When your doctor tells you that you should take medication, the doctor will tell you to go to a pharmacy to pick it up.
There are two ways that a pharmacy will know you have medication to pick up. Your doctor might have contacted the pharmacy and told them your medication needs, or your doctor will have given you a piece of paper with your medication needs written on it for you to give to the pharmacy when you get there. This is called a prescription.
There are many different pharmacies, and although each one can look different, they will all ask you the same questions.
When you arrive they will ask you:
- When is your date of birth?
- What is your last name?
- What is your health insurance number?
- And sometimes they will ask you
- what is your address and phone number.?
The date of birth you tell the pharmacist needs to be the same date you have given your doctor and needs to be the date of birth of the person who will be taking the medication. So if the medication is for your daughter, it needs to be your daughter’s date of birth and her name.
It is likely that you will have a card which has all your health insurance information on it. You can show the pharmacy the insurance card. Each person in your family has a different insurance card. Make sure you give the pharmacy the right card.
It is important the pharmacy has your working phone number in case the pharmacy needs to phone you with a question or tell you when your medication is ready.
Often you will have to pay some money, which is called a co-pay, when you pick up your medication. The amount of money will depend on which health insurance you have. There are no co-pays for children who have medicaid or pregnant women who have medicaid.
Some medications will not be paid for by insurance and they can be expensive. You can often get a discount on these medications by asking your pharmacy when they give you your bill.
When you are given your medication, the pharmacist will ask you a few more questions
They will ask you:
- To say your name again
- Your date of birth
They will then ask you to sign your name on a screen called a keypad saying that you are picking up the medication. If you don’t know how to write your full name, you can make a mark on the pad.
Some medications go together ok and some don’t work well together, so you should always make sure that your doctor knows every medication you are taking to make sure that all the medications will be helpful. The pharmacy can also help you with this, but because interpreters are rarely available please check with your doctor.