- Have you ever had to go a day or more without your prescription medication?
- Do you know the physical discomfort and anxiousness of waiting to get the medication reordered?
- Have you spent hours on the phone with the doctor’s office, insurance company or pharmacy waiting for your ADHD medications to be filled?
How to Get Through the ADHD Medication Maze
For years I have listened as clients told me about their challenges to be diagnosed, only to have their hopes dashed when they find themselves trapped in the ADHD medication maze. What is the ADHD medication maze? It is that tangled cycle of trying to get ADHD medications refilled. Prescriptions not relayed to local pharmacies or faxes getting lost to online medication mailing systems. Suspicious looks from pharmacists when picking up medications. Refusals by insurance companies to pay for prescribed medications. The countless dead ends, backtracking, twists and turns of getting a written prescription through the process and have it filled. The ADHD medication maze is a frustrating web where so many people with ADHD find themselves stuck not knowing which way to turn and unfortunately many give up and never get a chance to experience the possible benefits of ADHD medications.
In theory, filling medication prescriptions is supposed to be easy work. In reality, it rarely goes smoothly. Let me tell you about my own recent experience with trying to get my medications filled. I know many of you will relate.
I called to make an appointment and a month later got in to see my doctor who, after a 25-minute wait and a 10-minute appointment, prescribed me my medications. As I left the clinic, I was told a 14-day short-term prescription would be called to my local pharmacy and an email/fax would be sent to Express Scripts, my mail-order pharmacy. Okey dokey.
Not so bad. Except (you saw this coming, didn’t you?) a plan is only as good as its execution.
The following day my local pharmacy auto responder called (nice feature by the way) to let me know my short-term interim  were ready to be picked up. I was pleasantly relieved and somewhat surprised it had been that uncomplicated. Easy peazy, I thought. I will pick them up on my way to the airport and just to be sure, allow 15 minutes extra.
You see where this is going, right?
I arrived at the pharmacy with plenty of time, trying to have faith and confidence in the system… after all they had confirmed my prescription was ready for pick up, right? I waited patiently in line for the two people before me to pick up their prescriptions and have a pharmacy consult… do dee do… no worries, plenty of time.
My turn. I stepped up, gave the pharmacist my name and they turned around to reach for my prescription. The pharmacist placed two bags on the counter, rang me up… my cost was under $10 dollars… Yay! Woo Hoo… happy dance. I even scolded myself for doubting all would work out.
And then…How to Get Through the ADHD Medication Maze..
Wait a minute. I had three prescriptions. “Uh hello Mr. Pharmacy Man, I’m supposed to have three medications filled today… there are only two.”
At this point I was still hopeful… wanting to trust in this “fill a pill system” and then I heard those fated words… “The doctor reordered three medications, but the XYZase is not covered by your insurance until the first of next month.”
