Skip to content

Pharmacy Problem Solver

You are at the counter and the seizure medicine is not there, or the price is impossible. Five things cause that, they sound identical when a pharmacist says them, and each one has a different fix. Pick what you were told and the branch draws itself, step by step.

Open the solver full screen

How to use it

  1. Choose the reason you were given: out of stock, prior authorization, cost, the plan refusing the brand, or distance.
  2. Answer the follow-up. It is usually the question that decides everything, such as whether the shortage is national or local, or how many doses are left at home.
  3. Work down the steps and tick each one off. The branch on the left fills in as you go.
  4. The card below the diagram carries the wording to use out loud and the numbers to call.

The five branches

  • Out of stock. A transfer or an independent pharmacy fixes a local gap in a day. A national shortage needs the prescriber the same day, because only they can change a strength, a form or a drug.
  • Prior authorization. Ask for a 72-hour emergency supply while the clinic files the form. Say the words "emergency supply"; a pharmacist who is not asked may not offer it.
  • Costs too much. The route depends on the coverage. On Medical Assistance a large number at the register usually means the claim ran wrong.
  • The plan will not cover the brand. Sometimes there is a generic to switch to, and sometimes there is nothing at all, which is a coverage fight rather than a substitution.
  • Too far away. Mail order, delivery, a clinic dispensary, and a cushion of pills.

The Minnesota numbers behind it

  • Commercially insured Minnesotans paid $18.48 out of pocket per antiseizure fill in 2022, against $9.30 on Medicare and $1.31 on Medical Assistance (Minnesota All Payer Claims Database public use files).
  • A month of generic clobazam costs a pharmacy about $14.84. Brand Onfi costs about $1,794.87. Generic levetiracetam is $4.43 against $594.93 for Keppra (CMS National Average Drug Acquisition Cost, 2026Q3 snapshot).
  • Six seizure medicines have no generic anywhere in the United States: Epidiolex, Fintepla, Xcopri, Nayzilam, Ztalmy and Diacomit. In Minnesota Medicaid they are 1.5 percent of antiseizure prescriptions and 32.2 percent of the spending (FDA Orange Book and CMS State Drug Utilization Data, 2025).
  • Minnesota has lost about 13 percent of its community pharmacies since 2009, and roughly one in five residents lives in an area with poor pharmacy access (CDC, Preventing Chronic Disease, 2026).

What it teaches

  • Naming the cause correctly saves days, and days matter for a person taking seizure medicine.
  • Two sentences do most of the work at a counter: ask whether the shortage is national or local, and ask for the emergency supply.
  • A price is not one problem. Public coverage, commercial coverage and no coverage each have their own route out.
  • Where a plan refuses a drug that has no generic, a cost-sharing cap does nothing, because the family is not sharing a cost. They are buying the drug.

Warning

A learning tool, not medical advice, legal advice or insurance advice. Never stop, skip, stretch or change a seizure medicine without the prescriber; stopping suddenly can cause seizures. If a seizure will not stop, call 911.

About this solver

  • One HTML file with inline SVG, no external code, so it works offline and on a phone.
  • Keyboard usable throughout, with a live region announcing each change.
  • Part of the Medication Access initiative. The printable version is the family guide "When the pharmacy can't fill your seizure medicine."