CVS Caremark Mail Service Pharmacy
Getting started
To begin filling prescriptions through CVS Caremark, head to caremark.com and create an account (or sign into the one you already have), then follow the steps listed below. Please note that filling prescriptions with CVS Caremark is NOT the same as receiving home delivery by a local CVS pharmacy.
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All CVS Caremark patients get a separate pharmacy benefit card (see below for an example) that should be carried alongside their health insurance card. If you never received yours, contact your insurance plan directly (using the number listed on the card that you do have) and request that they send you one. Without the pharmacy-specific numbers on that card (e.g., RxBIN, RxPCN, RxGRP), pharmacies outside the CVS network will NOT be able to bill your prescriptions to insurance.
Your
CVS Caremark card
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​Click on Register and select either Member ID or Personal information to create an account, or select Sign in if you already have an account (you may if you've used it previously to access your prescription claims information).
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If you selected Member ID, enter the member ID number listed on your CVS Caremark card along with your first name, last name, and date of birth.
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If you selected Personal information, enter your name, date of birth, street address, and gender (as listed with your insurance plan per your sex; this may or may not be your actual gender identity).
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Sometimes, patients unknowingly have a CVS Caremark account that was made for them automatically when they signed up with their insurance plan. If your personal details help locate an account that you don't recognize or can't login to (e.g., if the email address associated with the account is no longer accessible to you), call CVS Caremark directly using the number listed on your CVS Caremark card to get assistance with logging in.
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Once logged in, click on Profile at the top of the screen to update the settings listed below.
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Update My Profile: Here you can update your login credentials, security questions/answers, change the layout of your home page, and edit your medical profile.
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My Billing Information: Here you’ll enter details for the card(s) you’d like to use to pay for your medication(s). As with any online ordering system, I recommend using a credit card in case there is ever a fraudulent transaction (versus a debit card, which doesn’t offer the same fraud protections).
My Shipping Information: Here you’ll enter the address(es) where you’d like your prescriptions to be shipped.
Communication preferences: Here you can select what kinds of notifications you’d like to receive and how you’d like to receive them (text, email, and/or phone).
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Under Current paperless selections, select whether you’d like to receive required communications by mail or “paperless” via email.
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Under Alert settings, select what types of notifications you’d like to receive by call, text, and/or email.
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Under Drug name display, select whether you’d like to show abbreviated or full drug names in your notifications (if you don't have a preference, I recommend selecting "Show full drug name" for clarity's sake).
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Under My contact information, update your phone number and email address.
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​Based on my experience thus far, CVS Caremark sends the following types of notifications via email, if you have email notifications turned on (as someone who doesn't have experience using them, I can't speak to the nature of their text notifications).
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New prescription ready for refill | NO (rather, you'll receive a notification that an order is already processing for you)
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Refill reminders | YES
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Prescription out of refills or expiring soon | NO
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Order placed | YES
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Refill too soon | YES
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Pharmacy hasn't heard back from your provider (e.g., about a new prescription or information they need before filling your prescription) | YES
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Order processing | YES
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Order shipped | YES
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Shipment out for delivery | NO
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​Shipment delivered | NO
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Secure message (that you sent them) received | NO
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Response to secure message available | NO
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Prior Authorization (PA) decisions | YES
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Payment method expiring soon | UNSURE
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Now that your mail order account is set up, contact your healthcare provider(s) to request that they send a new prescription order directly to the CVS Caremark mail order pharmacy.
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If you take multiple medications that are prescribed by more than one provider, you’ll need to reach out to each of them separately. If they ask why your prescription(s) can’t be transferred from your current pharmacy, inform them that traditional mail order services aren't willing to contact other pharmacies for prescription transfers (many clinics are not aware of this). If they ask, you can provide them with the following prescribing information:
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ePrescribe: CVS Caremark Mail Service Pharmacy
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​ePrescribe question line: (877) 864-7744 (TTY: 711)
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Prescriptions can also be faxed using their mail service prescription fax form to (800) 378-0323 (TTY: 711)
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​Click here to access the mail service prescription fax form (under Mail Service Numbers and Information)
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Address: One Great Valley Blvd, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18706
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​NCPDP ID: 0322038
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Many clinics aren't aware of what this number is (a type of provider ID specific to pharmacies), yet most mail order services list it in their contact information. If the clinic doesn't ask for it, I don't offer it, unless they're having trouble locating the pharmacy in their ePrescribe software.
