I am just wondering if anyone has filled their scripts from the US while in Canada. Are US scripts generally honored by pharmacies in Canada, or do you need some sort of additional authorization, etc.?

I can tell you that US prescriptions are not honored in Asia or Europe. I can't imagine Canada is any different.

I was under the impression that prescriptions in the US are state-specific, in that they have to be issued by a doctor licensed to practice in that state or the pharmacy won't fill them.

I had one filled in Canada while on business. The pharmacy and doctor worked it out somehow. It was for a antibiotic and only enough to hold me until I got home.

Generally you have to have a local doctor in Canada write the prescription and most hotels have a Doctor they refer. There are also walk in clinics in most cities where you don't need an appointment. There would probably be a service charge from the Doctor which perhaps could be covered by your travel insurance but otherwise it could nullify any cost saving unless you were getting some really expensive medication. I've heard of people saving 30-50% on hundreds of dollars of prescriptions. The US pharmeceuticals (sp?) are trying to get George W. to make this illegal and the way he's gone after Canadian lumber, wheat and beef over the last year he'll probably be more than happy to oblige. I seem to recall that in his campaigning George was claiming to be an ardent free trader and he was one president that was not going to get embroiled in messy foreign affairs. I guess I understood wrong!

There is a company in Florida that has franchised itself to fill US based prescriptions in Canada. The franchise has now spread to Kansas. The franchisee sends the prescriptions to a pharmacy in Canada to be filled. The pharmaceuticals are then sent back to the franchisee who forwards the filled prescription to the patient. The savings ranges anywhere from 40-60% of the prices in the US, for those that don't have a paid prescription plan.

There are many bus tours offered to the elderly in upper state NY and New England that bring these people over the border into Canada and drop them off at large pharmacies to have prescriptions filled. There hasn't been a problem thus far. I recall an article in the Boston Globe about this many months ago, along with a segment on WCVB's Chronicle. Just recently one of these franchises opened in Wichita, KS, where I now live. If you do a search at the Wichita Eagle website on "Canada and prescriptions" you should be able to pull up the article. This business just opened within the past two months and is thriving.

I don't believe that there are any issues as to where the prescriptions are issued from because they can always be traced back to the physician.

Don't know if this is the same company to which Leslie refers, but some company has been running full page ads int he Boston Globe to get scripts filled in Canada. Procedure is basically fill out a form, send it with original US prescription and some form of payment and they send medication. Not sure of details, but one large Mass city (Springfield) was doing this for their city employees and there was all sorts of outrage from pharmaceutical manufacturers.