How to Save Money on Prescriptions – 5 Tips To Bring Down Your Medical Costs

We’re caught between a pair of very unfortunate realities when it comes to prescriptions: prices are rising, and so are health insurance co-payments. Add to that the fact that more people are being put on more drug therapies than ever, and we have a crisis brewing in prescriptions alone. Think of it as a crisis within a crisis—with healthcare overall being the big picture problem.

There are ways we save money on prescriptions, and they mostly involve asking a few more questions.

How to Save Money on Prescriptions

Free Samples From Your Doctor

Any time your doctor recommends a prescription for you, your next question should be: do you have some free samples you can give me? Make this question automatic!

In order to entice doctors to recommend their products, pharmaceutical sales representatives often provide doctors with generous supplies of samples of the drugs. Doctors will sometimes give these out to you without you having to ask, but it never hurts to help the offer along with a question.

You can do this with new prescription therapies, or even with existing ones. Most doctors are aware that patients are hard pressed to pay for medical treatment and may be sympathetic to your situation.

{Learn how flexible spending accounts can help you save money on prescriptions!}

Avoid “Non-Formulary” Medications

Health insurance companies typically have lists of approved prescriptions. If a medication is on the list, it will be covered by your plan. If it’s not on the list, you’ll be on your own to pay for it.

Insurance companies refer to these lists as “formularies”, and the doctor is expected to prescribe from that list. A medication that isn’t on the list is referred to as “non-formulary”, or unapproved.

You can ask your doctor to be sure that a prescription is formulary, but sometimes you won’t find out until you go to the pharmacy to fill the order. (Alas, health insurance is complicated even for those in healthcare!) If it turns out that the prescription is non-formulary, ask the pharmacist for a replacement medication that is on your insurance company’s formulary. Failing that, you’ll have to contact your doctor to make the change.

There may be cases where the only medication available will be non-formulary, and if it is, you’ll have to pay what ever it costs.

Use Generics When Ever Possible

Most of us are aware of the fact that generic drugs are cheaper than name brands, and often by a wide margin. Still, it’s worth repeating. It is, after all, the single most common way to reduce prescription costs.

Many pharmacies will use a generic alternative automatically as a service to you their customer. But that won’t be possible if the doctor has marked the prescription for the brand name only, and that does happen. Sometimes there is no effective generic alternative, but other times it’s just an oversight on the doctor’s part.

Any time a doctor gives you a prescription you should ask about using a generic instead. That will at least cover you if the doctor makes a mistake.

Non-Prescription Alternatives

Once a medication has been around for a few years there’s an excellent chance that it will be declassified as a prescription and moved to over-the-counter status. Prilosec and Prevacid are examples.

If you can’t afford to pay for the prescription version, you can ask the pharmacist for an over-the-counter alternative. This can save you money even if you have prescription coverage under your heath plan, since co-payments can range up to $50 and beyond. The OTC alternative may be only $15-$20.

{Find out the rules that govern OTC drugs and flexible spending accounts.}

But the biggest savings will be realized if you have no prescription coverage. Prescriptions medication prices are out of control, and a price exceeding $100 is extremely common. The use of an OTC version of the prescription medication can mean the difference between treating your condition or doing without completely.

Just make sure that any time you go this route you’re not trying the do-it-yourself course. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for an appropriate over-the-counter alternative.

Minimize Use Of Prescriptions

One of the very best ways to save money on prescriptions is to look for ways to treat yourself that don’t involve prescriptions at all. We often believe that there’s a pill for what ever ails us, and that’s an expensive way to live. The better alternative is to make lifestyle changes that will free us from the need for medications altogether.

Though it’s not always possible to do this, it is in many cases. It’s been estimated that between 80 and 90% of all illnesses and health conditions are related to behavior, which is how we live.

High blood pressure is a typical case. You may need medications to control it, but they will never make it go away. Only healthier lifestyle changes can do that. While you’re taking your medications, you could focus on losing weight, getting more exercise and finding ways to reduce stress that will be the long-term solution to the problem.

There are also non-medication related strategies that can be quite effective. My wife was on pain medication for a shoulder problem but found they worked only minimally. What worked best to dull the pain was a centuries old home remedy: ice packs! They cost nothing and did a better job.

Prescription costs have skyrocketed in recent years, and there’s no sign that will stop. Our best chance of keeping lid on this cost may be to find reasonable alternatives where we can.

Are there other ways you can suggest to save money on prescriptions?

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