need physician but have no insurance unemployed pls help (Mesa: pharmacy, price)

[Penny Elsea]

moving from texas need to refill meds and find a physician that is cheep

[Rick Lee]

Mexico

[aiwei]

Even if you have no insurance, you could still call your previous dr in Tx and ask for a RX over the phone. He or she could call it in directly to a local pharmacy, like Walgreens or CVS, and you can fill it here in AZ. You would pay more for this RX, but at least you would have it.
Check with your city office and see if they have a RX discount program. Mesa has one. I do not think it discounts as much as private insurances, but it does not hurt to find out.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by aiwei

Even if you have no insurance, you could still call your previous dr in Tx and ask for a RX over the phone. He or she could call it in directly to a local pharmacy, like Walgreens or CVS, and you can fill it here in AZ. You would pay more for this RX, but at least you would have it.
Check with your city office and see if they have a RX discount program. Mesa has one. I do not think it discounts as much as private insurances, but it does not hurt to find out.

Unfortunately, many physicians won't do that and will require that the patient be seen in person before calling in a prescription. There is good reason for that though because you have to assess how the patient is doing on his or her current meds, draw blood etc. And we typically include refills for medications up to a certain amount of time. If those refills run out then you probably do need to be seen.

An easy solution is to go to an Urgent Care facility. You will usually pay $70-$100 cash and be seen by either a physician, a nurse practioner or a physician assistant under the observation of a physician. They will all have the ability to refill your prescription. They too might require labs be drawn if your medication requires it however but if you tell them you are uninsured and are there for a refill, they will likely write you a prescription.

Another option is to call several physician offices and tell them you are an uninsured patient and requesting if any discounts are given to patients paying cash for an office visit. Most physicians will offer a signficant discount if you are paying cash and some are known to charge as little as $55-60 for the visit. The reason for seeing the physician is many have free samples given to them by the drug companies which they distribute to their patients.

Lastly, another option is the Minute Clinic in CVS and another option in Walgreens (don't remember the name). They are operated by physician assistants. The price is comparable to Urgent Care and Physician offices so you are not really getting a deal. In fact, I recall seeing the price at a CVS for a "flu workup" was $95. I don't really recommend this option because the Physician Assistants are not really supervised. They are technically and legally supervised because the supervising physician is off-site but supposedly available by phone or within a certain distance from the clinic if there is an emergency but there is no in-house physician on-site that you see with urgent care facilities and physician offices. This isn't saying that Physician Assistants are unqualified to treat patients (they are) but most Physician Assistants will tell you it's nice to have a physician in the office if they have a quick question or concern about a treatment protocol.