Within the past couple months, my Facebook advertisements have been all about Pillpack. I decided to try PillPack out and share my experience. In theory, Pillpack is revolutionary. Pillpack acts as a pharmacy, pre-wrapping each dose of your medicine based on the time of day and sends you all your meds by mail. PillPack is supposed to even work with your pharmacy so you don’t have to play the middle man. It sounds great- no more forgetting if I already took a dose, no more wrestling with pharmacists and insurance companies, no more unorganised pill bottles, and no more standing in long pharmacy lines!
Unfortunately, all I found was in Pillpack was disappointment. I signed up and put all my medicines in, and then waited for PillPack to transfer the prescriptions over. PillPack got one medicine. One medicine doesn’t even begin to cover what I have been prescribed. PillPack filled just one prescription, propranolol- the one that is most important for me to take. PillPack shipped me the propranolol. In the box were 120 small packets each with one single tiny blue pill in them. Suddenly the little packs didn’t seem handy; instead they were a pain to open and not exactly environmentally friendly. Maybe with all my medicines it would be worth it, but with one? Wasteful.
One of the primary reasons I tried PillPac was because I was so sick of pharmacies. Having to deal with both PillPack and a pharmacy was actually making things more difficult for me so I emailed and cancelled PillPack. I received an email acknowledging my cancellation.However, PillPack ignored my cancellation. Instead, they shipped out my Propranolol to the wrong address. I didn’t bother changing my address after I moved with PillPack because I cancelled their services- why would I?
I went without propranolol for a good part of the weekend. Now that I tracked down where my package went, I have to drive across town to hopefully get my medicine. There is a good possibility that they have returned the package since I don’t live there. Worst of all, my regular pharmacy cannot fill my prescription (or my insurance won’t cover it) because PillPack sent out this order without my approval. PillPack did not succeed in simplifying my health care- it complicated it.
I do not recommend using PillPack. I can see how the PillPack system may work in others. Some people may have more success, such as those without a pain doctor or those whose medicine and dosage is constant. Pain doctors write new scripts when you come into the office each month. Some pain specialists do this for even non-narcotic medicines. PillPack isn’t well equipped for the kind of care that changed each month. PillPack is most helpful in people with a few medications that are not being changed, experimented with, or adjusted. If you are, like me, still trying to figure out what medicines and doses work the best- avoid PillPack.
Recently I got a script and it didn’t work. It was, I found out after going to the pharmacy and talking to them, that they changed the country from which it came from…their supplier was going to India instead. The pill dissolved in my hand and didn’t work. I asked that it be replaced by an American company or Teva and they did…and it worked. I worry about pillpack as how can you know where the pills come from? My daughter is on many and we wouldn’t know which was causing symptoms if it happened to her. I’ve HEARD 80% of our meds come from other countries. I know one online pharmacy gets them from any country they can find it. You don’t even know from where. I’m concerned. I want to be able to talk to my pharmacist. Until all of our meds come from America, I’m afraid since I had this experience.
Also some doctors will not refill scripts with a call from the pharmacy. You have to go in.
PillPack sent out this order without my approval. PillPack did not succeed in simplifying my health care- it complicated it.
Agreed, they started e mailing and calling often that I had to go to convince my doctor to reply to them over this, another doctor for that, and my pharmacy, on and on – I said you are not simplifying things you are complicating them, please cancel my account and do not send me a thing.
A month or so later I get a package, it’s from them and like you, did not have but one or two meds, 3 packages for the AM slot for 4 pills. HUH? Now I wonder if my insurance has been billed – AND if this means I will have trouble at my pharmacy next month.
What a nightmare, and when you call there is no choice to get help / operator, if you put any number in error or press 0 as a hail mary, it starts ALL over again. This is by design imo
Pillpak is bad news.