Ordering prescription drugs

Need to fill a medication prescription?

Learn about your pharmacy options

Mail-order pharmacy 

This type of pharmacy fills maintenance drugs. These are drugs taken regularly to treat chronic conditions like arthritis, asthma, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart conditions, hypertension and others.

Depending on your plan design, a mail-order pharmacy can provide you with up to a 90-day supply of maintenance drugs, if approved by your doctor. This helps prevent monthly trips to a retail pharmacy. You may be able to save money with a 90-day supply, too. Retail pharmacies typically provide only 30-day supplies.

Learn more about Aetna's mail-order pharmacy - Aetna Rx Home Delivery 

Specialty pharmacy 

This type of pharmacy fills drugs that treat complex, chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and pulmonary arterial hypertension. These drugs are usually injected or infused, or some may be taken by mouth.

A specialty pharmacy will understand that these drugs typically carry a risk for side effects. They are also often expensive. You may find that these challenges make it difficult to stay on track with your prescribed therapy schedule.

For these reasons, it is best that you receive ongoing support from trained nurses and pharmacists while you take these drugs. A specialty pharmacy can provide you with this type of extra support.

Specialty drugs may have special shipping and handling needs. For example, they may need to stay at a cool temperature. Or they may need to be delivered within 24 hours. A specialty pharmacy will meet these requirements.

Learn more about using Aetna Specialty Pharmacy.

If you have the Aetna Specialty CareRx^SM benefit as part of your prescription drug coverage, please refer to the Aetna Specialty CareRx drug list. You may get your first fill of the drugs on this list at a retail or specialty pharmacy. To achieve best coverage, all refills must come from an in-network specialty pharmacy, like Aetna Specialty Pharmacy. You should review your plan documents for more detail about the requirements and limitations of your pharmacy benefits plan.

Retail pharmacy 

Retail pharmacies typically fill drugs for 30-day supplies, or less. As an example, you might use a retail pharmacy to fill a prescription for an acute condition. Some antibiotic prescriptions are written for a 10-day supply.

Retail pharmacies can also fill prescriptions for maintenance drugs. But, you could save time and money, depending on your prescription plan benefits, by using a mail-order pharmacy.

Learn more about Aetna’s mail-service pharmacy – Aetna Rx Home Delivery 

Note: If you go to a pharmacy not in the network, you will pay full price for the drug, and you will need to fill out and submit a claim form to request reimbursement.