Maintaining a healthy body can be costly, in all honesty; not to mention buying the prescription you’ll need, which is also one of the primary reasons why most people fail to check up on their health.
Fortunately, there are already various ways that you can save money with your prescription. To help you, here are five ways that you can save money from purchasing your medicines.
Search for generic alternatives
As sad as it sounds, some physicians give their patients the branded drug’s names when giving prescriptions. As such, the patients are now left with zero options for buying the less costly medicines. Although the reason behind that runs deep, you must understand that you have the right to know about your alternatives. So, if you find your prescription costly, ask your doctor if it has a generic alternative.
There are misconceptions that generic medicines aren’t as effective as branded ones. You should know that generic ones work just as effectively as branded ones. They contain the same active ingredient and suggest dosages, effects, and side effects.
Compare your options
Now that you’ve learned about the generic options, your next concern is that the medicine’s retail price also varies depending on the pharmacy you buy them from. This means that the price of Brand X is different from Store A and Store B. So before you buy your prescription right away, you should also compare the prices of different stores.
Health insurance
Health insurance is one of the most complicated programs on this list. Nonetheless, it’s one of the best ways you can get more affordable prescriptions if you have one. Health insurance has various coverage and plans, which vary for every provider. As such, not all health insurance plans cover every medication. The best thing you can do is figure out how your insurance can help you when buying your prescription.
Moreover, in your health insurance plans, there are premiums that you pay monthly (can also be quarterly or annually, depending on your terms) to maintain its coverage; the deductible that you initially pay before the insurer covers the remaining treatment expenses; and the copay, which is the amount you pay on the spot whenever you buy a prescription or a visit a doctor.
So, when you’re seeking the best insurance plan, you must first investigate the list of drugs covered by every plan. This is called the formulary, and it also provides guidelines on how the coverage will work, like how the cost will be split between the insurer and you. Thus, you must always know what you’re trying to buy when shopping for medications.
If there are cases that your prescription that is not part of your insurance coverage, you can try to print out the complete list of your coverage and let your doctor read through it. In this way, they might be able to find an alternative prescription that is covered by your insurance.
Prescription discount cards
Another way to save money when buying your medications is to get a prescription discount card. As its name suggests, it helps people get their medicines at a much more affordable price when paying with cash. Moreover, getting a prescription discount card will cost you nothing since it’s freely available to people who need them. It also doesn’t expire, so you can use the card as long and often as you like.
You can also share the card with anyone in your family, even your pets. You might wonder if your uncle’s wife, who has fungal infections, can utilize the same card. The answer is yes! She can enjoy various fungal infection medication cards, like a Fluconazole Coupon, by presenting them to the pharmacist. They will then process the discount, and your uncle’s wife can enjoy the discounted prices.
However, if you also have health insurance, you can ask the pharmacist to compare your copay price to the prescription discount card price. Then, you can decide how you would like to pay. Still, you should remember that you can enjoy up to 80% discount on ALL medicines, with the discount card, unlike your health insurance plan.
Pharmaceutical assistance programmes
If you’re in a country that offers Medicare, a federal health insurance program, then you should also understand the Part D of the program, which is Drug Coverage. Some pharmaceutical companies offer assistance programs where people enrolled in these programs pay for their medications.
You might wonder if you can utilise your Medicare and other insurance providers. The answer is yes. You can use your Medicare and other health insurance as primary and secondary payers.
The “coordination of benefits” will apply in this situation, where it decides who pays first. So, your primary payer could be your other health insurance, and they pay up to the limits of their coverage. Then, the second payer (which could be Medicare) will pay the costs your primary payer didn’t cover.
Final thoughts
Above all, you must always research before you head on and try all the options to prevent paying unexpected costs when you get to the pharmacy. Also, don’t get disappointed if you initially find the limits of your options because you can always try other solutions. Nonetheless, finding the best ways you can save when buying your prescription may take extra effort, but it helps a lot in your future.
Adam Mulligan, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.
