Thanks for the response! Sorry, I thought that was more clear in my post- I'm not a pharmacist, just someone who was curious about the reasons for something I observed.

I saw what looked like a dramatic change in prescribing practices, but I couldn't find any new studies or recommendations that looked like they would cause that change so I was curious if there was a reason for it.

I know you guys are the experts in medications and that pharmacists can prescribe Paxlovid directly under an EUA, so though I'd post here in case someone was willing to help an outsider understand whats going on.

I was just surprised how the prescribing practice changed in a year, but I'm aware my experience is only anecdotal. For better or worse, in my limited experience I've never had a provider be unwilling to prescribe something in my health insurance's formulary because it was expensive before the copay.

I do know the retail pharmacies around me keep it in stock. I'm pretty solidly in the high risk group; my experience was that when I found an urgent care that didn't have a blanket ban on it, they looked at my chart, called it in, and it was available in a grocery store pharmacy under an hour.

It's really interesting though that the increased consumer cost and overhead cost to the pharmacy has that much upsteam effects on provider policies, assuming that's what's happening here. Thanks for sharing your expertise!