I try to continuously be on the look out for helpful products for our seniors and our families and I recently found one that I really like. It is called PillPack.
As the name implies, they package medications into individual dose packages. All the pills for the morning are in the AM punch pack, noon pills in another and the PM pills in another. The packages include both prescription medications and OTC vitamins, etc that you might be taking. Medication errors are the number one factor influencing hospital readmission and accidents in seniors. What an incredibly helpful way to dispense medications!
How it works:
Automatic refills - they contact the doctor and manage the prescription
Coordinate care - your doctor sends new prescriptions directly to them
There is no additional cost to you beyond your normal copay
PillPack takes Medicare and most insurance plans. Unfortunately, my insurance company Blue Care Network is not set up to work with them yet. I called to check and my health carrier has an exclusive contract with Express Scripts. I asked that they pass along my request to use PillPack and hopefully new options will eventually be open. If this seems like a good tool for you or your receiver, you might call and see if your health carrier will work with PIllPack. Even if they don't now, with enough requests new options should be added.
For more information, www.pillpack.com or recent USA Today article.