Prescription drug
savings can be had in several ways. You're probably already familiar
with how you can save money on the costs of medications by asking your
doctor for generic equivalents of your prescription drugs. Here are
five more cost cutting tricks:
(1)
Ask for free samples of prescription drugs.
Doctors are deluged with pharmaceutical sales
representatives handing out free samples from manufacturers, but they
don't always distribute the samples to their patients. If you ask,
you may get a week or more of an expensive prescription drug for
free.
Caution:
Make sure to check the expiration dates as some of these medications
may have been sitting around the doctor's office for way too long.
(2) Get your prescription drugs through
mail-order or on the Internet.
Obviously, you should always do this only when appropriate, but buying
prescription drugs by mail or on the Internet can be very economical,
and convenient. However, you must be careful that many mail-order
pharmacies used nonpharmacists to fill prescriptions. While usually a
pharmacist with check the final order, the volume of prescription
drugs being processed is usually very large and mistakes do happen.
Buying by mail order
or over the Internet means you lose the benefit of face-to-face
communication with your pharmacist who can warn you of possible
interactions and negative side effects.
The bottom line:
The Internet or mail-order is best used with drugs you're
familiar with, and medications that are taken on a long-term basis.
That way you will minimize the risk of taking a wrong prescription
drug or falling victim to unforeseen drug interactions.
(3)
Don’t let your insurance company impose limits on your prescription
length. If your doctor writes
an order for a 90 day supply of your prescription drug your insurance
company may approve only a 30 day supply. Limiting your prescriptions
in this manner helps your insurer to cut costs but actually costs you
more money and extra trips to the pharmacy.
Loophole: If you want or
need a prescription for a 90 day supply and your insurance company
only covers 30 days, ask your doctor to substitute "take as directed"
instead of "take once a day" on the prescription form, which makes it
hard for the insurance company to know how many pills comprise a 30
day supply. You’ll be able to then get your full 90 day supply
filled.
Caution:
Find out how often the medication should actually be taken and
write it on the prescription label.
(4) Avoid time release formulations.
Many prescription drugs are offered in both time-release and
non-time-release forms. Time-release forms are often more convenient
and also more expensive.
(5) Look into patient assistance programs for
your prescription drugs. These programs are available by
many pharmaceutical companies but are not publicly advertised. They
are usually used to assist people who are short on cash because of job
loss or financial setbacks. You may qualify for free prescription
drugs. In most cases, all that is required is for your doctor to
certify that you're unable to afford the cost of the prescription
drug. Call the manufacturer directly or find out if a particular drug
is available through such a program and what the terms are.
Some
information from The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets from
the Editors of Bottom Line Publications
Additional Information and
webpage by Paul Susic MA Licensed
Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate
