[ SECRET POST #2819 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2819 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 054 secrets from Secret Submission Post #403.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[djose]

That is so interesting, and extremely different than how we do things! I also find it really cool to see how things like pharmacies work in different parts of the world. :)

Yeah, we hand count all medications in retail because usually they come from large stock bottles (which can be 500 or 1000 count). We also aren't supposed to take back any medication from customers under any circumstance - we tell people to go to the police station or town hall to safely dispose of them. When you get a box from the factory, are all the pills individually packaged? (this is called unit dose, and is much more common in hospital pharmacy than retail)

We have scripts come in electronically/faxed over/phoned in/brought in by customers, and we file all of them physically. It'd make so much more sense to file them electronically like you guys, though.

How does it work in your country for controlled substances/narcotics? For example, here narcotics can only be filled if the customer has a physical hardcopy of the prescription, and we can only fill them 3 days before they're 'supposed' to be due.

And does everyone in your country fall under the blue/white script method of payment?

I'm in the US, so as I'm sure you know - insurance here is chaos. Everyone has different insurance in terms of what they will cover and won't cover. I don't think too many people realize how expensive medications can be without insurance, and tend to complain about their $30 copay.

I remember specifically one instance where I had a customer picking up a $2000 medication for their family member (it was an extremely strong antibiotic for someone who was at end of life, and that price was WITH insurance), and the very next customer was complaining about their $0.30 copay. I mean, seriously?

We do also have a program where people in the lowest pension group get the majority of their scripts covered, but I've found that they can be hard to work with - people have trouble getting their applications through to get put on the insurance, they tend to be very picky in what they will and won't cover, etc.

Birth control is an interesting case here! We recently had the introduction of Obamacare, which basically mandated most insurances to cover birth control. In practice, I have seen many people's prescriptions be completely covered or drop drastically in price. There are still some people that do pay a copay for their birth control, but I think it's a great thing that many more people now have greater access to it.

Sorry for the TMI, not sure how much you know/don't know about our system - if you'd like me to expand on anything let me know!

[making_excuses]

I am always interested in knowing how stuff works in other parts of the world, so I tend to jump on the chance to discuss it. (weirdly enough this is the second time I discuss this on F!S)

The meds look like this when they are in the pharmacy behind a counter, where we can't go, so they are either in tin foil packets (inside the box) or if they are in bottles they are just 25/50/100 pills in there and then they are sealed in the factory and they stick the sticker (with personal info about usage and such) on the outside of the box.



Medication in what apparently is classified as A and B (anything you could get addicted to) have to be locked in secure lockers when the pharmacy is not manned, is the only rule I could find about how they are stored in the pharmacy. The rules for getting them are pretty strict (and A meds, eh Morphine is one of those are written on different prescription pads and they make sure any doctor don't prescribe too much of it) and Morphine and such you'll have to pay the full price for, with exceptions (chronic pain, cancer and so on), then you have C medication which is anything you have to have a prescription on, but they aren't addictive or especially dangerous, I guess antibiotics goes under that, but I am not sure?

But if you are prescribed a controlled substance like morphine/vicodin and so on, you get whatever amount your doctor has said you need, but maximum a three months supply at the time, I'd imagine. That is what it seems my grandfather has at least? And the three months supply rule is just a general rule for any prescription (except for non chronic medication and sometimes if you try out a new kind of medication for something chronic) it pretty much means you can get three boxes of the medication on the prescription, which if you use it in the "most common" way would mean three months.

But things like my migraine meds comes in a box of 6 and that last for anything between two weeks and over a month, but I still get three refills before I have to go back to my doctor to get a new prescription, or in this instance (and similar ones) calling the doctors office would be enough. And the doctor would just refill it and if it is electronic you can go and get it whenever s/he has pressed send or you might have to pick up the hardcopy version if you live in a city without the computer filling implemented just yet, or if you live far away the doctor will fax the prescription to whichever pharmacy you ask him to.

And yes, scripts are either white or blue (tho they don't have the colour, it is just an expression these days). Socialized medicine is where it's at. which also means that when you have spent 400$ on doctors, shrink, hospital, x-rays and medication and equipment on blue prescriptions you don't pay anything for that for the rest of the year, they even automatically send you the "free card" when you reach that amount and refund you whatever you paid over it.

You show your ID, ask for your meds, they find it in the correct shelf print out the sticker and you just sign your name on an electronic pad, pay whatever the price is (which is the same for everyone) and if your prescription is in paper form it gets stamped, put a sticker on, signed by the pharmacists and either given back to you or they can keep it for you if there are any refills left and you are on your way. Surprising how long the queue can get...

I know more than I'd like to know about medical insurance in America (not a complaint about you explaining stuff, because some of it I didn't know, just a comment), it just seems to be unfair and in a lot of cases just not working like it should be.

Anyway I think I explained it the best I could, I looked at the law and then just googled around a bit to make sure my facts were correct.

Edit: I just noticed, the big white and blue box in the middle, that is one of the types of migraine meds I have (it is a nose spray thing, and I hate it with the passion of a thousand burning suns)