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I recommend that you request they send a 90-day / 3-month supply prescription, unless there is a reason that you’d like a lower quantity filled each time you order. Filling 3 months’ worth is appropriate for many medications and usually more convenient (of note, many independent pharmacies will only fill monthly supplies of expensive brand name medications because they lose even more money when filling larger quantities of these kinds of drugs). Additionally, it's often the most cost-effective option when filling with a mail order pharmacy (sometimes, they will even offer patients a free copay, giving you 3 months of medication for the price of 2 months’ worth).
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Certain medications used on a weekly basis, such as injectables like Ozempic and Praluent, are often prescribed in a days’ supply that is divisible by 7 (e.g., an 84-day supply instead of a 90-day supply for 3 months of medication).
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If your provider sends a prescription for the wrong days' supply (e.g., 30 days instead of 90 days), you'll likely need to have them re-send a corrected prescription. Unfortunately, traditional mail order pharmacies aren't usually willing to adjust the days' supply from how the prescription is written, even if it's possible and medically appropriate.
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Once your provider sends a new prescription and that prescription has been received by CVS Caremark, the mail order pharmacy will begin processing your refill (or first fill, if this is a new medication for you) immediately without asking for your consent. For this reason, it's best to be on the lookout for notifications from them or to login to your account daily so that you can ensure they end up processing an order for the correct medication, dose, and days' supply.
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New prescriptions won't display information like the prescriber, number of refills, quantity, and days' supply of a prescription until after your first order is shipped. To ensure your provider sent a prescription for the correct dose and days' supply, I recommend confirming this information by sending a secure message in your account (click on Message Center toward the top right hand corner of the page).
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If it's too soon to refill your medication, CVS Caremark will let you know the earliest date when it can be billed to your insurance plan. In my experience, this has always been communicated via email, if you have these notifications turned on (admittedly, I've never received text notifications from CVS Caremark on behalf of my patients, so they may communicate this via that method as well).
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Your active prescription(s) will be listed at the top of your medication list, found under Prescriptions → View/Refill All Prescriptions. If a medication is in this list but displays Refill Options in the right hand box, there is no active prescription for that medication; rather, this is simply a placeholder for a medication you’ve billed to insurance within a prescribed period of time, and is a marketing strategy for encouraging you to move additional prescriptions to mail order.
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Technically, you can move any medication under View/Refill All Prescriptions to CVS Caremark mail order by clicking on Refill Options → Transfer to 90-day mail, which will prompt them to reach out to your provider(s) on your behalf, but I’ve found that it’s best to contact your provider(s) personally and make the request yourself; they make take longer to respond to a request from CVS Caremark than one from you (especially if they've never sent prescriptions to them for you before), and sometimes clinics will not send an order to a new pharmacy without getting the patient’s verbal consent first (something, I've found, that doesn’t always get communicated to the patient, causing further delay).
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Refills
For future refills, you’ll place your order by finding the medication(s) you want to refill under Prescriptions → View/Refill All Prescriptions, selecting the medication(s) you want to refill, and then clicking on the purple Refill selected button.
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Moving forward, I recommend submitting refill requests 2 weeks before you're going to run out of medication (3 weeks if your prescription is out of refills or expired). This will give CVS Caremark plenty of time to bill your insurance and resolve any issues before shipping your medication to you. Don’t worry about submitting a refill request too early—if it’s too soon to fill per your insurance, CVS Caremark will notify you and set your order to begin processing as soon as your insurance allows.
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If your medication has a Prior Authorization (PA), it's helpful to note the PA's expiration date, since the PA expiring can also serve as a time-consuming hoop to jump through prior to the pharmacy being able to refill your medication. If you don't know the expiration date, you can confirm this by sending a secure message in your account or by calling your insurance plan directly using the number listed on your insurance or pharmacy benefit card.
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When you need a refill of a prescription that is now out of refills, you may not be able to add the prescription to your cart and check out like usual (it seems to depend on the plan); in that case, I'd recommend contacting your clinic directly to ask that they send a new prescription because the old one was out of refills (retail pharmacies would usually do this themselves, so if the clinic's confused you can explain that it's just easier this way for CVS Caremark specifically). Calling them can be an arduous process, so I avoid it when I can (partly because it's almost always easier to reach/communicate with a clinic, despite this sometimes being difficult these days), and requesting a refill via secure message in this situation is, in my opinion, a waste of time, as they ask you to confirm a bunch of information they technically already have and it can lead to a lot of back and forth that could ultimately delay your order. See the Tips section below for more info on using the Message Center in your account.
