The Wellness Collective

The Real Costs of a Routine Prescription Refill

Reviewed by Adam Gardner, Licensed Pharmacist & COO of TelyRx

Mariah Powers
September 23, 2025

Surprising Takeaways:

A “routine” refill can cost $240–$290 once you factor in doctor visits, lost wages, transportation, and childcare — not including the medication itself, time spent seeking your refills, or any emotional/physical stress.
Patients with quarterly refills can spend over $1,000 a year on hidden costs just to stay on a single medication.
Prior authorization time averages 3 days, with 31% of patients waiting more than a week before their medication is approved when using insurance.
Pharmacy closures and national drug shortages often force patients into repeat trips, longer travel, and added delays, with 1 in 3 pharmacies closing between 2010 and 2021.
Beyond money, refills drain patients physically and emotionally: hours wasted in pharmacy lines, the stress of running low, the strain of arranging childcare or dependent care, the fatigue of repeated trips, and constant calls to doctors requesting refills.
These burdens fall hardest on chronic illness patients, rural residents, working parents, and seniors living alone, turning “routine” care into an exhausting obstacle course.

For something that sounds simple — getting more of a medication you’ve already been taking— a routine refill can turn into anything but routine. It often unfolds like a chain reaction: you schedule an appointment, arrange transportation, take time off work, wait in a crowded pharmacy line, and sometimes make the trip twice when your prescription isn’t ready or is out of stock, adding to the delay and frustration.

By the time your medication is in your hand, you’ve spent more than money. You’ve given up hours, sometimes days, and likely experienced more stress than you expected.

It’s a lot like renovating a “small” part of your home. You start with the idea of just replacing the kitchen faucet, but once you open the cabinet, you discover a leak, realize the pipes are outdated, and end up replacing the sink and all of the plumbing.

What seemed like a quick, routine update turns into a time-consuming, expensive project.

Prescription refills can work the same way; you go in expecting one simple step, but the chain of appointments, add-on costs, delays, and inconveniences quickly piles up, especially for those who rely on their medication every day.

And unlike a frustrating home project, the stakes here are much higher; these costs can have a direct effect on your health. With all these factors in play, we asked ourselves, how much does a prescription refill really cost?

1. the direct financial costs

The easiest costs to see are the ones tied directly to your wallet: medical bills, transportation, and time away from work. But these “obvious” expenses often add up to more than patients expect, especially when no lab work or tests are required.

Doctor or Clinic Visits

Many prescriptions — even for patients who have been stable for years — require at least an annual follow-up appointment before a refill is approved. For controlled substances or medications with higher monitoring requirements, the visit may be as frequent as every three to six months.

For uninsured patients, these visits can run $75-$200 for a standard follow-up, according to Mira. For insured patients, copays typically range from $20 to $60, but high-deductible plans can mean paying the full cost until the deductible is met.

Specialists push this cost even higher. Psychiatrists for mental health medications or cardiologists for heart medications often charge more. And, with many practices operating with limited appointment slots, it’s not uncommon for patients to wait weeks or months to see the right provider, further delaying refills.

For patients in rural areas, these visits may require traveling to another city entirely. That travel comes with its own costs — both financial and time-related.

Transportation Expenses

Getting to your appointment and the pharmacy is rarely free. Using the IRS mileage rate for 2024 of $0.67 per mile, a typical 10-mile round trip in a city costs $6.70 in fuel and vehicle wear. For rural residents, a 20–50 mile round trips cost between $13.40 and $33.50.

Those without cars may pay $10–$25 each way for rideshare or taxi services. Public transit may cost $4 for a round trip, but can require extra walking, long transfers, or schedules that don’t line up with appointment times.

These costs are increasing because pharmacies are closing at record rates. Between 2010 and 2021 alone, 1 in 3 pharmacies shut down across the United States.

TelyRx co-founder and CEO Thomas McKinney highlighted the growing “pharmacy desert” trend in a recent U.S. News & World Report, noting “When pharmacies close in areas already short of doctors and other healthcare services, it creates a potentially life-threatening situation for people who have chronic conditions and depend on consistent medication access.” 

