Compounding is the process of customizing a medication to meet a patient’s (human or animal) specific needs. For example, we can flavor prescriptions to make them more palatable for both your child and your pet. Additionally, we can provide medications that are applied topically, rather than taken orally or as an injection. For selected medications, we can convert them to a sustained release type product, resulting in more uniform blood levels throughout the day. As a PCCA member, we have exclusive contacts to help us research and develop new formulas to meet your needs. Please feel free to discuss your needs with our expert staff. Often, this is not something manufactured by a drug company or available at a “regular” retail pharmacy.
Prepayment is required because all our medications are compounded specifically for an individual patient. We require payment before we compound the prescription because we cannot return them to our shelves or stock bottles for another patient to use. If you are in the pharmacy, you can pay with cash, check or credit/debit card. If we mail your prescription to you, you will need to send us a check or money order, first, or provide us with a credit/debit card and then we will make and ship your prescription.
Because our medications are compounded specifically for you, we wait until you know the price of your prescription and have paid for it before we make it. Many prescriptions can be filled the same day, although some medications require more time to compound. Also, if we have to contact your health care provider for refills or if an ingredient needs to be ordered, it could delay processing your prescription by a day or more. For these reasons, we ask that you call in refills four days in advance of when you will need them. This will ensure adequate time for the preparation of your prescription.
A compounding pharmacy requires a highly specialized, state-of-the art facility, designed to protect the staff preparing the medication, the general public and the patient. We use cutting edge equipment, mixing high grade chemicals and utilizing advanced techniques to compound and ensure the quality of the preparation. Additionally, we routinely send our compounded medications for testing to confirm that our preparations maintain potency and purity throughout their designated life. Other pharmacies do not have the time, equipment, chemicals, or education to appropriately prepare your customized medications.
Yes, by law, every compounded medication requires a prescription, even if the active ingredient is a non-prescription item.
Yes, we are able to electronically bill a number of insurances. Every plan is different so before we fill your prescription, we will ask you for your insurance information. After we input the information into our computer, we will notify you of your co-pay or the amount that you are responsible for. We will collect payment before making the prescription because it is compounded specifically for you and we may be unable to use it for anyone else. At the current time, many insurance companies are denying coverage for compounded medications. We encourage you to go to https://p3rx.org/ to gain insights on how you can approach your human resource department or insurance company to ask for coverage for your medications. We are able to supply you with a claim form for a compounded medication that you can manually submit to your insurance company. They may be able to reimburse you for part, or all, of the medication you purchased.
In addition to traditional written prescriptions, your health care provider can call, fax or e-prescribe your prescription to the pharmacy. We can then ship your medication or you can drop by and pick it up.