<p>Another thought…our doctor will FAX prescriptions to our mail order pharmacy. Could you call the doctor and have him fax the RX for the name brand (with the correct dosage)? Wouldn’t that work?</p>
<p>I agree…usually they contact the DOCTOR with to authorize a change.</p>
<p>Calling a mail order pharmacy is like calling a black hole. You can’t get anything out of them. It is a very time consuming process to get a transfer from them. It is worst than calling Wal-mart.</p>
<p>I understand the importance of tiering medications. You need to have some control over prescribing. There is no reason to always go to an expensive, new drug. With some drugs, you know a PA is always going to be required. </p>
<p>Many physicians are poor prescribers. I see drugs whose entire existence was due to its ability to be dosed once a day, dosed twice a day. Some who prescribe a brand only anti-hypertensive drug, even though the person has simple hypertension. Doctors who automatically go to Crestor or Lipitor for someone whose cholesterol is only slightly elevated.</p>
<p>But in this case we’re perfectly happy with the less expensive generic version, and if Medco didn’t appear to be getting kickbacks from the manufacturer of the brand name version I don’t think they’d be pushing us to get the branded version the way they are. I’ve talked to my local pharmacist, and he agrees – says there are quite a few drugs (like the anti-depressants, he said) where they have to generate reams of paperwork and prior authorizations to get the brand version because Medco is pushing a generic that isn’t working well; D’s drug is one of the few he’s seen where the push from the pharmacy benefits manager is in the other direction.</p>
<p>But most of all, I’m ticked that getting back the prescription scrip is so painful. Easy for them to suggest getting the doc to write a new one, but rather hard to do with school closed over break and the Rx having been written at the student health center. Just really bad customer service.</p>
<p>I am confused about your impression of the efficacy of generic versus Brand.
When a physician specifies generic, it means the manufacturer can be any company.
Are you saying that your daughter can take one dose from all manufacturers EXCEPT the Brand Name company, where she needs a different dose?</p>
<p>There could be one or more generic manufacturers and in this case there might be only one.</p>
<p>We may consider products to be commodities but things like place of manufacture, exact formulation, even the water composition and humidity can make a difference in how products perform.</p>
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<p>Yes, of course you shouldn’t self-prescribe, in those countries you still buy them from the pharmacist, if you have any sense you still see a doctor.</p>
<p>In the case of D’s drug, there is only one company making the generic, and as BCEagle mentioned, formulations do differ. (Heck, I take one brand name medication where the FDA fined the mfr. quite a bit because the dosage varied rather too widely.)</p>
<p>Our latest problem is that if someone is on a continuous medication we are required to fill the 90 day supply. This can be expensive (like to break it up sometimes) and if does change or you don’t need it, you are stuck with the 90 days. ie- son has asthma. Required to fill 90 days of inhalers, even if he doesn’t need them as they are PRN. </p>
<p>On the plus side, we can now fill our 90 day RX’s at the local CVS.</p>
<p>Problem with a school RX as stated by poster, I’d call the local pediatrician/physician to rewrite it or call it in, then you wouldn’t have to worry about getting the RX mailed back.</p>
<p>Technically speaking, a prescriber can write a DAW for a specific generic manufacturer. You almost never see this though. </p>
<p>While there might be multiple generics of a specific drug available, almost all pharmacies will have a preferred generic. You have a preferred generic, so you can get better pricing. You’ll get a discount. The pharmacy will have to pay full retail for a non-preferred; therefore, it is more expensive.</p>