Refill Prescriptions

Check the following before clicking submit:

• Whether you have any refills remaining:
  • If there are ZERO REFILLS REMAINING, contact your prescriber for a new prescription.  Submitting a refill request below for a prescription that has no refills remaining does not cause new refills to automatically pop into existence.
  • If the prescription has EXPIRED, contact your prescriber for a new prescription.  Prescriptions are only valid for one year (maximum) from the written date. All unredeemed refills are voided after the prescription’s expiration date!  A prescription cannot be refilled after its expiration date – even if the label indicates that there are still refills remaining.
  • Obtaining a new prescription when the old one runs out is your responsibility.  You pay your physician for a medical evaluations and their expertise in managing your condition; included therein, if the treatment is pharmacological, is the periodic issuance of a prescription to enable you to obtain such medical treatment from a pharmacist.
• Whether your insurance will approve coverage of your refills:
  • Most insurance companies will decline to cover a refill if an insufficient amount of time has elapsed since the previous refill.
    The 80% rule is most common: a subsequent refill will only be covered after approximately 80% of the previous fill is used.
    This works out to approximately a 24 day cycle for 30 day prescriptions, or a 72 day cycle for 90 day prescriptions.
  • Prescriptions rejected as being “too soon to refill” by your insurance will typically be automatically deferred to the next earliest fill date; no further action on your part is required.
  • Such prescriptions may be filled early without insurance, should you choose (and subject to state and federal laws and the dispensing pharmacist’s clinical discretion).
  • Some high-cost medications periodically require prior authorization (typically once a year) for continued coverage.  If it has been more than a year since your last prior authorization was approved, your prescriber will probably need to renew it.
  • No controlled substance prescription shall be refilled until at least 28 days have elapsed since the date of last pickup.
• Whether or not your medication is a special-order item (indicated by a yellow sticker on the vial OR in small print just below the directions on the label):
  • Most brand drugs arrive on the following business day by 11:00 am.
  • Special-order generics usually arrive on the following business day between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm; those requested on Fridays and Saturdays will not arrive until the following Tuesday at the earliest.
  • When in doubt, allow two business days.
• If you are sending someone else to pick up your prescription for you, provide them with the basic information necessary for them to complete their quest.
  Things like:
  • Your first and last names and date of birth;
  • Your home address; and
  • Which prescriptions you are expecting.
• If you are traveling out of the area or will be on vacation before your next refill is due, and your insurance is likely to reject:
  • Contact your insurance company FIRST to find out what their procedure is for obtaining a vacation supply.
    Most insurance companies allow one or two early fills per year due to travel – in most cases, these requests must be made by the patient ahead of time.
  • After your insurance company approves the override, OR if an override is able to be submitted directly by the pharmacist, you may request the refill.
  • Please be aware that early vacation fills only apply to medications that are not controlled substances.
    Early fills for controlled substances are not permitted.
    The best course of action in these scenarios is to request a short fill of the preceding month’s prescription to ensure that the next month’s prescription may be dispensed just before you leave.