Doc says no refills unless I come in to the office cuz it's the law???

I have a Clarinex prescription for seasonal allergies. My doctor’s office will not approve a refill until I come in to be seen.

This is Clarinex. For hay fever. Not exactly an Aderall script or a heart medication. It’s not like hay fever is a life threatening illness.

Plus, to make it worse, I have a $50 copay to see my allergist. To tell him I’m fine. Can’t tell his nurse that over the phone, apparently. Nope. Have to come in.

This morning I talked to his nurse. She says it’s the law that I have to be seen. If a doctor is prescribing medication, they have to see their patient at least once a year.

???

I told her that I have other medications that my GP refills over and over because these are also maintenance drugs. She doesn’t have a problem and has never referred to a law saying I have to see her.

Then the nurse said, “well, it’s policy.”

Wait, is it the law or is it policy?

Dopers, I turn to you. Is this really a law? Secondly, is there something else I’m missing here? Is there some other reason that I have to go in to see my doc for a Clarinex refill???

At least in NJ, the part about seeing you once a year sounds familiar. For schedule (class) II drugs, they have to see you every 30 days.

It might have something to do with their malpractice insurance. As a specialist, I think it is less likely that they would be doing it just to drum up business - especially if it’s been over a year since your last visit and they haven’t complained about it.

edit - only some class 2’s require monthly visits - like stimulants and possibly some opiates.

Your pharmacist would probably know what the law is, if you asked them.

you know, your gp can refill your allergy meds also … and avoid the high co-pay.

Nowadays I self medicate with generic Claritin, but in the old days, I used to be able to avoid seeing the prescribing allergy doc for a couple years at a stretch while constantly requesting refills of allergy medication as required. This was in California. Definitely wasn’t a once a year thing there at least.

Another possibility is to ask your GP to write the prescription instead of getting in from your allergist.

I don’t know the law in ibôápka, but here in the state of Georgia, the law is that the doctor needs to have a relationship with the patient. I’m not aware of anything that defines what the “relationship” is, I just know on the pharmacy side, the main result of that law is that technically as soon as a doctor dies, every script he’s written becomes invalid.

However, I’m used to many doctors refusing to write scripts for patients if they haven’t seen them within a year, so if it isn’t a law, it defiantly could be a requirement of their insurance, or just a really wide spread policy.

Oh, have you tried Loratadine (Claritin)? It is pretty much the exact same thing as Desloratadine (Clarinex). Clarinex is just the active metabolite of Loratadine, so basically loratadine is turned into desloratadine in the body. If you can’t get the script written, it would be cheaper to just buy OTC loratadine.

Oh, I’m definitely going to my GP if I don’t get a good resolution on this.

I tried Claritin and it didn’t seem to work well, but Clarinex works fine. I will certainly keep that option in my back pocket to try Claritin again.

And I can see where this could be a liability issue if this was a serious medical condition, or hell just birth control pills. Lord knows there are side-effects to medications, but this is hay fever and a drug that is an inch from an OTC drug. C’mon!!

This is an interesting coincidence.
I was just informed by my pharmacist that they couldn’t refill my blood pressure medication because I hadn’t been back to the doctor in a couple of years.
I live in Georgia, so what Hirka T’Bawa posted appears to be accurate.

Quite interesting, actually, because I really should have been going for an annual checkup more often and now I have to, because if I miss a dose of my BP meds I feel REALLY crappy.

So, now I have an appointment on Monday 18 Oct 2010.

I don’t know what the law is, but as a result of some court decision, my GP won’t write a prescription without a visit. Since it costs me nothing, I go, even if it sounds silly. I think the question is liability. But I see him for a blood test every six weeks in any case, so the meds I take regularly are no problem. This is in Montreal, which is certainly relevant.