Lost Wages

Time is money, and refill appointments take both. The average outpatient visit — including travel, waiting, and the appointment itself — takes about 2.4 hours. At the U.S. average hourly wage of $36.30, that’s $87.12 in lost income for a single visit.

For gig and shift workers without paid leave, this can mean losing a half-day’s pay. In addition, parents may be forced to use vacation time for medical appointments, cutting into the time they can spend resting or connecting with family.

For patients who use telehealth platform’s like TelyRx, the appointment component can often be handled in under 10 minutes from home, at any time of day or night, eliminating the wage loss associated with taking hours away from work for basic prescription renewals.

Pharmacy Wait Times and Repeat Trips

Unfortunately, the challenges don’t end once you’ve made it to the pharmacy counter. For many patients, the waiting continues. Surveys show that the average pharmacy wait time ranges anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. That’s nearly the length of a lunch break — time most people don’t have to spare. And that’s assuming everything goes smoothly. If you have to call the pharmacy, phone wait times to speak to an actual pharmacy team member or pharmacist can often exceed 20-30 minutes.

In reality, many patients spend even longer waiting in line, only to be told their prescription isn’t ready or isn’t in stock. National drug shortages have become increasingly common, and rural pharmacies in particular may only receive certain medications on limited shipment schedules. That means instead of walking out with your medication, you’re sent home empty-handed and told to try again tomorrow.

Every additional trip comes at its own cost. Transportation costs double. Over time, this cycle turns into a persistent background stressor that patients may carry with them long after they leave the pharmacy line.

2. the physical and emotional costs

Money isn’t the only resource drained by a routine refill. The process can also take a toll on physical health, emotional well-being, and family relationships.

Childcare and Dependent Care

For parents, a “quick” appointment or pharmacy trip is rarely simple. Someone has to watch the kids, and that often means paying a babysitter, which averages around $25 an hour in the U.S. Even when family or friends step in, there’s still a social cost: the feeling of owing a favor or disrupting someone else’s day.

This challenge extends beyond parents. Those who care for elderly parents or disabled relatives often have to arrange temporary coverage just to step away for their own health needs. That added layer of coordination can be stressful and overwhelming, turning what should be routine care into yet another logistical burden.

Stress and Anxiety

Refills can feel like a race against the clock when you’re running low on medication. The pressure of securing an appointment, waiting for insurance approval, and hoping the pharmacy has your medication in stock can add additional stress.

For chronic illness patients, this worry never completely goes away. And if you’ve ever left your prescription bottle at home while traveling or misplaced it entirely, you know the immediate panic of realizing your refill clock has just reset.

Missed Doses and Health Risks

When the process fails, the consequences can be serious. Missed doses can cause symptom flare-ups, setbacks in treatment, or even emergency hospital visits. Some medications, especially those for heart rhythm, seizures, or infections, lose effectiveness when taken irregularly or when consecutive doses are missed.

Long waits in crowded pharmacies also raise the risk of exposure to illnesses, a major concern for immunocompromised patients.

The Mental Load of Managing Refills

Managing a prescription is a set of ongoing responsibilities: tracking refill dates, monitoring prescription numbers, remembering appointment times, calling doctors and pharmacies, and following up with insurance.

Patients on multiple medications have an even heavier load, often juggling staggered refill schedules and multiple providers. This ongoing administrative burden creates decision fatigue, making unrelated daily choices feel harder.

Senior Challenges

Seniors who live alone often face even more daunting barriers. Without reliable transportation or nearby pharmacies, a refill may require arranging rides or navigating public transit with mobility limitations. These hurdles sometimes lead to skipped doses or going without the medication entirely.

Physical Fatigue and Accessibility Barriers

For patients with chronic pain or mobility issues, every step of the refill process can be physically taxing. Poorly designed parking lots, long lines, and cramped store layouts add to the challenge.

Weather is another factor. Extreme heat, cold, rain, or snow can make travel more dangerous or exhausting, especially for those whose health conditions are sensitive to climate.

