generated: '2026-08-15'
method: searched
source: https://docs.surescripts.com/medhistory-populations/guide/messages-overview
docs:
  - https://docs.surescripts.com/medhistory-populations/guide/messages-overview
  - https://docs.surescripts.com/medhistory-populations/guide/fhir-request-parameters
  - https://docs.surescripts.com/formulary-download/guide/api-details
limit_count: 6
response_headers: []
status_on_exhaustion: null
note: >-
  Surescripts publishes call-frequency, window and page-size limits in prose in its companion
  guides, but documents NO runtime rate-limit signal - there are no RateLimit-*, X-RateLimit-*
  or Retry-After response headers and no documented 429 behaviour. An agent therefore cannot
  discover its remaining budget from a response; the ceilings below have to be enforced by the
  client. Values captured verbatim from the public Developer Portal pages.
limits:
  - api: Medication History for Populations FHIR API
    scope: per-participant
    kind: call-frequency
    window: 2 hours
    limit: 1
    detail: >-
      "The maximum retrieval frequency rate for running a search request should be every two
      hours in the past." Prescription Notifications are themselves generated on a four-hour
      continuous-monitoring cycle, so polling faster returns no new data.
  - api: Medication History for Populations FHIR API
    scope: per-request
    kind: lookback-window
    limit: 1 month
    parameter: _lastUpdated
    detail: >-
      "The maximum allowable lookback period is one month from the requested date." Surescripts
      recommends a smaller window (4 hours or 1 day) when generating panels or notifications.
  - api: Medication History for Populations FHIR API
    scope: per-request
    kind: page-size
    parameter: _count
    default: 50
    limit: 1000
    detail: Size of the page containing matched MedicationDispense resources.
  - api: Formulary Download API
    scope: per-request
    kind: page-size
    parameter: pageSize
    default: 10000
    limit: null
    detail: >-
      No maximum is published. `page` is required; totalPages and currentPage are returned in
      the response body.
  - api: Formulary Download API
    scope: per-participant
    kind: recommended-cadence
    detail: >-
      Full Formulary Download weekly or on drug-database change; Delta File Download nightly.
      Clients using non-rolled-up files should download and process after each drug-database
      update.
  - api: Medication History for Populations FHIR API
    scope: per-participant
    kind: duplicate-suppression
    detail: >-
      Not a throughput limit but the operational constraint that pairs with the polling window -
      identical notifications will not repeat inside one bundle, but WILL repeat across bundles
      when retrieval windows overlap, and de-duplication is the caller's responsibility.