Pharmacies - How to save Money? (sell, sale, best, prices)
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I use CVS because it is right around the corner from my house. I have few prescriptions that I fill monthly every month. What are the best options for this? mail order an option? trying out new pharmacies would cut costs? I use Cigna as my insurance.
Mail order is probably cheapest. When you do mail order, it's cheaper to order a 90 day supply each time. Going from one parmacy to another shouldn't make much of a difference on your drug costs if you use your insurance as long as your pharmacy accepts it. Just check with your pharmacy/medication department of your Cigna about how to do mail order, because they have a separate independent pharmacy they do those orders with.
There are several companies that have a generic drug program where a 30 day supply costs $4.00
and a 90 day would be $10.00. Walmart offers this program as well as Sam's Club, Target, Meijer's
and others. The Walmart link lists which generics are available for those prices and most other
pharmacies that offer this program, follow that list.
Note: some places like CVS do have a discount program but there is a fee vs places like Target,
Walmart and Meijer's which does not.
Find an honest doctor. I recently asked my doctor about Cyanocobalamin, which had once been prescribed by a previous doctor for a vitamin deficiency. He tapped me on the knee and said "That's a placebo".
I read the other day that alongside the four billion dollars that drug companies spend advertising their drugs to the consumers, they spend 24-billion pitching to doctors. Six out of every seven dollars in persuasive pharmaceutical marketing effort is directed at getting doctors to tell you that it's right for you.
And the drug salesman gets to see the doctor, while I'm sitting in the waiting room. It's rare to have an appointment, and not see at least one drug salesman pass unimpeded through office.
Back for a moment to the cyanocobalamin, vis-a-vis frugality. My insurance refused to pay for more than a 3-month supply of a Rx. I found that it was cheaper to buy a two-year vial of it out of pocket, than to pay the copay eight times for individual doses. My wife had the same thing happen with her thyroid medication. So if you're insured, ask your pharmacy how much it would cost to self-pay for a bulk supply of drugs.
If you have a bunch of prescriptions and you blindly follow what your insurance company requires and the laziness of your doctor's staff who want to just fax or esend the prescription to your regular pharmacy, you are on drugs or have too much money.
The drug companies and the pharmacies play games against the consumer, and it is appropriate to give it back in kind. To start, call six pharmacies and price check each prescription, both as a cash pay and under your insurance. The differences can astound you. We found one local pharmacy that was about 1/3 the cost on some prescriptions, and the local Publix pharmacy gives free blood pressure and antibiotic prescriptions. When all else fails, check pricing outside of the country. There are a few reliable pharmacies (NOT Canadian pharmacy spammers) that ship to the U.S. Often, the drug companies will use the U.S. law to crank up pricing to astronomical levels on the very same product that sells for pennies in Europe, India, or Mexico. Example - a butacort inhaler costing $200 in the U.S. may be $20 in India, simply because the drug companies are maximizing profits without meaningful government oversight.
One other gotcha is the combo of limited prescription, minimum charge, and co-pay. Your insurance may have a $10 minimum co-pay and the pharmacy charges $10 on top of that. If you ask around, you may find the cash price for the drug as $8 at a pharmacy, $20 for three months. That means if your doctor writes a scrip for 30 pills, refill 3 x, and you follow the rules you pay $60 for three months. If you don't, and ask for a CASH price, and demand that your doctor write the scrip for 90 pills, you pay $20. That is $40 in your pocket.
Your post doesn't say where you live but if you are close to the border, prescriptions are cheaper in Mexico and Canada.
The first thing to do is stay healthy and don't take scrips you don't need. If you have to have the drugs ask your doc if the prescription is expensive. If it is, ask if there are cheaper alternatives that work as well. Many times there are. Is you are going to be taking these meds 'forever' ask for scrips for 6 months. Usually the cheapest way to fill these is mail order.
Find an honest doctor. I recently asked my doctor about Cyanocobalamin, which had once been prescribed by a previous doctor for a vitamin deficiency. He tapped me on the knee and said "That's a placebo".
To be clear, it isn't, but mentioning that fact at this point would probably ruin your story.
Your post doesn't say where you live but if you are close to the border, prescriptions are cheaper in Mexico and Canada.
.
Not necessarily true for Mexico, Many drugs, including most OTC, are quite a bit more expensive in
Mexico. Furthermore, a lot of Mexican pharmacies don't have the storage facilities to maintain their inventory at an appropriate temperature, and the drugs might be of degraded potency.
To be clear, it isn't, but mentioning that fact at this point would probably ruin your story.
Cyanobalamin is widely taken, with no pharmaceutical benefit, by people who think it gives them an energy boost. It has no effect, except on a patient with diagnosed intrinsic factor deficiency. Which he saw no evidence of in my blood test. So, for me, it would have been a placebo.
Not necessarily. For years I filled via mail order, per my insurer, a recurring 90-day supply of a medication a take daily. Recently saw my physician and got a new script for one year. Though I never checked in the past, with the new script I checked my insurer's website, which lists mail order and local pharmacy pricing. Turns out the same 90-day supply I'd been mail ordering at $15 (generic) was less than $5 at the supermarket pharmacy. What a surprise. I'll again check pricing my insurer's website for the next refill, and transfer the Rx if necessary.
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