Pharmacy | Wellness Connection

Properly Storing Your Medications

Not many people realize that the medications you keep in your bathroom or bedroom need to be properly stored. Medications that are not stored properly can be hazardous to those around you and can be dangerous for you. Improper storing of medications can also cause the medications to break down and not work properly when you take them.

To prevent your medications from turning into a dangerous household item or breaking down and not working properly, here’s a look at how you should be storing your medications.

Finding the Right Storage Area

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Most medications need to be stored in a dry environment that is kept at a cool temperature. Many medications can break down if exposed to excessive heat and moisture. Surprisingly the bathroom is not a recommended place to keep your medications due to the high humidity and moisture in the room.

Store in a Safe Container

Children and pets love to get into boxes and other places where they shouldn’t. However, if they get into your medications it could be dangerous and deadly for them. Try to store your medications in a locked box that is above the ground. This will prevent your pets and children from getting into your medications.

Follow the Expiration Dates

Expiration dates are on the bottles for a reason. Make sure you check these dates regularly and discard any medications that expired. Expired medications may not work properly and can be dangerous for you to take.

Learning how to properly store and take care of your medications will provide you and those around you with a safe living environment.

The Needs of the Pharmacy

The pharmacy is a complex place and there is a lot about it that the average person doesn’t understand. It’s easy to get made and criticize but the truth is that there is plenty that would not be criticized if people understood that there is a lot of complexities that need to be dealt with. So here are a few things that you might want to make yourself aware of.

A pharmacist can and will lose their license if they make a bad mistake with a medication. These days with companies getting sued all the time there is a big pressure on these people to make sure they operate an error free pharmacy. This is not an easy thing to do. There are plenty of people out there that are open to making mistakes. So the next time your pharmacist has a question about what the doctor wrote you have to understand that it is about more than just your prescription.

The next thing you have to make sure of is that you are aware that the insurance company can come in and audit the pharmacy. This means that if there is something that is incorrect from the prescription to the processing and sale they can take all the money they paid for it back. It’s a really big hassle and one that makes the pharmacy look really unprofessional. This is something that needs to be right from the start. If it’s not then it could be a major problem down the road. Don’t make a mistake of thinking your pharmacy is the bad guy. They are not.

The Prior Auth Issue

When you go into a pharmacy there is a certain expectation for what you get and if you are not seeing those expectations met than you are probably not getting everything you need. So here are some things to keep in mind if you are to get what you need to get right. The first thing is the dreaded trap of the prior authorization.

Many people have lots of questions when something isn’t done right away at the pharmacy. There are plenty of people who start to wonder if there is a problem with the rest of the pharmacy because the high blood pressure medication that the doctor is prescribing is needing an prior auth. This is common and it is nothing to get upset about. The truth of the matter is this. Insurance companies don’t like to pay for medication if they don’t have to. The less the medication costs the less they care. The more it costs the more they care. Here’s how this works.

Your pharmacy will call the insurance and then the doctors office and set them up with each other. They will call the insurance and talk to them. The insurance will want to know just exactly you are in need of and why you need that and not something else. It’s an important distinction and it’s one that could save the company a lot of money so they ask why that medication and why not another one.

This is all just to save them money. If the doctor says the right things to them then there is no issue. If they don’t then they will deny you your prior auth and you will have to get another drug. Welcome to the wonderful world of insurance companies.

The Trouble With Refills

Many of you have gone into your pharmacy before and have been very frustrated with the way things have gone for you. It’s understandable that you would feel upset by some of the things that have happened. The truth is that there are plenty parts of the pharmacy that are complex and so it is not easy for the rest of the country to understand how it works. So here are a little understanding of some thing that happens at a pharmacy that makes everyone pretty mad. It’s called the no more refills problem.

Many people often take the same medication and go to the pharmacy every single month and get it, but then at some point there isn’t it anymore. You have to call your doctor to get more refills. This is a problem and it’s one that can have you going home feeling very upset. So, what happens is that you are without your full supply of medication for a day or two.

The problem is that when a doctor writes a prescription, in most cases it’s only good for up to one year after the date it was written. This includes situations where the refills have exceeded the life of prescription. This happens all the time. All you need to do is remember that once that happens there is going to need to be a call placed to a doctor. This is not done to annoy you but it’s done to make sure doctors are kept abreast of your ongoing medication. So know you know.