says that you do not have any refills left. This means you cannot get a new supply until your refills are renewed.
That begs the question: “How do I get my prescription refilled?”
The very first thing you should do is call your pharmacy.
“Even if I have zero refills?”
Yes, even if you have zero refills.
The pharmacy is the expert bridge between you and your provider that makes the process easier and more efficient for everyone.
When you call your pharmacist, they send a message straight to your provider’s care team. They can also make special notes, such as if you are concerned about your dosage.
Nursing staff will review the request from the pharmacy. Nurses are expertly trained to review medications in this situation so that they can give providers more time to spend with you and other patients during appointments. They also check to make sure you are eligible for a refill.
How do I know if I’m eligible for a refill?
When your provider’s nurse receives a request from the pharmacy, they will look up the last time you came in for a physical or medication review. A medication review can include a Medicare wellness exam, post-partum exam, well-child exam, pre-op exam and more.
The reason for requiring a recent exam is so that they can get updates on your health, required lab work and to make sure you are taking the proper medication and the correct dose to keep you as healthy as possible.
If you have scheduled a physical or exam but it is many months away, not to worry. As long as the nurse sees that your appointment is scheduled, they will refill your prescription.
On the flip side, if you request a refill and are due for a physical, the nurse will write that on your prescription and contact you to help you get that scheduled. If you schedule that appointment, they can then refill your prescription. If you don’t, they can’t refill it until you do.
Can I use MyChart for a refill?
MyChart is a wonderful tool for viewing test results, communicating with your provider and more, but we recommend that you do not use it to request refills.
MyChart and your pharmacy are completely separate from one another. Your pharmacy is the one that keeps track of how many refills you have left and when your medication is ready to pick up.
If you request a prescription refill through MyChart, that message gets sent straight to your provider’s care team. The nurse who reads the message has to call your pharmacy to confirm how many refills you have.
Often times, the pharmacy will find that you actually do have refills left and can fill your prescription right then and there. Your nurse does not have access to that information if your request comes through MyChart, which makes you wait longer for your refill.
By calling your pharmacy directly instead of using MyChart, you make the process easier and shorter.
“In order to get a prescription, you need to get the prescription written by a licensed physician that’s in the state where you’re actually residing,” affirms Randy Parker, CEO and founder of GeniusRx, an online pharmacy licensed in all 50 states. So, technically, no – you cannot get a prescription without seeing a doctor. But you can get one without seeing a doctor in person thanks to telemedicine. In some cases, at least a video consultation is required in order for a doctor to prescribe medications. In other instances, you might be able to just have a phone call or simply fill out a questionnaire online (which will be reviewed by a physician). The rules on this vary depending on your state, the type of medication,
and the patient’s age.I. Can you get a prescription without seeing a doctor?
II. Can online doctors prescribe medicine?
Telehealth apps have made it possible to have a remote meeting with a physician and have them prescribe the appropriate medication to you without ever setting foot in an office. During the pandemic, we saw close to 100% of medical visits going virtual, says Parker, many of which involved a doctor prescribing some form of medication.
There are normally exceptions to this, namely if the medication the patient needs is a controlled substance. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has allowed even controlled substances to be prescribed by telemedicine doctors during the pandemic, and those relaxed rules have yet to revert back.
For less risky health matters, you may not even have to speak to the doctor by phone or see them over a live video conference to get a prescription, notes Parker. Instead, you can have an asynchronous, two-way HIPAA compliant chat, in which the patient answers a set of questions that the provider then reviews. The provider may determine that a follow-up by video or phone is needed before filling the prescription, or they might be able to move forward without additional steps. Again, this depends on your state’s regulations.
Parker says some states allow certain medications to be prescribed after a compliant questionnaire is reviewed. In the remaining states, a secure video teleconference or phone consult is the minimum requirement.
III. Can you order prescriptions online without seeing a doctor?
“You can have a primary care doctor send a script to an online pharmacy for a refill order, but not a new script,” says Parker. If you need a new medication or your refills on an ongoing medication have finished up, you will have to have a virtual visit in order for them to create or renew your prescriptions, he adds.
“Telehealth doesn’t replace the need to still have to see your physician for physical exams or omit the need to do blood tests and other follow-ups. It’s just an efficient way to manage a refill,” adds Parker.
Today, there are also a number of digital pharmacy solutions and platforms that offer more of a direct-to-consumer approach, including Hims, Hers, Lemonaid, and GeniusRX. For the most part, these platforms are geared toward individual consumers looking to save money on medications for chronic conditions, or for a medication that is lifestyle driven like for erectile dysfunction, hair loss, or birth control, says Parker.
“We also use the pharmacist in a telepharmacy world to do what we call swaps, which is to make the recommendation to the patient about therapeutic equivalents that would be more cost-effective, but also in many cases better,” says Parker. In a select number of states, pharmacists can actually prescribe certain medications like birth control on their own, without sign-off from a doctor.
IV. What is the fastest way to order a prescription?
Going the online route will almost always speed up the process of getting a prescription since in-person appointments aren’t always easy to arrange on the fly. But for most situations in which you need a new medication or a refill, expect to have at least a virtual visit with a physician. You can meet with a doctor via a telemedicine platform or set up a virtual appointment with your regular physician if available. Once complete, they can send prescriptions directly to your local pharmacy where you can pick up or arrange delivery.
Parker says consumers can also go directly to an online pharmacy platform like GeniusRX.com to order certain types of medication, or to transfer over existing prescriptions they’re already taking. “We can then send it to your home in the most convenient way,” he says.
V. Expert
OnlineDoctor.com interviewed this expert for article guidance:
Randy Parker, CEO and founder of GeniusRx