FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Below is a list of our most frequently asked questions about Puramint.

FOR PATIENTS

Pharmaceutical compounding is the art and science of creating custom medications for patients. PURAMINT leverages cutting-edge developments in pharmacology to develop more innovative and personalized treatment solutions for patients. Pharmaceutical ingredients are mixed in personalized strengths to create a variety of convenient dosage forms, much the way pharmacists used to treat all patients before the advent of the mass-marketed pharmaceutical industry.

In addition, studies show compounded medications to generally have higher compliance rates than mass-produced options. When your doctor prescribes a compounded medication that will be custom-prepared for your specific needs, by one of our highly-specialized compounding pharmacists, you know that your doctor cares about you and treats you as a unique individual with unique treatment needs, and not as a disease.

It depends on your condition. Some conditions can be easily and effectively treated with mass-produced medications, but many more conditions can benefit from the personalized care of custom medications.

If you are not satisfied with the results from your current medication, are tired of unpleasant side effects, dislike the application method, or find the number of medications you take daily frustrating, compounded medicines may be able to offer you a better option. Discuss custom medication with your doctor to find out whether compounding is an alternative that could help you.

Yes. Compounding is widely used in all areas of the medical industry, from private practices to hospitals to nuclear medicine facilities. In fact, the FDA has stated that compounded prescriptions are both ethical and legal when they are prescribed by a licensed practitioner for a specific patient and compounded by a licensed pharmacy like PURAMINT.

PURAMINT goes even further to ensure all our final products are safe for you. We exceed national safety and quality requirements in our facilities, and we double and triple check every final preparation to ensure that every patient gets the best care possible. This dedication has allowed us to get PCAB accredited, a quality certification that only the top 1% of all pharmacies in the U.S. has achieved.

Most pharmacy chains only dispense pre-made pills and other treatments in standard doses. PURAMINT custom-makes every prescription for the individual patient. The top-grade active ingredients the same, but PURAMINT medications have personalized doses, unique application methods, and hypoallergenic inactive ingredients that may make an individual’s treatment more effective.

Every person has unique physiology, genetics, medical history, allergies, and needs. One-size-fits-all commercially available medications can’t possibly address all these needs at the same time or work equally effectively for each patient. Custom medications are formulated to specifically address your unique needs better.

Depending on your treatment, custom medications can:

  • Avoid ingredients that you are allergic to or that you prefer not to be in your medication
  • Target treatment exactly where it is needed
  • Minimize side effects
  • Reduce the number of medications needed to be taken every day
  • Increase patient compliance
  • Improve the taste of oral medications
  • Offer alternative application methods
  • Get you better faster!

Yes! In fact, custom medications for children are some of our most common preparations because we can improve the taste of medicines and make them easier to take. You won’t have to fight your child over the “yucky” medicine or struggle to teach them how to swallow a pill at a young age.

Yes. In fact, we commonly compound personalized medications for seniors. Elderly patients often have a hard time swallowing pills and suffer serious gastrointestinal side effects from oral medications. We can formulate topical alternatives that mitigate these effects. We even have been able to help some of our older patients better relieve chronic pain using unique preparations and treatment forms.

Yes! Our pharmacy specializes in compounding all kinds of treatments, including veterinary medications. If you are having a hard time getting your pet to take their medicine, we can improve the taste or offer alternative application methods to ensure your pet gets the treatment they need to feel better.

Many people can. Custom medications may be able to combine doses into a single treatment or reduce the number of oral medications. Depending on your condition and the pills you are currently taking, we may be able to help reduce your daily pill intake.

All of them! We can compound pretty much any treatment you may need into a custom formulation.

PURAMINT has better solutions than insurance. Our cash pricing is very reasonable and we do our best to keep cost down. We also can provide a compound claim form that you can submit to your insurance. 

They are usually comparable to the cost of conventional prescriptions. Compounding pharmacists have access to pure-grade quality chemicals purchased in bulk to make many custom medicines, which can dramatically lower costs and makes us competitive with most regular pharmacies.

