📋 Refill Medication

To prevent any gaps in treatment, we recommend having your refill in hand before your next round of treatment so you can keep up with your injection schedule. 

Please note that due to nationwide medication shortages, patients are often having trouble filling their Wegovy and Zepbound prescriptions. 

Here's how the refill process works: 

1. You must complete your required refill check-in so your provider can see how your treatment is going and write your next prescription, if appropriate. We recommend completing it before your second shot of Ozempic and Wegovy, or as soon as you start your 1.8 mg dose of Saxenda. 

2. If you’re using insurance, our concierge reviews your benefits to ensure your plan covers your refill. They’ll also handle any needed prior authorization processes for you. You'll skip this step if you're paying cash for your medication.

3. Our concierge then sends your prescription to your preferred pharmacy to get filled. If your pharmacy doesn’t have medication supply, they’ll add you to a waitlist for when medication becomes available.

Keep in mind: To help you get medication faster, we’re offering compounded semaglutide. Reach out to your provider in your Ro account chat if you’re interested.

To keep your monthly refills safely on track, our partner pharmacy will wait until you’ve been on your medication for 30 days before sending the next round.

Getting your compounded semaglutide refill involves a couple of steps:

1. You must complete your required refill check-in so your provider can see how your treatment is going and write your next prescription, if appropriate. We recommend completing it before your second shot so there's enough time to get the medication to you.

2. Once your provider writes a refill prescription, we'll send it directly to our partner compounding pharmacy to be filled and shipped to you.

If you were prescribed Wegovy or Zepbound, there might be a delay in filling your prescription.

To help patients get medication faster, we've expanded our medication offerings in some states to include compounded semaglutide, which contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic and Wegovy. If prescribed, it will be shipped to you within 1-4 days.

If you’re interested in exploring other treatment options, send your provider a message in your Ro account chat. They’ll walk you through the next steps to see if another medication is right for you.

If you want to wait out the shortage for Wegovy or Zepbound, we’ll send your prescription to your pharmacy. If they don’t have supply, they may add you to a waitlist for when medication becomes available. We recommend calling your pharmacy to ask about their waitlist.

To get medication in time for your next refill, we encourage you to complete your refill check-in before your second shot of Ozempic, Zepbound, Wegovy, or compounded semaglutide, or as soon as you start your 1.8 mg dose of Saxenda. This will allow us to submit your information to your pharmacy sooner, giving them more time to fill the next prescription and increasing the likelihood of getting your medication when you need it. 

If you’re on a dose of a branded GLP-1 impacted by medication shortages, you can consider switching to compounded semaglutide. This medication is in stock, and you’ll get it within 1-4 days. Reach out to your provider in your Ro account chat soon to see if compounded could be right for you.

If supply shortages do not impact your medication, refills typically take less time since you've already gone through the insurance process. In most cases, you don't have to go through insurance approval again, but it's possible. Every plan is different, and our partner will work with your insurance provider to determine if a new prior authorization is necessary. Regardless, they will need to find a pharmacy that has the medication in stock again, as inventory is constantly changing. This will impact the time it will take to get your refills.

To help your body get used to a medication and to limit side effects, some medications are titrated. Titration means that the medication is started at a low dose and overtime the dose is increased until reaching the maximum effective dose. 

GLP-1 medications need to be titrated. Depending on the medication you’re taking, the titration schedule and maximum effective dose are different. For GLP-1 medications, some are titrated every 4 weeks while others are titrated every week. While there is general guidance on titration, your specific titration plan may be different. That’s because your provider takes into account how you’re doing on the medication, and the side effects you’re experiencing, to personalize the titration schedule for you. This is why it’s so important to let your care team know about side effects.

Our concierge will work hard with your insurance provider and preferred pharmacy to try and get your refill medication to you on time. But due to the insurance coverage process and/or medication stock shortages, you may experience a gap between when you are scheduled to take your next shot and when you receive your refill. 

Not to worry! There is no significant withdrawal that is known from being off of the medication for short periods of time. In addition, there should be no side effects aside from increased hunger or decreased satiety associated with stopping the medication. Be sure to let your practitioner know, and you can work with them to take your next shot once you’re able to get your medication. 

Please note: That said, if it's been more than two weeks since taking your last shot, you may be at an increased risk of symptoms, please contact your provider before taking your next one.

Most people who take GLP-1s notice a decrease in hunger, feeling more full for longer or feeling more full after less food. Some people report side effects such as nausea or diarrhea. At lower doses, however, you may not feel any changes at all. That does not mean the medication is not working—you may start seeing small changes on the scale after several weeks, even at low doses—but some people may require higher doses before they notice changes in their appetite.  Ultimately, the goal of GLP-1 therapy is weight loss and this may occur without any noticeable differences in how you feel. If you still feel no different and haven’t noticed changes on the scale by the time you’ve been prescribed higher doses of the medication, discuss this with your Ro-affiliated provider.

In clinical trials, the average person taking a GLP-1 who then stopped taking it altogether did regain much of the weight they had lost. This isn’t necessarily through any fault of their own, nor does it minimize how important GLP-1s can be in treating obesity.

Instead, the fact that people who stop taking their GLP-1 regain the weight they’d lost is part of why we at Ro are so passionate about reframing the conversation about obesity. Obesity is not a fault of willpower—it’s a medical condition. Just as someone with high blood pressure can’t stop taking their medication once their blood pressure is under control (and if they did, it would likely become elevated again) a person with obesity needs to continue their treatment even after that treatment has produced results.

Your curriculum will go into this in more detail, but know that your genetics, hormones, and other factors outside of your control determine what is called a “set point”—a fairly narrow weight range around which your body likes to hover. This set point is what makes it hard for many people to effectively lose weight with diet and exercise alone. By mimicking a hormone your body naturally makes, GLP-1s tap into the system that influences your set point, helping your body find a new, lower one. But if the GLP-1 is discontinued, then your genetics, hormones, etc., are back in charge—and your body begins to shift back toward your original set point.

We at Ro know this, and that’s why we’re dedicated to supporting you in hitting your weight goals.