At your scheduled office visit, your provider will discuss appropriate monitoring intervals for your medications and will make sure you have enough refills until the next planned office visit.
Typically, the original prescription includes a one-month supply of the medication. All medications should be taken as prescribed. If a patient takes medication in excess of what is prescribed and runs out of the medication early (prior to refill date), the refill will not be authorized early.
For maintenance medications used to treat chronic conditions (such as hypertension, diabetes, hypothyroidism, high cholesterol, etc.), follow-up is required every 6 months unless directed differently by the doctor, to allow for continued safe usage of these medications.
In general, if a patient is already being treated by a pain management physician, all medications will need to be managed by the patient’s existing pain management specialist and not by their Atrium provider.
Controlled medications will require an office visit every 3 months. In between these office visits, the patient may make a monthly refill request over the phone or patient portal. Any change in the nature, dosage and/or frequency of the controlled medication will require an office visit. Chronic pain medications will require follow up visits to the pain management team for ongoing assessment.
When your pharmacy shows: “No refills remain” or “Contact your physician for a refill,” these should serve as a reminder that you need to come in and be seen.
Medication refill requests will be denied if requested prior to the expiration date of the original amount of the medication. If a patient is going on a vacation, business trip, etc., then an early renewal of the prescription depending on the medication may be authorized on a patient-by-patient basis.
In general, we cannot honor medication renewal requests from any patient who has not been examined within the preceding 90 days without advance written authorization from the doctor.
Telephone calls for medication refill placed during business hours, Mondays thru Friday may not be followed-up until the next business day. Therefore, the patient needs to constantly monitor the amount of medications they have left and not wait until they are out of medication before calling for refills.
If a decision is made to deny a patient’s request for a telephone refill or patient portal refill, the patient will be notified as soon as possible. In case of denial, the patient will be given 1-2 weeks supply until their next scheduled appointment, as directed by the physician.