The ultimate price of any compound will depend on many factors, including the type of ingredients, the equipment required, and the time the pharmacist spends researching and preparing your medication. You’ll know exactly how much your medicine will cost upfront, so there will never be any surprise.

Most likely. Not all doctors are prescribing compounds yet, but compounding is growing in popularity with physicians across the U.S. due to the personalized level of care it allows them to provide to their patients. If you are interested in getting a custom medication, talk to your doctor about your options or call us at PURAMINT at 646-350-0033 to find out more.

It takes about 24 hours for us to compound a new prescription and get it shipped. If you live locally you will receive a text message letting you know you can pick up your prescription. If you have opted for shipping, we will send you tracking information when your product ships. 

Yes. Most compounded medications are still made with active ingredients that require prescriptions. You can get a prescription from your doctor and PURAMINT can fill it for you—just like with any other medicine.

Every custom medication will have unique instructions. Luckily, we make it as easy as possible to use your prescription correctly. We provide a clear instruction card with every prescription, and our pharmacists are available for a video or phone call upon delivery of each new medicine. If you ever have a question about your medicine, we encourage you to call us anytime at 855-787-6468.

FOR PRESCRIBERS

When regular prescriptions are not getting the results your patient needs, compounded medications offer a more individualized approach. By creating a medication specifically for an individual patient, you can develop a treatment regimen that better addresses their unique needs and challenges. For many conditions, mass-produced formulations are lacking or they are difficult to find in the exact dosage or strength your patient needs. Custom-tailored medications expand your treatment choices and provide more possibilities with tricky patients.

In addition, studies show compounded medications to generally have higher compliance rates than mass-produced options. Patients become more compliant with your prescribed therapy and achieve the therapeutic result desired. Prescribing compounded medications for your patients lets your patient know that you are treating them as an individual and are not pigeonholing them into a “one-size-fits-all” therapy. This can strengthen your relationship with your patient and improve patient care and satisfaction.

PURAMINT independently re-certifies our technicians and tests our compounds through a 3rd party laboratory to ensure they meet and exceed potency and quality requirements on a regular basis. We also have voluntarily submitted to inspection by the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board (PCAB) and also hire 3rd party consultants to verify our processes exceed expectations. 

Theoretically, maybe, but the reality is that only dedicated compounding pharmacies have the resources and expertise to compound safely and effectively. Compounding requires specific chemicals, acquired from FDA (Food and Drug Administration) regulated and GMP (Good Manufacturing Procedures) compliant facilities. At PURAMINT, we compound in our cutting-edge, clean lab facilities, not in the back of a retail pharmacy that is open to the public. Our pharmacists even conduct extensive research on ingredients and drug therapies and regularly re-train in the latest compounding techniques to ensure the best medication is provided to your patients. Most pharmacists do not have this type of needed expertise.

Most pharmacy chains only dispense pre-made pills and other treatments in standard doses. PURAMINT custom-makes every prescription for the individual patient. The top-grade active pharmaceutical ingredients are the same, but PURAMINT medications have personalized doses, unique application methods, and hypoallergenic inactive ingredients that may make an individual’s treatment more effective.

No. Prescribing a compounded medication is pretty much like prescribing any conventional medication. We have a convenient e-scribe system that allows you to quickly upload all the information we need to prepare the medication for your patient— all without additional time spent on the phone.

There are three simple ways to prescribe a custom medication from PURAMINT:

1. Use Our Easy E-Scribe System 

At PURAMINT, we accept (and prefer to receive) prescriptions through our simple e-scribing system. You can easily fill out the fields required in the same manner that you would use your in-house EMR (Electronic Medical Records) system for any other traditional pharmaceutical.

Key EMR Data: PURAMINT

NPI: 1790380830                                  NCPDP: 3473066

There are a few things you need to make sure to include when e-scribing a compounded pharmaceutical:

  • Select one of the following in the drug field: Transdermal Cream, Transdermal Pain Base, or Compound Rx (If none of the above are listed in your EMR, please choose “Other” and specify the appropriate formulation you prefer.)
  • Copy and paste the appropriate compound in the “Message” or “Notes to the Pharmacist” field
  • Add appropriate refills and other Rx data points
  • For scheduled medications, you must include all of the following: Directions, Drug Name, Strength of Active Ingredients, Quantity of Medication, and Date Written.

