Money Saving Tip: Save on Prescription Drugs

I've given a few tips on how to save on prescription drug costs including asking for free drugs from your doctor (including a real-life example), buying generic drugs, and using coupons for drug purchases. Here's an article from Yahoo that adds to these ideas by giving several ways to save on prescription drugs. Their thoughts and my comments:

Opening a dialogue with your doctor is just the first step. You also need to discuss potential alternative medications with your pharmacist and take advantage of Web sites and services that help you compare the costs of prescription drugs from one outlet to the next. Studies estimate that shopping around can save you anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent on your prescription drug costs.

Thirty to fifty percent savings is worth a bit of shopping around -- especially if you have on-going prescription drug needs. This alone could save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year.

Prescription drugs aren't the only category of medications on the market. Because cost containment is such an important issue, it's worth considering other options such as over-the-counter drugs and alternative therapies when looking at medications.

This is why it's key to talk to your doctor. He can give you alternatives that may work as well as (or better than) a prescription drug.

When your doctor wants to put you on a new medication, ask if it is a brand-name and if there are any generics or over-the-counter drugs that could do the same job.

Yep, see my comment above.

If you must have the brand name, ask the doctor if there are any samples you can have so you can see how the drug affects you before you shell out money for an entire month's worth. Albert Wertheimer, Ph.D., director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Health Services Research at the Temple University School of Pharmacy, recommends that consumers ask their doctors to prescribe a double dose -- 100 mg instead of 50 mg, for example -- and then cut the pills in half, resulting in a savings of anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent. Pill splitters are available at drug stores for $5 or so. Pills with scores in them can usually be safely split, but not every pill is designed to be split. So before you split a pill, check with your doctor or pharmacist.

Good tip! I never thought of asking for double the strength then splitting them.

Instead of heading directly to your local pharmacy, use the Web and your phone to find the lowest price for your particular prescription. "Many people assume that drug prices are uniform and do not bother to comparison shop," Herrick says. "In fact, drug prices vary considerably. One survey found that prudent shopping among local pharmacies saved consumers almost 10 percent on brand-name drugs and a whopping 81 percent on generics, on average."

Again, a great reason to shop around. I must admit that we don't do this -- but need to.

One other idea from me. For over-the-counter drug purchases, check out Wal-mart's Equate brand. It can save you TONS of money over grocery store drugs. We use Equate all the time and find it works just as well as the name-brand alternatives.

Comments

[G]

Excellent article. I recently posted about saving money on prescription drugs as well - recommending to try generics, or mail-order to save some cash.

[Bob Porter]

Excellent ideas. Try www.rfdrugstore.com they are a canadian pharmacy (mail order) with great prices. They were the ones who told me to split pills of a higher dosage to save money.