Family MD charging office fees for renewing RXs

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I am appalled!!! I had to call my family physician today for a prescription renewal and was advised by receptionist that the new policy for requesting MD's to renew medication is a five dollar fee for every medication that MD or NPA has to call in to pharmacy. I need to know what everyone thinks of this. It is enough that some of my medication is $70/month but now I have to pay a fee. Anyone have any thoughts on this. Thanks.:yawn:

You can spend an amazing amount of time dealing with things like refills.

Someone has to take the message, pull the chart, get those to the provider; the provider has to review the message and the chart, decide what to do, then write or authorize the script; someone has to call or fax the script, probably then call the patient- and that's if it's all pretty straightforward. If the script requires preauthorization, that's a whole 'nother issue. (I have seen literally hours being spent on one script preauthorization!)

Of course if the patient is calling the office every few minutes to see if it's been done yet, that takes up that much more time.

And, as someone else pointed out, there's a good chance that the folks wanting refills are ones who haven't done what they were supposed to do in the first place, like have labs done or make an appointment to come in.

Then there are the people who "just need an antibiotic called in" because they have whatever. And the people who just need a refill, they don't need to be seen, but when you pull the chart, haven't been seen in 3 years!

I don't know that I'd charge $5 per prescription, but $5 per call doesn't sound unreasonable. If I charged for the amount of aggravation, some people would be charged $500, not $5!

I think if you were to find out why this doctor's office instituted this policy, greed would be near the bottom of the list.

Funny, we nurses deal with people all the time who have no clue what goes on behind the scenes, so to speak; who think all we do is play on the computer and eat bon-bons.

Thank you for describing how involved and time-intensive 'just a simple refill' can really be :)

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I understand that it takes time to renew a prescription, but I don't think I would like to be charged everytime I call in a refill. I do agree with the advice to ask why this fee was instituted. However, I would think that there are other office tasks that take up phone and office time. For instance: calling insurance companies in order to get approval for referrals, and the time spent doing the paperwork. Should doctor's charge for that? What about calling a patient to let her know her lab results, or to change an appointment time? That can take up medical office phone time, too.

I thought that these tasks would be considered part of what medical front office workers are expected to do during the course of the workday. :confused: I know that doctor's may have the right to charge these fees to their patients, but I would also exercise my right to find another doctor if she started adding these fees.

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

I think there may be some misunderstanding with the situation:

My understanding was that each month this person gets charged $5 per RX to have their RX's refilled.

If, however, as I see many here understand it, they are talking about a RX that has run out of refills and requires a call to the Dr's office, I can see where the doc would want to see the pt in the office vs just refilling it. I can see where the office would charge if the pt didn't routinely come in, but just kept calling for the refills when they ran out.

Just another example of responding based on what one thinks is being said instead of what is being said.

When my former MD retired last summer and a new one took over, they did make me make an appointment to discuss my RX's with the new Dr before they'd refill them.

I think that's perfectly reasonable. But if the MD only gives me 3 mos of refills (because some insurance plans only allow 3 mos of refills) and the pharmacist has to call for a renewal, I don't think that warrants a charge or an office visit.

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Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.

I can top this:

I have to pay $90 EVERY month to see my specialist's PA, who spends a grand total of THREE minutes at her laptop (and NO time with me), in order to get ONE prescription refilled. My previous MD only charged $65 per visit (and, actually INTERACTED with me), and gave enough refills to last for three months.

This is a first class ripoff, but there's nothing I can do until I am able to obtain health insurance, which will enable me to see my orthopedist so I can get a referral to a decent specialist. :madface:

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MD already does this as policy, this fee is for your own call or the pharmacists, doesn't matter who calls. they put this form in your chart each time someone calls for refill, and then when you come in, you owe for how many forms are in your chart. I went into and they have a whole new list of charges (records, FMLA requests, etc) ie disability forms are $75 for the first form sent in, and then $50 there after. I was fuming today, questioning my MD about these charges, and he said, something about this is the way it is these days.

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I would be glad to schedule appointment cause then you don't have to pay the extra $5, however, most times they are so booked that they can't schedule you for days unless you are dying and I dont' know about you, but I work full time and dont' have the option of just taking a day off a month to go to MD. Saturdays are for emergencies only, I do have some meds that are filled for 3 months, thank the lord, but others I have that are bi-weekly, so to go to MD everyother week is out of the question.

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I can top this:

I have to pay $90 EVERY month to see my specialist's PA, who spends a grand total of THREE minutes at her laptop (and NO time with me), in order to get ONE prescription refilled. My previous MD only charged $65 per visit (and, actually INTERACTED with me), and gave enough refills to last for three months.

This is a first class ripoff, but there's nothing I can do until I am able to obtain health insurance, which will enable me to see my orthopedist so I can get a referral to a decent specialist. :madface:

I'd be making a list of questions for the PA to answer to get my $90 worth. I really would.

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Specializes in Geriatrics/Family Practice.

I have never heard of anything so stupid in my life. I'm a family practice nurse and I have a hard enough time getting patients to be compliant with there meds and appts, now we go and add a fee to refill RX's. In most of our offices the nurses do the refills. You check to see when the last refill was, last visit, labs if medications requires and so on. I would tell that doctors office where to go. I do on the other hand think all the workman's comp., handicap sticker and license paperwork should be charged for because the doctor does have to spend alot of time going through this and signing it all, but for a refill on a RX, let's get real. I'm not implying anything to the original thread person, but I would not feel guilty charging for a refill for our frequent fliers, who love narcotics, but maintenance drugs, no way. All of our pharmacy's just fax a request and we just have the dr. sign and circle allowable refills, if labs are needed we call and let the patient know, it they need a visit we also call and let them know. We do not abruptly stop someones medication and that is exactly what would happen if all drs. started charging for their time to refill a RX. If my clinic ever started that, I would be out of there, because that is a prime example of corporate greed. I would not be able to tell a patient that I need not only a copay for your visits, but now for your RX's. JMHO!!!!

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