We live in an amazing time. In today’s world, you can have almost anything delivered right to your front door. Pizza, flowers, shoes, a new outfit, a new phone, furniture, diapers, even your entire grocery list. Everything is becoming more and more convenient. What about your medications? Have you ever thought about having medicine delivered to your home from a mail order pharmacy?

A mail order pharmacy is a pharmacy that will deliver your medicines through the mail directly to your home instead of requiring you to pick them up at a brick and mortar pharmacy. Mail order pharmacies work best for maintenance medicines – medicines you take long-term. There are a couple of benefits to using mail order. The first is convenience. You can coordinate a delivery date that works with your schedule. A second benefit to mail order is that it often times helps with cost. Many insurance plans will offer discounted co-pays if you use their mail order facility.

Of course there are a couple of things to think about. Mail order works best if you plan ahead. It is recommended to order your prescriptions about three weeks in advance to allow for your order to be processed and delivered on time. If you take a medicine that has special handling requirements – like insulin – make sure you ask about special shipping precautions so that your insulin stays within the recommended temperature during shipping. Not all medicines are appropriate for mail order, so it’s still recommended to have a local pharmacy that you use for non-routine medicines. Make sure this pharmacy has your mail order medicines on file so they can check for drug interactions.

How do you get started? The first thing to do is compare costs. Compare the cost at your local pharmacy and compare the cost of mail order. To be honest, mail order can be less expensive for many medications, but it may not be the least expensive in all cases. You also need to find out what mail order pharmacy you need to use. Most insurances have a preferred mail order pharmacy. If you are interested, contact your prescription provider to find out which mail order pharmacy you need to use. Getting started is usually as simple as calling the pharmacy to set up an account and having your healthcare provider call or fax a 90-day prescription to that pharmacy.

Some folks are required to use mail order for their maintenance medicines. For those who have a choice, mail order can be a great option if you are looking to save costs or looking for convenience.

BCBSKS members – learn more about our mail order pharmacy by visiting our website.