Who Can Do It?

Buying prescriptions online makes the most sense for people who need a continuing supply of meds for ongoing conditions, notes Kristina Lunner, senior director of government affairs for the American Pharmacists Association.

While drugstore.com will send medications overnight for an additional $30 (standard shipping costs about $3 and takes four days), you’re probably best off hitting the corner pharmacist if you need a prescription filled immediately.

How It Works

Transporting a prescription to a cyberspace pharmacy can be done several ways:

1. Sign up online (or by mail or phone) and then have your doctor send or fax your prescription to the cyber-apothecary.

2. Provide the Web site with your physician’s contact information
and their employees will call her.

3. Send in your prescriptions via mail, or give permission for your current pharmacy to transfer select prescriptions.

What to Watch Out for

“The counterfeiters have gotten very good,” Lunner says of bogus operations posing as online pharmacies. As always, be cautious before surrendering your credit card number. The Internet is flooded with legitimate-looking sites that are really shakedown operations out to get your money, well-disguised portals to illegally obtained addictive drugs or foreign operations selling medications of dubious potency. Follow our Rx to make sure you get what you need:

•Check it out: Go to vipps.info to find a National Association of Boards of Pharmacy approved site. A Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site (VIPPS) seal assures you that the pharmacy is properly licensed and legitimate.

• Check again! Only 13 online pharmacies (including drugstore.com, cvs.com and drugsourceinc.com) have taken the time, paid the money and passed inspection to become VIPPS certified. At least half of these sites are prescription management businesses such as Medco Health Solutions Inc., which vend medicines for insurance plans. If a friend raves about a non-VIPPS pharmacy with fantastic prices, go to nabp.info to find the contact information for your state pharmacy board. Then, check to see if the pharmacy is licensed.

• Get domestic: For maximum safety, order from a U.S.-based site that requires a doctor’s prescription and has both a phone number and pharmacists on hand to speak with you. Never buy from sites that boast of having their own doctors who will write you a script for painkillers, sleep aids or libido enhancers after you complete an “online survey.”

• Ditch the middleman: Steer clear of sites that offer “membership programs” promising to link you to low-cost online pharmacies in foreign countries or to provide you with controlled substances your doctor won’t provide.

• Compare prices: Save money by getting your meds in 90-day prescriptions. Also, get in the habit of asking your doctor if there is an over-the-counter version or generic equivalent that would do the trick.