As we age, our eyesight fails and our cognition may not be as sharp, and people who live alone may not have anyone to scrutinize their medications or help load their pill organizers. It has become the responsibility of the consumer to question the doctor, the insurance company, pharmacist, or manufacturer of the medication about a change. Compounding the problem, people who receive their drugs by mail may never have meaningful conversations with their pharmacist. Yet there are some steps patients can take: They can order or request pill packs or blister packs with all your morning, midday, and evening doses packaged separately. Several online pharmacies offer pill pack and blister pack services, including PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy, Accupacrx, CVS Health, and Express Scripts. Online pill identifier tools, such as those offered by Drugs.com, WebMD, and RxList, identify medications based on color, shape, and imprint. However, these resources shouldn’t take the place of a conversation with a pharmacist or doctor. Patients also can ask doctors to write “dispense as written” on prescriptions to avoid receiving generic versions, though that may raise prices. But the onus shouldn’t be on the individual patient.The FDA should issue guidance to drug manufacturers about regularizing the size and shape of generic pills. My pill’s new yellow color might be pretty. But no one should get a surprise when opening a pill bottle. Barbara Wolf lives in Birmingham, Ala., where she has spent more than four decades running nonprofit programs to benefit low-income families, and later, directing the Temple Beth-El Foundation.