When I am in the US, my DIL will write me any prescription for an ordinary drug whether I am visiting her or not. She will fax it to me if necessary. Will the pharmacist question it? Dunno, since I never tried it. But once when I was crossing the border, the border guard took it upon himself to say that all prescriptions drugs are forbidden. This was right after congress had passed a law forbidding importation of commercial quantities, but he was pretty stupid. I lied to him, denying I had any, but I had my DIL as backup. A couple of the drugs I take are pretty important.

My doctor in Massachusetts allowed refills on my birth control prescription for four years after I moved to Florida in 2005, based soley on the pharmacy’s request. It wasn’t until she closed her practice that I had to find a GP and get a new prescription.

I don’t know how much the laws have changed. I had a doctor in 1996, write me a presciption and he never saw me. I was on a new plan and I hurt my back, I came in and he had an emergency. I said, “OK,” and left. He called me at 8pm that night apologized, talked to me gave me 30 pain killers for my back and told me to come in if it still hurt after that. Which it didn’t

My current doctor refuses to fill my blood pressure meds unless I see him once a year. I’ve been on it since 1998 but I am going without now, as I can’t afford to see him.

But I had another doctor write me the Ziac prescription in 1998 and I never saw her for three years straight. She just renewed it when the pharmacy called.

This is Illinois and old, so I don’t know the law.

I take Valium for Meniere’s disease, and my doctor will renew that up to a year. Though I don’t use much. Usually he gives me five pills for the year, as the disease is largely in remission now and has been for years, but once every five years or so it’ll flair up bad.

Isn’t Clrainex OTC in Canada?

You done corn-fused me. I’m not in Canada?

I’m still pissed at my doctor who wants to see me even though I’m housebound. I don’t leave home at all. Yeah, it sucks, but it’s not like suddenly going out really helps matters. I’m still begging to try to get refills on my Celexa, so I don’t have to go through a week of panic attacks after the fact.

I really wish I lived in North Carolina, where apparently house calls are possible.

Well can you get it via the mail? I had my doctor in Chicago, call in my Albuterol to my friend in Christchurch NZ. She mails it to me and it’s still only a fourth of what it costs here in the USA since asthma inhalers are no longer generic

I suppose I could, but that is a bit much considering I have a doc right here in town who could just as easily call in a frickin’ refill for a harmless anti-histamine (that allows me to go to work and be productive when I"m there).

The system we have here is that all drugs are broken down to “acute” and “repeat”.
If a drug is on your Repeat list, you make a phone call to the receptionist when it is due, they print a new script, one of the GPs will sign it and you get your drug.

The Acute list is where we put short term drugs like antibiotics, drugs vulnerable to abuse like painkillers, dangerous drugs like warfarin or methotrexate and drugs we want to monitor how much you use like antidepressants, angina medication or inhalers.

If a drug is on your acute list and you phone up it goes onto one of the Dr’s screens. We’ll check it against your records and decide whether to:
a) issue it with a caveat, say “get BP checked before next prescription”
b) issue it
c) not issue it and leave a note for the patient to see or speak to a Dr
d) phone the patient and chat before deciding whether to issue it or not

Generally speaking it isn’t the drug that influences the choice, it is more about why it was prescribed, how sensible the person is and what else is going on.

I may decide to issue 2months worth of strong opiate painkillers to someone I know has chronic pain, but refuse weak opiates to someone else without a chat if the last time they got some was 8 months ago for a broken ankle and now they’re asking for opiates out of the blue.

Everyone with a chronic illness and multiple meds is seen annually to discuss their meds- it’s the best way to check people are taking what you are prescribing, the way it is meant to be taken. Most people who are being seen less than annually by specialists because things are stable are discharged back to GP with a care plan, for re-referral if things change.

Get the prescription from your GP-“I’ve taken it for a long time, it works and I’d like to stay on it” is probably enough for them to issue it to you.

Grazi, as they say in Ireland.

If I were you, I’d call and explain that - and ask if you could just come in and have a nurse/PA check your BP both before and after starting the meds again. Should cost less than a full physical or visit with the MD. Perhaps the doc would even accept a BP reading from your local fire station. At least around here, you can stop in and the EMT guys will check it for you.