Well, I got the local flu bug this weekend, so I don't feel much like elaborating on the bureacracy today. Everyone gets a break from my soapbox. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Has anyone solved this? My wife and I tried. She's on thyroid meds, not very expensive. We asked the pharmacist (local grocery chain) what it would take to get a 2nd month supply, but not put it through insurance, we would pay for it out of pocket. We never got to prescription issues, the pharmacist could not figure out why we would want to have extra meds. So, it isn't just the expensive or controlled substances that are difficult to stock up on.

Talk to your doctor, not your pharmacist, he can't sell any prescription without that little piece of paper (or a phone call) from a doc.. If your regular doc. doesn't understand your concerns, go to another one... it might sound a little underhanded, but sometimes ya gots ta do what ya gots ta do. Oh, and don't forget to take the second scrip to a different pharmacy. In all likelyhood, all this won't be neccessary, unless your doctor's really uptight. Just point out the circumstances you're trying to plan for and unless you're trying to stockpile several months worth (which isn't a good idea anyway), and he'll probably issue the scrip for the back-ups with no problem, but remember to rotate the med.s on a regular basis.

Troy

Good idea - and if your doctor says no, he's an idiot - you should change anyway.

One other thing, you should contact your company's HR person and discuss with them the insurance factor. I gotta think that a large insurer wouldn't mind coughing up an extra month's worth of meds for emergencies if you request it nicely and state that you live in a dangerzone (don't we all for one thing or another?). I know that if your insurance has a mail-order meds program, many of them typically allow orders for 3-6 months at a time for common meds like birth control, statins, and many other chronic conditions.

And as for insulin - my grandmother kept a large enough supply on hand, so I know you can get a few vials. As for refigeration - there are such things as evaporative refrigerators made from water, two pots and some sand. non-electrical refrigeration

Insulin will keep as long as a month if it's not too hot (like below 85 deg.), so digging a hole 3 feet in the ground and covering a container with said insulin inside should keep it from going bad in a pinch...

I recently got med's ahead of time because I was going out of state to work, the ins. co. didn't bat an eye. Granted, this wasn't getting ahead, because my next scrip wasn't picked up 'til due, but if you played this right, you could duild up a reserve over time, I know a few folks who have done just that.

Troy

As the others have said, talk to your doctor. When my Mom was alive, she was on multiple meds for congestive heart failure. We were on high ground, surrounded by low ground, in a flood-prone area. We would be safe, but we couldn't get out. I explained this to the doctor, who thankfully has a functioning brain AND common sense, and she fixed it with the pharmacist. We paid for the med out of pocket, though, as trying to get an insurance company to change it's policy is like talking to a rock.

Sue

Hehe, no doubt Insurance companies have rocks for brains and a brick wall for ears. I heartily recommend that you talk to your HR person at work and see if you can be put in touch with your COMPANY's Insurance Rep. Sometimes they can swing things that the policy may be inflexible on. It helps if you also have life insurance with the same company and you live next to a fault line/flood zone/tornado alley/hurrican prone coastline/Tsunami impact area or any other equally treacherous region. And I think we can all lay claim to one thing or another. :-)

The point here is NOT to try to talk to the Insurance guys themselves, but rather to someone at your company who regularly deals with guys on the inside at said Insurance Co. I had one situation where this was invaluable advice given to me - but I worked for a 10,000+ employee company (and now a 50k+ one). YMMV

HOT DOG, I'm USEFUL! :lol:

Okay....MOST insurance companies will allow an eight day window for refills. I've only encountered one insurance that regularly makes people use up ALL the med before a refill. Unless it's something like Viagra, or expensive migraine meds, where the insuarance will limit it to __ pills every 30 days on the dot.

On Insulin...you should maybe mention to the pharmacy staff that you use it more often sometimes. Even IF the directions are as specific as "Inject ___ units ___ times a day" any pharmacist would realize that with diabetes 'stuff happens' and sometimes you HAVE to use more. The only time I EVER submit to an insurance company that someone on insulin is getting a thirty day supply is if they are getting three or more vials of it.

