Prescription refills pre trip

Our insurance will only give 30 days at a time and you have to wait until day 23 of that refill to get a next 30 days. So what I learned I have to do for my insurance is apply for a travel exemption with the pharmacy to insurance company to request 30 days in advance. I was told I had to provide travel dates and airline tickets and such, if the first request did not go through, I never had to do the second step.

My pharmacy has been outstanding in taking care of this. The pharmacist works directly with the doctor’s office to secure adjustments.

It gets more complicated if any of the scrips are controlled substances. Some of the refill regs are controlled by the state you live in. And subject to the whim of the state legislature.

most of our prescriptions are delivered by mail through the insurance companies pharmacy connection and comes in 90 day supply at a time.

I wouldn't assume a pharmacy in a foreign country would accept a foreign prescription, from a doctor not licensed in their country. You would have to go to a local doctor first. And I wouldn't assume that the same medications, are all available in other countries without checking first.

I understand the insurance companies' need to set rules about Rx refills but... I learned a lesson while assisting my elderly mother with her health issues... she had caved in to her insurance company's incessant messages to sign up for automatic refills and home deliveries of her prescriptions and to use their pharmacy service instead of her local CVS where the pharmacist knew her for years. Some prescriptions were changed to 90-day supply when they were switched to the new pharmacy service. She came home from a visit to her doctor during which he had changed her dose by half. Her Rx delivery had just arrived the day before. So for 180 days we cut her pills in half... often causing them to crumble and leave some dust. My 92-year old mother was concerned, as was I. She passed in 2015. I refuse to sign up for home delivery and I request to keep refills to 30-day supply. This has not yet caused me issues when traveling outside the US as I've so far had the needed supply for the time spent overseas.
I think it depends on your doctor, the insurance company, and the pharmacy. I will be checking back to read further posts in this thread.

I have mine delivered through our online pharmacy and I get a 90 day supply at a time. I have had this going for about 11 years and it has worked great, no issues.

I am going on a 3 week trip soon...

Too late to help you with this before your trip, but I found the trick is using mail order pharmacy with 3 month supplies. After a couple of years under that scheme, you can build up several additional months in supply because of the refill date, and if you always refill on the first allowable date, you can easily build it up to 6 months reserve supply over time. I know because I have done it.

The Rx you build in reserve grows even larger when you can refill a 90 day supply on, like Day 72 (or whatever it is). I have upwards of 6 month supplies on hand of all my Rx using their own system, but I have been playing this game for many years. Work the system...

Depending on the cost of the drug, you can also opt to pay out of pocket to circumvent the insurance nonsense. I also recommend doing an appeal on any denial and working up the management chain to someone who will listen.

IF you have Medicare and have a supplement providing Drug benefits, remember you can change providers in the signup period Oct thru early Dec. If you are dealing with an insurance person on the phone it's good to ask when the "Open Enrollment" period is so they know you know you can move to another company.

I get most of my prescriptions as 90-day supplies. However I have the option to not have them mailed to me, but just pick them up as usual from my pharmacy. When I was planning my recent trip to London for 10 days, I thought I might run out of one prescription so the pharmacy said they could request a 2-week “vacation extension” with my insurance company. I ended up having enough to last my vacation, so not sure if it would have been granted or not.
I think it all has to do with your insurance and pharmacy coverage and therefore it’s wise to call to confirm what can to be done.

My insurance allows a once a year "travel exemption". As long as the doctor agrees I can get my meds early. I travel a lot more than once a year, so I insist on refilling every month at the soonest available date. That way I have some buffer for when I go out of town. However, so much has changed in the last 10 years and it's very difficult as the pharmacies have to wait for exactly 30 days to refill, rather that 25 days to refill. I do believe that a pharmacy in Europe will honor a prescription from the USA, although I have never done it. I have lost my carry-on with all my medications in it and just a phone call to a local doctor in Switzerland and I was able to pick up replacements at a pharmacy in the Zurick airport within the hour. So now I'm going to get on my soap box: all these crazy rules about prescription meds do not help honest people, and they certainly don't stop other people from using drugs illegally if they want to. If there is anybody out there that can help changes the rules I hope your listening.

