? about American prescriptions

ctgirlingermany · August 2011

I guess I've lived here so long, I can no longer help a friend who is coming to visit in a few weeks. Maybe someone here can help.

My friend is coming for 8 weeks to visit her boyfriend. She wrote to me to ask about filling prescriptions here in Germany. I guess she is taking a pretty heavy duty pain killer, which isn't as easy to fill as the pill was when I spent 4 months in Ireland.
I told her that she would have a really hard time filling here, b/c her ins. is usually not accepted here, plus, the medications usually do not have the same names, and they're just two different systems.

I did suggest that she call her ins. company at home, and tell them the story. Maybe they would allow for her to fill the prerscription for the 8 weeks if she provided some sort of travel documentation? And of course, I told her that if this works, she would need a note from the doctor, just in case she gets nabbed at customs in Europe.

Was I right? Is there any way for her to fill her prescritpion in Europe? Her boyfriend has access to Tricare, but they are not married, so she does not have access to Tricare. Poor thing, seems like a little mess.
Thanks so much!

NCV2 · August 2011

I would go to her Dr and ask for samples. My Dr gave me some when I went to Aus. Then I had to go to the Dr there after a few months.

MrsBini10 · August 2011

There are two ways to get a 2 month supply and have insurance cover it. One is to call the insurance, explain you have a long trip abroad, and request two months at once for your trip. I have done this, though never with a controlled substance. It's worth a shot. The other way, which I have also done, is for your doctor to "decide" that for this coming month you "need" double your original dose. Then you get a prescription that says take 2 pills a day or whatever, and really only take one a day. I've done this with a (controlled) med I was on while in Ethiopia.

Knitty · August 2011

I'm pretty sure that you can't get a script from a foreign country filled anywhere. It's because the doctor is not licensed in that country, so they have no prescribing rights. To practice medicine in Germany a doctor would have to sit an exam and pay fees and be licensed. You might be able to do EU to EU, but not US-EU.

FayeD · August 2011

I think you told her the right thing. It's what I told my mom before visiting us in Italy for an extended time. Of course between all her different medications and apparent inability to count along with a calender she still ended up short with one of them. I called our Tricare and local translator asking what we could possibly do. If it had been something essential, such as insulin, then we could have gone to the local ER to get a local doctor to concur the emergency and write a prescription. Since it was something not essential she would have had to go through the whole medical system to get a new diagnosis. Even then there was no guarantee that they would prescribe her the same thing.

allibally · August 2011

Knitty:
I'm pretty sure that you can't get a script from a foreign country filled anywhere. It's because the doctor is not licensed in that country, so they have no prescribing rights. To practice medicine in Germany a doctor would have to sit an exam and pay fees and be licensed. You might be able to do EU to EU, but not US-EU.

Switzerland will take US prescriptions. You have to play the victim and be really sorry about it. But as long as they have the medicine they will usually supply it.

Not sure about pain killers since they are a lot easier to be abused.

? about American prescriptions

Re: ? about American prescriptions

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