Adequate supply of meds is essential to hurricane preparedness
By LESTER R. DAILEY
Article published on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006  |
PINELLAS COUNTY – With Pinellas County’s “shelter in place” policy of moving residents of low-lying areas to higher ground within the county when a hurricane approaches, it is imperative that the evacuees bring enough prescription medications to last them several days.
Residents who are low on medications and planning to ride out the storm within the county should refill their prescriptions locally as soon as possible. But because customers of the giant drugstore chains can refill their prescriptions at any of the chain’s stores, people planning to leave the county should wait until they reach their destination before renewing their prescriptions.
“Evacuate to a safe location and refill your medication at a pharmacy there,” advises Carol Hively, spokeswoman for the Illinois-based Walgreens chain, the nation’s largest. “This allows you to avoid potentially long lines at your local pharmacy, and you won’t needlessly delay your evacuation … Take a waterproof bag with your current medication, even if the bottle is empty. The information on the bottle label will help the pharmacist refill your medicine once you arrive at your destination. Heat, humidity and sunlight can degrade the effectiveness of the medicine, so try to protect it from extreme weather conditions.”
Hively also advises people to keep a written record of their current prescriptions, dosage and physician contact information in their important papers file, especially if they’re taking multiple medications. She added that Walgreens patients can register at Walgreens.com to have that information printed out directly from their patient profile.
During last year’s hurricane season, some residents complained of having trouble refilling prescriptions which were a few days short of their “refill date,” but that’s something over which pharmacies have no control. Each prescription states the number of times it can be refilled and, except in the case of certain narcotics and other federally-controlled substances, private-pay patients can get those refills whenever they want. In fact, it is not uncommon for people planning extended vacations abroad to fill the original prescription and all the refills at the same time. But Medicaid and many insurance companies impose their own arbitrary intervals between refills.
“It is the insurance plan, not (the pharmacy) that determines when a patient can refill medicine under the plan,” Hively explained. “Most insurance plans that are accepted in Florida, and Florida Medicaid, allow patients to refill their medicine a couple of days early if a hurricane is approaching.”
Krista Moody, spokeswoman for the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, which disperses $2.4 billion of Medicaid prescription payments annually, confirmed that Medicaid prescription refill dates are waived during hurricane emergencies.
“It’s done by executive order,” Moody explained in a telephone interview from Tallahassee. “As soon as the governor declares a state of emergency, our agency suspends early refill audits, which means that people in the counties in the storm’s projected path can get their prescriptions refilled early.”
Because private insurance plans vary from company to company, patients covered by such plans should check in advance with their insurance carrier to determine its policy regarding early refills during hurricane watches or warnings. But new Florida residents can take comfort in the fact that virtually all pharmacies in the state have experienced hurricanes and become expert at dealing with them.
“With 688 of our 5,401 stores located in Florida, more than in any other state, Walgreens is heavily involved in hurricane preparedness,” Hively said. “When a storm approaches the state, we rush extra supplies of common prescription medications, batteries and (bottled) water to the area where it is expected to make landfall. After the storm, our goal is to reopen our stores as quickly as possible.”
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Article published on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006
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