Medications & Refills

There are many helpful and beneficial medications available; unfortunately, managing them can become complicated by multiple pharmacies, insurance companies, prescription benefit plans, formularies, etc. We will make every effort to keep it as simple for you (and for us) as possible. Here are some helpful tips:

• When you are coming into the office for a visit, check and see if you need refills of any medications for that child or even a sibling. It is much more efficient to do it while you are here in the office and it allows us to ask you questions about the medication and its effectiveness, etc.
• Don’t wait until you run out of medication. Call for a refill several days before you run out.
• Check and make sure you don’t have any refills remaining on your medication. We often write for refills on the original prescription. Check with the pharmacy to see if you have refills remaining.
• Sometimes the pharmacy offers to contact us for a refill. They will fax us a form that we fax back to them. If they offer this service, then you should use it, because it is more efficient for you, for us, and for the pharmacy.
• If you are going on a trip, be sure you have enough of your medications. If you are going to need a refill, remember that it sometimes takes us up to 48 hours to refill your medication.

New prescriptions

In most cases, we do not prescribe new medications or make medication changes over the phone. We do not feel that this is the best medical care and can even be dangerous at times. New medications or major changes to existing ones will usually require an office visit.

Refill requests and authorizations

We are happy to refill most medications that are needed for ongoing treatment, if a follow-up visit is not necessary. Please note that for chronic medical conditions like asthma or allergies, we must see your child at least once a year. If we have not seen your child in a year, we cannot continue to prescribe the medication. (The visit does not have to be for that condition; a yearly physical/checkup can serve this purpose. Please remind us about any chronic medical conditions at your physical).

Refill requests can take up to 48 hours for us to process; however, we generally try to do them the same day! Be sure to call your pharmacy to be sure it is ready before you go to pick it up.