And just a PS, I never take my prescription bottles with me they take up too much space. I heat the label off the bottle with a hair blow drier and stick it to a zip lock and put the pills in there. I don't think Europe even uses bottles as that would not be "green" enough, I've only seen paper punch-out packaging.

If I am traveling domestically, I have my prescriptions filled at a national chain pharmacy like Walgreens. I have done this when I have been in places for a long period of time and to help avoid these headaches.

I just wish I had a good solution for international travel.

We have been on 15+ international trips over the last 2 1/2 years and I just tell my pharmacy I need 1-2 extra refills depending on how long I will be gone and they do it. Vacations are quite normal. We live in a small town, which may help, but it has never been a problem. Just ask, but don’t worry. I also carry labels or copies of my most recent refills in case I need to get them in Europe where you will find lots of “chemists.”

1. Always fill prescriptions on the first day possible so you can accumulate some extra.
2. For inexpensive generic prescriptions, just pay for it yourself. I'm surprised that your insurance company is so uncooperative. If your prescription runs out mid-trip, they only need to fill it 1 1/2 weeks early. My BlueCross has been fine with that, but none of my prescriptions are controlled substances-thyroid, blood pressure, and statin.

My experience has been the same as Jojo Rabbit’s, so I have built up quite a stock of pills between my four prescriptions. Because I order them online to be mailed I can reorder from anywhere to be delivered to my house to continue keeping my supply the same size. Someone always picks up our mail. We usually travel for a long time, including 6 - 10 weeks at a time. I always bring an extra two weeks worth of medications, just in case. That ended up being a good thing when my friend and I did a two week Christmas market trip last December and she inadvertently screwed up the medications she brought. One was something that is very dangerous to stop taking, but thankfully for her I take the exact same medication including the same dosage so I was able to give her my extra supply. None of my medications are controlled substances so that may be a different thing.

For overseas travel, I've been able to contact the pharmacy and ask for an early travel refill. They have worked with the insurance company to get the authorization to fill the rx early, and we've never had any issue with getting approval. Multiple trips, many family members, many prescriptions.

For controlled substances, they have sometimes refilled enough to get us through the trip, plus the few days extra that I always request (because you never know if you're actually going to make it back on time), not necessarily the full 90-day usual supply, which is fine with us.

We've done fine with our pharmacist submitting a vacation exemption. Another thought is to maintain a relationship with one pharmacy. We've had the same pharmacy for 25 years. Occasionally when we run across an issue whether it be travel or inability to contact a dr., our pharmacist will "loan" us meds, especially for medications that have been used for a long time.

From a health policy standpoint, it is so shortsighted of an insurance company to create issues such that people aren't taking their medication. Blood pressure medication is much cheaper than a hospital stay for a heart attack.

Cerastez,
Have you actually picked up the "extra" prescription called into your pharmacy? That shouldn't work unless you are paying cash. It doesn't matter if the doctor calls in 15 prescriptions, your insurance won't pay for more than one at a time. The vacation exemption should work. It sounds like your pharmacy didn't want to take the time to apply for that.

I also affirm the "refill as soon as you can" plan, am very brand loyal to walgreens so that I can get refills anywhere domestically. It seems like my statin/cholesterol med is the one that is frequently off sync, so I've solved that by skipping like one dose every 13 days to get it in line. I would not be so cavalier with my other scripts

vandrabrud

I did pick up the "extra" prescription and my insurance paid for it, so if your doctor is willing, it does work. I agree that my pharmacy was just not willing to do the Travel Exemption. I have since talked to a pharmacist at the same pharmacy and she said that it should have been done.

I am glad that you were able to pick up your Rx!

Someone suggested a couple years ago to start stockpiling prescriptions several months before his trip. So I set aside a 10 days of pills out of each refill. Those plus the current refill more than covers my trip.

I also have a longtime relation with the local Kroger pharmacy so don’t do mail order drugs.

I was never good at taking my meds, so I always managed to store up a surplus. Then if you travel to Europe often, on one of your trips visit a doctor and get prescriptions. Fill them in europe and you have a backup. But I cant stand those little blister packs the Europeans use......