We Live in Paradise, but …….

One of the things that makes us unique, our remote location, also makes us more vulnerable.  The storms we experienced this past November, December and January slammed this notion to the forefront of our consciousness.  Sometimes we had the “perfect storm” of circumstances that forced our hand in dealing with people’s problems.  This “storm” adds together bad weather, poor road conditions, ferry cancellations, diminished mobility of the elderly or handicapped, doctors’ offices that weren’t open due to poor weather, people “stuck” here that don’t normally get medication locally and supplies running low due to lack of deliveries making it to the islands.  You can understand why we encourage people to plan ahead in keeping an emergency supply of medications and other staples. 

Many insurers limit the frequency of refills for medication and do not allow prescription refills to be processed too early.  However, with a few exceptions, most insurers will allow a refill to be processed when 75% of your current supply is consumed.  That means if you normally obtain a month’s worth of medicine with each fill, you can refill your prescription when you have about a week’s supply remaining.  If you set that extra week’s supply aside and continue to do that every month for four months, you will accumulate an extra month’s worth of medication to keep on hand for emergencies.  At that point we recommend that you rotate the emergency supply into use and set aside the most current month’s refill for the emergency supply.  In that way you will always have fresh stock as your back up supply.  In a pinch you can always buy an extra month’s worth of medication off your insurance, but with today’s name brand medication, that can be a very costly proposition. 

When it comes to medication issues, you know that we are certainly opinionated. There is something else you need to realize about living in paradise (and I hate to be the one to burst the idyllic bubble on this one, but here goes) – we have schmucks in paradise.  This translates to medication “transferring” from the rightful owner’s possession to the schmuck’s possession.  What we’d like you to take away from this is to handle your medications carefully.  Some less than honorable individuals will see a prescription bottle sitting on your car seat, or lying in view in your open purse and take it as an invitation to share.  What they are stealing may be of no use to them, but it’s often “steal now, ask questions later” with this group.  Our patients have had medication stolen out of a car, a purse left in a cart while shopping, a medicine cabinet, a backpack, a kitchen counter, etc.  The mantra of schmucks is “seize the opportunity”, so we must be careful not to give them any opportunity.

An extension of the lesson mentioned above involves medication and travel outside of paradise.  That lesson would be: there are schmucks outside of paradise, too.  It is important to keep medication out of view while traveling as well.  You wouldn’t leave your purse on the front seat of your car when you go into a movie theatre, don’t leave your medicine bottle in view either.  Additionally when you travel on a plane, never check your medicine; always carry it with you.  This serves two purposes.  If you get separated from your luggage, your important medicine is still with you; and secondly if you have possession of your medicine you are better able to protect it from being stolen.  A lot of medicine disappears from checked luggage.  Believe me, this stuff happens.  Many times each year we have to scramble to try and get medicine for someone who has had something lost or stolen while traveling.

So now that we know we have schmucks in paradise AND schmucks outside of paradise, we need to realize one more thing – there are schmucks on the internet as well.  Keep in mind that not all internet medication sales originate in the good old USA.  Many of the sales are filled in off-shore pharmacies (and I use the term lightly) with an increased potential for counterfeit medicine.  According to an October 2006 article on CNNMoney.com, drugs from developing countries have a counterfeit rate between 25% and 50%.  An FDA News release from August 2006 warns consumers not to buy prescription drugs from a list a Canadian websites that were apparently using counterfeit drugs.  Think back to what your dad always told you, “if it sounds too good to be true……”

The good thing about living in paradise is, by and large, we really do look out for each other.  So if you see your neighbor leaving their medicine laying in plain view, remind them to be proactive and not give the schmucks a chance.