I'm self pay and the pharmacy offered to put my prescription under my preferred name but I didn't know if my doctor would be okay with calling it in under my preferred name. It would save me awkwardness at the pharmacy if I could manage it. Anyone know if that's legal? If so I will talk to them. If not I'll just deal until I can get my name change.
My pharmacy had no problem with me using my preferred name. That said, my pharmacy is attached to the LGBT clinic, so I'm sure they're familiar with the special needs of trans patients.
The funny thing is, it's the clinic that can't seem to figure out that I want them to use my preferred name at the front desk. They're fine once I get in the back, but at every appointment, I come in and announce myself, only to find them checking the appointment list in confusion. That's when I have to lean over and tell them they probably still have it down under my legal name...grrr...everything else about the Mazzoni Center rocks, though.
Actually, I think Walgreens also has my legal name on file, but my bottles always come out Gemma. On visits to other Walgreens branches, I just give them the bottles and tell them I need a refill, so they never ask.
Oh, now that I think about it, I think my original scripts were written by the doctor as Gemma, but with my old last name, so I had to explain it to the pharmacy clerk. No problems.
Thanks for the response Gemma :) That's weird that they figure it out once you get to the back but not at the front desk. I'm my doctors first trans patient so they don't understand much. I guess maybe I'll have to see if they will only use my legal name for their files and nothing else and then have the pharmacy change it in their system
Hi Andrew,
Typically you can do preferred name unless you are receiving class one narcotics I believe. T is a class two drugs and needs written rx so you should be ok with preferred name. As long as you are cash pay and not on insurance you can usually use whatever name you want but be aware that you may run into issues if you get strong narcotic or CDS. If your pharmacy is offering it, go for it :)
I was able to get my insurance and prescriptions under my prefered name just by asking (didn't even have to tell them I was trans). (As in they completely erased my legal name).
You'd be suprised how far you can go to changing various documents over to preferred names.
Quote from: Andrew Scott on December 29, 2010, 09:55:18 PM
Thanks for the response Gemma :) That's weird that they figure it out once you get to the back but not at the front desk.
I think they may have some policy about using my legal name for anything that involves stuff they're going to get paid for. The Mazzoni Center is one of the premier LGBT clinics in the country, so I'm sure it's not unfamiliarity with the needs of trans patients, and they *do* have GEMMA written in big letters right on my file...go figure...