[syber]

The medications the doctor prescribes for me are known as schedule 4 drugs. The staff at the clinic tells me the schedule 4 drugs have to be treated just like a schedule 2 drugs under state law and they cannot call it into the pharmacy. When I questioned them further about this they admit then it is not a state law but rather a villages policy. This becomes a real problem as I am also a snow bird and when out of state they still want me to go to the office and pick up the written prescription. I have an autoimmune illness for which I need a sleeping aid. That is the prescription which the state board of medicine can be called into any pharmacy and there is no law, as the villages clinic tells me all the time, that requires the prescription I must get the prescription in person.

[Mudder]

If it's a narcotic the pharmacy requires a written prescription each renewal, it's not The Villages health system.

[Bonnevie]

It is not a narcotic if it's schedule 4. Schedule 4 meds. are like valium, ambien.

[champion6]

Originally Posted by syber

The medications the doctor prescribes for me are known as schedule 4 drugs. The staff at the clinic tells me the schedule 4 drugs have to be treated just like a schedule 2 drugs under state law and they cannot call it into the pharmacy. When I questioned them further about this they admit then it is not a state law but rather a villages policy. This becomes a real problem as I am also a snow bird and when out of state they still want me to go to the office and pick up the written prescription. I have an autoimmune illness for which I need a sleeping aid. That is the prescription which the state board of medicine can be called into any pharmacy and there is no law, as the villages clinic tells me all the time, that requires the prescription I must get the prescription in person.

Syber: (1) Why don't you call the pharmacy that you use and get more information on this. (2) Since you're a snowbird, don't you have a primary doctor "up north" who can write the Rx for you when you are there?

[villagetinker]

Also, when you call the local pharmacy, check to see if the same chain pharmacy back up North will honor the prescription.
This is a bad situation, I wish you good luck.

[Pa & Giggi]

Can you get a mail order on this med? I know that if it it Ambien for example, you can get a 90 day Rx with 1 refill through mail order. You cannot get 3 refills like normal mail order meds, but 1 refill should carry you through the season as that would be 6 mos worth of meds and could be handled through your doc back home.
Good luck.

[blueash]

Below is the Florida law regarding your particular issue. Full law is at
Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine

These are minimum requirements. It is entirely within the right of your physician to have more regulation of controlled meds and any other aspect of medical care. The staff was wrong in citing Florida law, and this is likely because they have been told "we don't do that" and assumed it was legally forbidden. However, they corrected that error and now have told you it is their office rule. You have a problem. Perhaps your doctor will ignore the practice rule and give you a six month script. Perhaps not as it may jeopardize his or her employment. So either you get another provider up north willing to co-manage your illness, or you forgo your controlled medication for a non-controlled drug those six months, or you find a different doctor here in TV area with a different rule about prescribing these meds. Simply telling the doctor at your present office that the law allows it does NOT mean they are going to do it, and may result in your being dismissed as a troublesome patient. And they can do that.


893.04 Pharmacist and practitioner.—

g) A prescription for a controlled substance listed in Schedule III, Schedule IV, or Schedule V may not be filled or refilled more than five times within a period of 6 months after the date on which the prescription was written unless the prescription is renewed by a practitioner.


(2)(a) A pharmacist may not dispense a controlled substance listed in Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV to any patient or patient’s agent without first determining, in the exercise of her or his professional judgment, that the order is valid. The pharmacist may dispense the controlled substance, in the exercise of her or his professional judgment, when the pharmacist or pharmacist’s agent has obtained satisfactory patient information from the patient or the patient’s agent.

(b) Any pharmacist who dispenses by mail a controlled substance listed in Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV is exempt from the requirement to obtain suitable identification for the prescription dispensed by mail if the pharmacist has obtained the patient’s identification through the patient’s prescription benefit plan.

(c) Any controlled substance listed in Schedule III or Schedule IV may be dispensed by a pharmacist upon an oral prescription if, before filling the prescription, the pharmacist reduces it to writing or records the prescription electronically if permitted by federal law. Such prescriptions must contain the date of the oral authorization.

[syber]

The pharmacy is the United Healthcare Mail order pharmacy which says just have your doctor call those prescriptions in. They will accept the filing of prescriptions for all schedule 4 drugs at the pharmacy. For that matter any pharmacy will accept a call from the doctor for a schedule 4 drug. I have been told that this is only a policy of the villages health system that they have decided not to call in ambian and Xanax and will treat them as if they were a narcotic under schedule 2. That even though this can be called into any pharmacy, the villages chose to have you pick up the prescription in person for these two drugs. So nothing to do at all with any law. The problem arises when up in Virginia when they say stop in and pick the prescription up. That requires air fare. So the only thing I can do to work around the villages rule is to locate a GP in the area where we are at and go through them. We recently began to snow bird to virginia.