Cumulative Burnout

Repeating this cycle month after month can wear people down. Many patients eventually experience “appointment fatigue,” where the effort feels so draining that they skip visits or stretch doses to avoid going through the process again. This can lead to worsening health and more costly care later.

3. systemic delays and admin hurdles

Even patients who plan ahead can get caught in the system’s bottlenecks.

Prior authorizations are one of the most common frustrations. A recent survey found that three days is the average wait time for prior authorization approval. But for many patients, the delay is much longer — 31 percent reported waiting more than a week just to get an answer. During that time, prescriptions remain on hold, leaving patients caught in limbo.

On top of that, insurance rules often restrict which pharmacies you’re allowed to use, forcing you to travel farther or deal with limited hours that don’t fit into your schedule.

Other restrictions make things even harder. Many insurance plans deny early refills, even for valid reasons like traveling for work, relocating, or leaving for vacation. If you lose your prescription bottle or accidentally leave it at home, replacing it often means starting the process all over again — requesting approval, scheduling a new appointment, and waiting for the pharmacy to process it.

Supply chain disruptions compound the problem. Medications for ADHD, diabetes, and even common antibiotics are frequently on backorder, requiring patients to call multiple pharmacies or make repeated trips to track down their prescription.

This is where digital pharmacy platforms like TelyRx offer a meaningful alternative. Because TelyRx doesn’t require patients to go through insurance approval for medications, you have the flexibility to access your medication refills ahead of time — whether for travel, extended stays away from home, or simply for peace of mind — or replace a lost one without hitting the insurance-imposed roadblocks that so often create gaps in care.

the hidden price tag of a single refill

When you add it all up, the numbers tell a sobering story. A single refill can easily cost:

$137.50 for an average doctor’s visit
$87.12 in lost wages
$15.85 for transportation, on average
Another $15.85 if a second trip is required
$50 for child or elder care, if needed

That puts the average cost of one refill at around $240 without childcare or nearly $306 with childcare and a second pharmacy trip. And remember, this figure doesn’t include the price of the medication itself, or the harder-to-measure tolls like stress, fatigue, and the health risks of delayed care.

For someone managing a chronic condition with quarterly refills, this means more than $1,000 a year in hidden expenses just to stay on their medication. For patients juggling multiple prescriptions, the financial and emotional burden can multiply several times over.

This is the real problem: the system disguises these costs as minor inconveniences, but in reality, they stack up into a crushing expense that disproportionately affects the people who can least afford it. What should be routine care turns into a recurring drain on time, money, and well-being.

reducing the burden of a routine refill

When you look at the true cost of a prescription refill, it becomes clear this isn’t just a matter of inconvenience. Patients are losing money, missing work, rearranging childcare, and carrying the constant stress of wondering if they’ll run out of the medication they rely on.

What’s supposed to be routine care has become an obstacle course — one that disproportionately punishes people with chronic conditions, rural residents who travel miles for every refill, working parents who are already stretched thin, and seniors who may not have anyone to lean on.

These are the hidden costs no one talks about. They don’t show up on a receipt, but they add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year, not to mention the emotional and physical toll. And in a system where pharmacies are closing faster than they’re opening, the barriers are only getting higher.

It doesn’t have to be this way. TelyRx was built on the belief that patients shouldn’t have to give up their time, wages, or peace of mind just to access medication they already know they need. With fast online prescription reviews, direct-to-door delivery, and the ability to plan ahead for travel or life changes, we offer a way to step out of the cycle and reclaim control over your health.

The reality is that a “routine” refill is anything but routine. It’s a drain on time, money, and energy that patients shouldn’t have to pay. Recognizing this truth is the first step toward building a better system — one where getting your medication is as simple as it should have been all along with TelyRx.

Disclaimer

This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The content provided here is not a substitute for professional medical advice, consultation, or care from a qualified healthcare provider. Always seek the guidance of your physician or another licensed health professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment. Do not disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice based on information read on this site. Learn more about our editorial standards here.

Save yourself hundreds (and hours) with TelyRx.