Sunday, January 25, 2015

Get help taking your medication?

I went onto my health insurance website to check my health savings account balance and noticed that I have a new alert- "Get help taking your medication." Source of the information: personal health record.

Now I have various alerts that I don't bother to respond to- I am supposed to get my flu shot- I have, but it is through work so my health insurance doesn't know about it. I am supposed to get my vitamin D level checked. Maybe I will. I am supposed to track my weight- I do, but I don't share it with my health insurance company. How did this come up? Do they think that I am not taking my medication?

It is also pretty insulting, given that they are not paying for my provigil- and that has led to me skipping/cutting down on doses and running out occasionally because driving an hour when you are depressed to fill a prescription is not good.

Or perhaps my hospital- which self-insures- realizes that people are going to start having a lot more trouble managing their meds this year. Previously we could buy three months of meds at a time at the hospital pharmacy, this year it is only 1 month at a time. But the deductible at the hospital pharmacy is $1300 instead of $2500 at another retail pharmacy or mail order. Unfortunately the pharmacy has limited hours- it closes at 5pm, and I work off-site. So yes, I may just have a harder time taking my medication this year- because I will have a harder time getting my medication.

But really, what flagged me? And what kind of help do they want me to get? Do they think I am not taking my medication? I am very curious. But when I clicked on the link, it was unable to retrieve anything. Perhaps they have a new algorithm which says anyone who takes more than a certain number of medications needs help- or anyone who takes lithium, etc.

About once a month I am late for work and forget my morning meds. If I know I've done it- I often have a backup day's worth of meds in my purse- the problem is I sometimes don't realize I've done it until withdrawal kicks in. But now that I take all of my provigil at once, and put it all in with the morning meds, I don't think this will happen any more. And sometimes I deliberately try to lower something- but that is another matter, between me and my psychiatrist. I really don't need anyone's help taking my meds. Maybe when I'm 80.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've only been on Bupropion for a month (seems to be having some good effect along with the side effects), so I'm not yet in the habit. I haven't missed a dose yet, but there have been mornings when I have overlooked it until I'm about to walk out the door. I see the doc in two days and we'll see if it will be renewed, upped, changed, or whatever.