Although Zach created a list of all of the inhalers out there, it is often difficult to determine which inhalers are actually covered by a patient’s insurance plan. In addition, co-pays vary greatly. This is a significant barrier to writing prescriptions “on the fly”, as you are seeing the patient in clinic.
In Epic you can now write an order ‘Ref to Hosp-Based Ambulatory Pharmacist’ (shorthand can type REFER HOSP) which will allow Amber to work on this issue. Please note that based on the time of year, it can take up to 2 weeks to get things situated. They try their best to resolve it in 1-2 days, but if you can communicate to patients that we need time to fix the problem that helps with expectations.
Determining inhaler coverage
(Originally posted on: January 10, 2018