2. Call us at (984) 302-3001 to sign up for our PURAMINT Proprietary Electronic Prescribing System.

This system will allow you to login directly in to our system, to select from a highly validated list of formulas to match your exact needs.

3. Call it in to Puramint at (984) 302-3001

Simply call us at (984) 302-3001 to tell us about the patient and their prescription.

If you have a question about the prescription or are unsure of what your best treatment options you have for a particular patient, we also welcome your call. Our pharmacists and compounding specialists are always available to help you find the best solution for your patient. We can do any research needed or make a recommendation based on our extensive database and in-house expertise.

4.  Fax Us the Prescription to (984) 302-3002 using one of our forms delivered by our prescriber liasons.

You can always fax us a prescription directly at (984) 302-3002. You can simply fax us the information about your patient and dosage information as we ask for in our prescription template. If you prefer to write a prescription using your regular prescription pad instead of our template, that is also fine to fax over. Just make sure to include a legibly printed name and phone number for both the prescriber and the patient on the cover for fast service.

PURAMINT can receive e-scripts via SureScripts just like any other pharmacy. PURAMINT also offers a proprietary Prescriber portal for prescribing, patient adherence tracking, and easy refill authorization. Our tech team is happy to help get you up and running to make prescribing compounds with PURAMINT as easy as possible.

Often, yes. The PURAMINT team has pharmacists with years of experience developing new treatments, all of whom are dedicated to helping you improve patient care. We are happy to work with you to find the best option for even the trickiest patients. In fact, our innovative medications have often been able to improve treatment outcomes even in cases where traditional pharmaceuticals have failed to achieve desired results.

After a new medication is prescribed, our compounding process is simple. First, we always call the patient to review the prescription being ordered, answer any questions they may have, and discuss the costs. Once the patient has given us their approval, we begin compounding the medication according to your prescription. After development and several quality-control verifications, one of our head pharmacists will do a final check on the medication and approve it for delivery or pickup. This process rarely takes more than 24 hours after patient approval.

Our e-scribe system notes when a medication has been compounded and sent out for delivery. Plus, we compound all new medications within 24 hours of patient approval, so you know that they should get prescriptions fast.

Worried about whether or not your patient is refilling their prescription? At PURAMINT, we have a robust patient compliance program that alerts us when a prescription should be refilled so we can call and remind patients who have not set up automatic refills. In addition, we can let you know when a patient seems like they may not be in compliance if you prefer to be directly involved in our patient compliance efforts.

While compounding is significantly more complex than just dispensing pre-made medicines, PURAMINT is dedicated to compounding any new medication within 24 hours. When you prescribe a medicine, your patient should have access to that treatment the next day if they are within our delivery zone.

Compounded medications offer more personalized care, which means they are often more convenient and achieve better results for patients. Problems with administration, such as not eating enough when taking a pill, can be avoided through alternative formulations, and lifestyle restrictions, such as the inability to operate cars or heavy machinery, can often be reduced. In cases where topical or non-opioid alternatives are available, side effects, such as drowsiness, constipation, diarrhea, GI bleeds, addiction, liver and kidney damage, and ER room visits, can often be reduced or eliminated.

Yes, some compounding pharmacies have received deserved negative press due to risking patient health, but these have been limited to specific pharmacies that did not live up to proper quality and safety standards. PURAMINT has been independently certified as exceeding these safety and quality requirements every day. We are PCAB accredited, and our compounded medications even go through at least four verifications before they are released to patients.  PURAMINT promises never to deliver anything but top-tier patient care. You can trust us with your patients’ health because we put safety and quality first.

PURAMINT has the expertise and pharmaceutical experience to compound for any specialty. In particular, we commonly work with the following specialties to develop innovative treatment solutions: