You could try
CODE TO CREATE YOUR URL TO CALL
REPLACE CODE LIKE THIS:
$output = file_get_contents( $url );
WITH CODE LIKE THIS:
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$output = curl_exec($ch)...