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I DO NOT recommend placing any prescription on autofill (i.e., it being filled regularly and automatically without your consent). Once medications are shipped to a patient from a mail order pharmacy, they are non-returnable and non-refundable, with few exceptions (the only situation I've encountered where a return was accepted was when the mail order pharmacy made a mistake). To avoid receiving medication that you don’t need, use tools like calendar reminders to keep track of when it’s time to order your next refill. Yes, it's tedious, but it will save you from receiving medication you don't need and/or can't afford.​
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Per Medicare law, patients with Medicare insurance are not allowed to autofill medications, as it can lead to a wasteful accumulation of medication that patients don't need, but Medicare still paid for. In my experience, most mail order pharmacies still display this as an option in Medicare patients' accounts, and this is true for CVS Caremark; to confirm whether this setting is actually usable, you'll have to reach out to them directly (since I don't autofill my patients' medications, I'm unfamiliar with what happens when you try to turn this setting on for a Medicare patient).
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Tips for working with CVS Caremark
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In my opinion, CVS Caremark’s website can be confusing because of the way they display information about your prescriptions. If you have any questions about your medications, order status, etc., I recommend calling them directly via the number listed on your CVS Caremark card (if it's urgent) or sending them a secure message in your account (if it's not urgent). ​
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Their website commonly experiences technical glitches. In my experience, this has included a blank screen or error message upon logging into your account and not being able to register a preferred device, even when you check the applicable box upon sign in. If refreshing the page, clearing your browser cache and cookies, or using an incognito window doesn't fix the issue, I usually just plan to try again later (if it's not urgent) or use their smartphone app (if it's urgent).
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Their messaging center can come in handy in certain situations (calling them can be an arduous process for several reasons), but be aware that it is a very poorly designed tool. Operators clearly use canned responses to answer the majority of questions, which oftentimes doesn't provide a helpful or even on-topic response. The layout of the messages due to the use of these canned responses often leaves a lot of negative space amidst the small type that even I have a hard time reading and messages, also, aren't grouped into a easily definable thread like in traditional email, so it's a bit difficult to reference your previous message(s) to them. For this reason, with this mail order service I try my hardest to problem solve using only my notes, a patient's account, and calling the clinic (if applicable); then, if needed, I'll send CVS Caremark a secure message OR call them, based on the urgency of the situation. Also, as mentioned above, messaging is NOT a good way to request a new prescription for one that is out of refills, as they will simply ask you to confirm a bunch of information that they should already have; in this situation, I think it's most efficient to just contact your clinic yourself and ask that they send a new prescription because the old one was out of refills.
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Logging into your account usually requires two-step verification (receiving a security code via text or email that you'll have to enter before being granted access). Although they provide the option for their website to trust your browser so that you wouldn't have to do this each time, I've never successfully been able to get this feature to work despite extensive troubleshooting. If you're managing the mail order needs of someone else (e.g., an elderly parent), I recommend setting the notification email as your own and the cell phone number as theirs/the person you share this responsibility with (or vice-versa) so that you can both access the account when needed without having to contact one another for a code (this has worked well for me when managing the mail order needs of patients whose loved ones use their CVS account occasionally to access claims information).
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CVS Caremark's website doesn't offer a "caregiver" setting or place to upload a form naming an authorized representative (i.e., someone you're ok with contacting CVS Caremark on your behalf). If you want someone else to be able to manage your mail order needs, (I've been told that) you'll instead have to call them to verbally request that they send you their version of a release of information form, which you'll then mail back to them. Because this process is so arduous, I've admittedly never completed it myself (because I'm always able to verify patients' details and prove that I'm a Registered Nurse, they usually let me get away with speaking to them without one; the few times they haven't, I've hung up and called them back to speak with a different operator, or have found another way to troubleshoot the situation).​​​​
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You can make changes to an order up to 1 day before the order is scheduled to process (usually, orders are scheduled when you requested a refill or CVS Caremark received a new prescription for you, but it was too early for the medication to be billed to your insurance).​ Prescriptions normally ship 2 - 3 days after processing, and CVS Caremark quotes a standard 7 - 10 business days for free shipping.
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CVS Caremark offers several speeds at which your prescriptions to be delivered. Standard shipping is free (including for medications with specific shipping guidelines set by the manufacturer, such as refrigerated items that must be shipped next-day), but shipping may be expedited on any prescription order, per your request. However, keep in mind that shipments only move on the “business days” of Monday through Friday (sometimes Saturday) and upgrading your delivery method does NOT speed up the processing of your prescription orders while they're still moving through the CVS Caremark mail order facility.​
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