Seeking Drugs. Online. Have Perscriptions, Health Insurance.

February 23, 2008 7:25 AM

Hello fellow takers of any kind of medication. Can recommend a good online pharmacy for someone with health insurance and no "red flag" meds such as painkillers? The AskMe archives don't seem to yield very much.

My local chain pharmacy has officially dirven me over the edge. I Am Mad As Hell and Not Going To Take It Anymore, so rather than taking a risk with another chain pharmacy staffed by personnel who either really hate their jobs or are chronically stoned, I thought I'd just switch to online ordering.

All of the medications I take are generics, so they will hopefully be on the inventory list of any good online operation.

I've heard some pretty nasty stories about how online pharmacies deal with such things as sending the wrong medication, substituting for non-formulary drugs, etc. so I'd love to hear about positive experiences and recommendations.

Thank you!

posted by foxy_hedgehog to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I haven't had any problems with drugstore.com.

Also, many insurance plans have mail-order prescription plans, where you can get a three-month supply of maintenance medications and only pay one co-pay. Look through your paperwork or talk to your benefits manager to see if you have that option. My Excellus Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan does that through Health Direct pharmacy services. I mail the prescription to start, but then can do refills orders online.
posted by saffry at 7:37 AM on February 23, 2008

If I understand your question correctly, Medco might be what you're looking for. my parents use it and I don't remember hearing anything (for better or worse) about it . My mom gets some meds from there instead of the local pharmacies because it's cheaper and their insurance co encourages them to go the online route. I think it also takes about 2-3 days to receive them after she orders for refills. Also, they're delivered USPS and left in the mailbox with the other mail, but there hasn't been any problems of drugs being stolen from them.
posted by fizzix at 7:38 AM on February 23, 2008

Another satisfied drugstore.com customer here. Do check your insurer's mailorder pharmacy arrangements though; I stopped using drugstore.com because our insurer's pharmacy provides three months of meds for the cost of two.
posted by anadem at 8:51 AM on February 23, 2008

I used to get my Rx's through Merck/Medco via mail order (my Blue Cross plan at that time offered a lower co-pay if I purchased a three-month supply at a time through M/M). For the most part, they were OK, but there were probably about four times over three years that they "lost" my order (I had to phone it into an electronic system, and on two occasions when tracking down my errant Rx's I was told my order had entered the system during a shift change and no one retrieved it. Oy.) On the other hand, I placed a one-time order for Vicodin, and Merck proceeded to refill it three more times without me having any refills left on my script.
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:13 AM on February 23, 2008

Check with your insurance. My BCBS (Empire) plan services all online prescriptions through Caremark. I can get steeply discounted prescriptions (3 months worth for the cost of 2 months) if I go with their folks. It's also much less of a PITA than working with a completely third party.
posted by wildeepdotorg at 10:58 AM on February 23, 2008

Medco gives good service as stated above.
posted by JimN2TAW at 11:56 AM on February 23, 2008