University
Health Services
Pharmacy FAQ's
Who
may use the UHS Pharmacy?
Current students and their immediate dependents, faculty and staff
of the university and their immediate dependents are eligible
to use the pharmacy. Students may use the pharmacy for one year
after the last enrollment (i.e. if you graduate in April of 2004,
you may continue purchasing your prescriptions from the UHS Pharmacy
through April of 2005).
Insurance:
The pharmacy accepts most prescription insurance plans. We add
new plans when needed to serve the EMU community. Because of the
way that insurers do business, we may not be able to tell you
if we can accept your specific insurance without actually processing
a claim. You will be given the option to go to another pharmacy
if we are not a provider for your insurance plan.
Some of the plans we are currently approved for are:
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan and Community Blue.
• Medco Health (formerly Paid Prescriptions)
• Caremark (including AdvancePCS)
• MedImpact – includes BlueCare Network
• MYMichigan – most Medicaid plans
• ExpressScripts
If you don’t recognize your plan, please bring your insurance
card to the pharmacy and we will try to find out if we are an
approved provider (we may not be able to provide this information
over the phone because some companies don’t provide the
prescription claims information on the card; we may have to make
several phone calls to track down the actual prescription claims
processor). Most insurance companies don’t process their
own insurance claims. Frequently, we find that one of the above
companies or one of the smaller claims processors we do business
with is responsible for prescription coverage.
Methods
of Payment:
Cash, check, or credit cards (Visa, Master Card or Discover Card)
are accepted. Students may charge their pharmacy purchases to
their University Account, if they are currently registered. Faculty/Staff
may use payroll deduction to pay for their purchases (payroll
deduction forms must be signed by the employee – no other
signature is accepted by the payroll department).
Confidentiality:
Prescription information, like your other medical information,
is confidential and will not be provided to your parents, spouse
significant-other or anyone else without your written permission,
except as allowed by law.
For this reason, we will not accept a request to refill or pick
up a prescription by a third party. If you want someone else to
pick up your prescription for you, you must call us to request
the refill and provide the name of the person that will be picking
it up.
Processing a prescription insurance claim provides information
to the third party (insurer) necessary to process your claim.
The third party may communicate some of this information to the
insured party as part of their claims communication. For example,
if you are covered under your parent’s insurance policy,
the names of the medications you receive that are processed through
the insurance company may be listed on a statement sent to your
parents. This is allowed because it is part of the insurance policy
provisions.
Out-of-State
Prescriptions:
Most out-of-state prescriptions can be filled at the Health Service
Pharmacy. Please consult the pharmacy staff regarding specific
medications.
Moving
Prescriptions to (or from) the Health Service Pharmacy:
Refills remaining on a prescription at another pharmacy that you
would like to obtain at the Health Service Pharmacy can be transferred.
The easiest method is to bring the container with the label or
the receipt from the last fill at the other pharmacy to the Health
Service Pharmacy. We will call the other pharmacy and transfer
the remaining refills, unless prohibited by law. You can call
in your request to transfer a prescription but the process may
take longer without the label information from the original pharmacy.
If a long distance call is required to transfer the prescription
information, a nominal charge is added to the transferred prescription
charge the first time it is filled.
Transferring a prescription to another pharmacy from the Health
Service Pharmacy is accomplished in the same way. Take the most
recent container or receipt to the pharmacy you would like to
have fill the remainder of the prescription and they will call
us to complete the process.
If you need to transfer only a portion of the refills left on
your prescription, because you are out of town and forgot your
medication, we can help you do this without having to transfer
the medication back when you return to campus. In this case, please
call the Health Center Pharmacy before contacting the pharmacy
that will be transferring the refill. Tell the pharmacist on duty
your name, the prescription number or name of the medication and
how much medication (a full refill, partial fill, 2 out of 5 refills,
etc.) that you want transferred to the calling pharmacy so we
can make sure that the entire prescription isn’t transferred.
Phone
Ahead for Refills:
We know your time is valuable and hope to make your wait in the
pharmacy as short as possible. By calling ahead when you need
prescription(s) refilled, we will be able to have the prescription(s)
ready for you. We recommend that you call in one (1) or two (2)
days before you will be in to pickup your medication(s), especially
if a special order item is among them. We will try to process
prescriptions called in for same day pickup; allow at least two
(2) to three (3) hours before picking up your medication.
Having
Someone Else Pickup Your Prescriptions:
When you call to have your prescription(s) refilled, be sure to
tell us that someone else will be picking them up. At that time
we will ask for the person’s name. They will need to provide
identification, such as a drivers license or EMU ID, if they are
also part of the university community. We will not give your prescription(s)
to someone that just stops in and says they are picking up your
medications – this would violate the confidentiality of
your prescription information. However, by telling us this information
when you order the refills, we then have your permission to let
someone else pickup your medication(s).
