P?A's for meds now that were in a new year

[911]

i just wanted to warn people that where we are in a new year that some meds we take may now requir P/A'S where they didnt last year , i ran into this problem already once this year with one of my meds ,,,,,,,,,,, Dave ,,,,,,,,,,,, aka,,,,,,,,,,,911

[Pharmacist.steve]

You can just about count on increasing number of drugs requiring PA's.. especially starting new drugs... especially expensive brand name drugs. Many treatment protocols require "step therapy".. basically this is trying and failing the least expensive drug to treat the condition.. and moving up the drug price scale until they find one that works.

The higher the daily cost of a med .. the more likely a PA will be required..

[911]

THANKS steve i was hoping you would say something ,,,,,,,,, dave

[Mark N]

I agree with Steve that this is becoming more common and we will see more of it in the future.

[Diandra]

Hi,
What is a P/A?
Diandra

[suede]

Thanks Diandra, I was wondering the same thing, Duh !

[spoiledbeth]

A PA is a prior authorization, usually it means the doctor's office has to send in a ton of paperwork in order for the med to be covered. It's a pain, but most of the time it's possible to get them covered.

Beth in MO *butterfly2

[suede]

Beth,
Thanks, all I could think of was, "physicians assistant" and that didn't make sense.

Linda

[911]

sorry i wasnt clear , my fault i just wanted to see this mentioned because i ran into it and it took a lil while to get it so i wanted others to avoid a wait on there meds when we get them right to the day we cant wait for a p/a to go thru and run out of our meds ,,,,,,,,, Dave,,,,,,,,,,,,,aka,,,,,,,,,,,,,,911

[suede]

Dave,
I really appreciate the info. it was good of you to bring the subject up. my PCP won't even let me pick up my scripts til the day before they are due, so I need to ck. out before hand so I'll know.
Thanks again so much,
Linda