Medication Refills and Questions

Please note – you must have a future appointment scheduled with us to obtain a medication refill.  If you do not, please click here to request an appointment with Dr. Forster or contact your other provider directly.

• Routine Refills

  • Ask for a refill from your pharmacy, even if you do not have additional refills authorized right now.
  • Your pharmacy should send us a request and we will act on that request within one business day unless the request is for a refill of a controlled substance in which case we will need to have a brief conversation before I can approve a refill.

• Urgent Refills

  • If you will run out in the next day or two –
  • Request a refill from your pharmacy AND
  • Click “Online” tool below and fill in the information there.

Other Questions?

• Please use the tools below to contact us with any questions about your medications, side effects, drug interactions, insurance and prior authorization issues, etc.

	Online Form for Refill or Prior Authorization Issue  Click on the link above to request a refill if you need it urgently, or for any other refill request that cannot be handled by just contacting your pharmacy. You can also use the link to let us know that you need us to fill out a prior authorization form to get your medication covered by your insurance company.
	Online Form for Non Refill Related Medication Issue Click on the link above to submit a question about medications other than a refill request – for example a question about a medication side effect, or drug interaction.
	Phone You are welcome to call us at (415) 551-0520 and leave a voice message. Please speak clearly as your message will be transcribed and emailed to your clinician. This will usually take longer to get an answer.

A couple of thoughts – we’ve been getting more and more refill requests between sessions. It is better for you to get your medications prescribed during your session. This allows you and your clinician to address any questions or concerns either of you have, it also minimizes the risk of misunderstanding.

Pharmacies are increasingly busy and refill requests now come through on an automated schedule that makes no sense. Just today I received four refill requests for prescriptions that were filled just two days ago.

For that reason, I am now strongly encouraging all of my patients to turn off automatic refills and download and use the app for your pharmacy (Walgreens, Rite-Aid, CVS, Alto all have one) to request refills. 

For more on this subject and to understand why we might deny a refill request see this blog post.

For more about a new law in California regulating controlled substance refills and prescriptions please read this blog post.