VA health care & Part B

Question:

I am 100%service connected. My VA doctor is 4hrs away. So I am going to take Part B. My concern is pharmacy. How long do you wait for your meds to come if it's a new prescription? What if I don't have a set VA doctor? Mine leave every six months.

 

Jim's Reply:

You and I are in the same situation. I use Part B for much of my health care and I rely on VA pharmacy for all my meds. You're in luck. The VA pharmacy service is probably the best benefit we're offered.  It works really well once you get used to the timing and your own role in keeping up. For many of us who are fortunate enough to be getting older, the VA pharmacy benefit saves thousands upon thousands of dollars...the financial bonus shouldn't be underestimated.
 

You usually have to visit your VA primary care provider to initiate any prescription. If an outside or civilian provider writes you a prescription and if it isn't urgent, you can copy that to your VA provider using "secure messaging" on the HealthEvet service and most often that provider will authorize it and it'll be mailed out to you.
 

You're required to see your VA provider once each year to remain active in the VA program. At that visit all your chronic (blood pressure, diabetes, etc.) prescriptions will be refilled for a year, usually in 30 to 90 day increments. From that point it's up to you to stay on top of it and use the medication refill services on the HealthEvet site
 

Staying ahead of your prescription refills is now up to you. I suggest that you get familiar with both the secure messaging and the refill services as each has it's quirks, depending on whether you're using a desktop, your smartphone or a pad to navigate the site. Practice and get familiar with how it works well before you need it...it can be frustrating until you do this. Don't wait until you need a medicine to reorder it, the site is often down a day or two for maintenance.
 

The trick is that as soon as you get a refill of a medicine in the mail, go to the web site and tic the box to request your next refill. Once you do that you'll learn that the pharm service will mail it to you a couple days ahead of time so you'll always have a supply in case of emergency. I try to stock up at least 30 days of everything and I keep it ready to go. I live in a region prone to hurricanes and we evacuate to avoid the storms every couple years and I like knowing I have a cushion of my prescription medications should bad things happen.
 

If you need adjustments during all this, using secure messaging to tell your provider usually gets a quick response. Even if your provider has changed your records will be there for any new provider and any problems can usually be resolved in quick email (secure) messages.
 

If you visit a civilian provider and you are prescribed a medicine that you need right now (an antibiotic for example) you can seek a local pharmacy or find another solution by following the guidelines here.
 

I'm thinking that between Part B and the VA pharmacy benefit that I'm fortunate to have access to the great majority of health care that I need at a very low out of pocket cost. This becomes more important every year.
 

Good luck!