Your pharmacy CAN help you out to a degree, especially with the 'day supply' submitted to an insurance. While we can't really 'KNOWINGLY' fudge it (putting in a 15-day supply for some Percocet that should last 30 days for instance) we can be flexable on things like insulin, inhalers, etc.

But whoever mentioned trouble stockpiling pain meds....er...well, yeah. Unless your doctor us willing to risk potential trouble with 'The Man' by ordering a pharmacy to fill it.

Your doctor can help you out with some things, but if it's something like a thyroid medicine where you likely have refills for up to a year at a time...he shouldn't HAVE to, unless your pharmacist is just thick.

Being a proud member here, I'd see the need of stockpiling some things. But, it's not like I can wear 'Preparedness-Minded Certified Pharmacy Technician' on my badge, who can know? And I guess that some people who are wanting to do it don't want to advertise it to us either...bah. I hate the stigma associated with what amounts to COMMON SENSE and being prepared sometimes...

More on insurance....SOME...maybe less than half...of companies have provisions for vacation supplies and lost medicine early refills. I wouldn't COUNT on it, but just FYI. Let's see, that's all I can think of on the subject for now, but ALWAYS let me know if something comes up where an opinion of a 'pharmacy insider' would be of use! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Possible solutions to med stockpile-

1) If missing a single dose is not life or health threatening, skip one dose per week and toss in a different bottle. When you have a months worth work the bottle into your dosage rotation keeping the newest supply from the pharmacy as your emergency stock.

2) Talk to your doctor about your needs. You may be able to get the doc to write script for a higher dose for a month or two. You don't take the extra, you save it. Same story, keep the newest supply as the emergency stock.

3) Get you doc to write script for another month's supply. Have it filled at a second pharmacy and pay for it yourself.

I have used all of the above methods at one time or another and currenty have a 3 month supply of all my meds. I sleep better knowing I am covered in a short term crisis.

I have little patience with the crap the medical insurance companies serve up these days. The insurance companies are denying you the ability to take care of yourself in a crisis. It would be interesting to see what happened to the folks in New Orleans that were dependent on medications after the hurricane. We live in a society that is almost completely dependent on constant outside help to function. Shut off the supply of any critical resource and the system breaks down rapidly.

Natural disasters tend to be mostly contained to small geographic regions. Even a mess like we saw in the Gulf states can be salvaged because the rest of the country still functions. A deadly pandemic sweeping the country would be a real disaster as geographic boundries would not be much of a barrier. I'm still guessing (and hoping) the much anticipated bird flu pandemic is bogus fear nongering. Still, I am making basic preparations.

Much like the Y2K fiasco, I prepared and have no regrets. I am now better prepared for the next "real" fiasco.

TR (Taking a chill pill)

Strange... around the beginning of December I found an article on the news.google.com homepage. This entry described what was believed to be the very likely mutation of h5n1 into a human-to-human transmissable pathogen in Indonesia or Malaysia (can't remember which right now). I was so startled that I showed my wife and told her we needed to get our stockpile built up to several months worth. That article can't be found now - it was on news.google.com and it basically said they believed that the mutation had occurred and that they were in the process of verifying. It was in a major city. I can't even find the original entry despite my best efforts. This was saying several hundred people were coming down with it rapidly.

Now the WHO is saying confirmable and "sustained" human-to-human transfer instead of just "confirmable" as the measuring stick for global pandemic.

Let's just hope that when it mutates (this will likely happen in an individual who already has a Human-to-human flu virus active and who contracts the second H5n1 at the same time - making a crossbread) that it loses some of its lethality - currently around 50%.

Oh, and I also read from the CDC that the country (and certainly the world) is not even close to being prepared. Their suggestion? Bunker down for as long as you can. I've been trying to build up supplies ever since. It's a matter of time, not of chance. If not for this particular strain, some other. We are far overdue. Toss in our overuse of antibiotics where fully 2/3rds are fed to animals (they can be found in meat and even the air - probably from animal dung dust) creating massively resistant bacteria, and I'd say I'm much more fearful of semi-natural bio-killers than any terrorist bio-weps. Too bad nobody at Homeland Security or the FDA or CDC seem to be doing much about the former.