saving money on prescriptions

5 Ways to Save on Prescription Drugs

Challenge your doctor to meet your financial limitations.

By Dana Blinder

Topics: prescription drugs

Explore other treatment options; ask for a prescription that has a lower co-pay.

Apples are cheaper than pills: A healthy lifestyle can cut down on your medication costs.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—From backaches to high blood pressure to growing longer, thicker eyelashes, you can get a prescription for just about anything these days. But the price tag on all those pills can add up fast. Saving money on prescription drugs is possible, but it boils down to becoming a proactive patient, says Edward Jardini, MD, author of How to Save on Prescription Drugs: 20 Cost Saving Methods (Ten Speed Press, 2008). He suggests working with your doctor to limit medications, and shopping competitively to fill necessary prescriptions. “I think we’ve become very medication-intensive in the U.S., and often physicians and patients are thinking of what kind of pill can help this problem first,” says Dr. Jardini.

Here are 5 tips on how to cut down on prescription drug bills.

# 1: Clue your doctor in to your budget.
Explaining financial concerns to your doctor can help him decide on the proper prescription for your health and your budget. “There’s nothing wrong with letting your doctor know you have financial constraints or concerns, and to ask for an economical treatment,” says Dr. Jardini. Doctors can often prescribe a more affordable brand name medication if asked. And they know that when patients aren’t able to handle prescriptions within their financial means, they’ll likely skip or decrease doses and miss out on medical benefits.

What you can do: Check your insurance plan. “Usually your prescription plan will have medications listed in various tiers depending on different co-payments,” says Dr. Jardini. He suggests bringing a copy of this form to the doctor, so if a new medication needs to be considered, it can be chosen from a lower co-payment tier. In some cases, you may even be better off paying out of pocket. “A lot of co-payments for the lowest tiers can be higher than the actual cost of the drug, so find out the retail price of the medication before you offer to pay with drug coverage,” Dr. Jardini says.

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prescription costs

Posted on July 31st, 2009 by Edward Jardini MD

Hello Donna,

Dana Blinder, who wrote this piece, chose five of my cost-saving methods that she thought would appeal to the broadest cross section of readers. Indeed your case would require more specialized methods to make treatment affordable.

You should know that most patients with chronic renal failure are eligible for Medicare even if they have not yet reached 65 years of age. This allows access to the Medicare prescription benefit plans (Medicare Part D).

If that is not applicable, my book, "How to Save on Prescription Drugs" gives you 20 cost-saving methods that may allow you to afford your medications without interruption. If you can't find or afford a copy of the book, email me via the "Reader's Forum" on my web site at http://www.howtosaveondrugs.com/Guestbook.php, and I'll send you one.

Finally, make sure your nephrologist is aware that you cannot afford all of your medications and that you have not always been taking them as prescribed. He/she may also be able to help you.

Good luck and best of health,

Edward Jardini MD, author "How to Save on Prescription Drugs: 20 Cost-saving Methods"

"free" samples

Posted on July 31st, 2009 by Edward Jardini MD

Hello Peggy,

The point is not to accept samples to begin new long-term treatments. They are always expensive, patented products that are often excluded from insurance formularies or available only with high co-payments. When samples run out, patients are stuck paying for these expensive drugs when other options would have been much cheaper.

Counting on free samples as a plan for affordable treatment is risky and unreliable. How will you continue treatment when samples are no longer available?

More important: Why is your doctor prescribing (and why are you accepting) medication that is not covered by your insurance? Always bring your insurance formulary to your appointments so the doctor can choose from among the covered medications.

Finally, you should know that--due to studies showing an increase in asthma-related deaths in patients treated with salmeterol (one of the two drugs in Advair)--in 2006 the FDA issued an alert to doctors that states,"(I)n the treatment of asthma, Advair Discus should only be used in patients who have not adequately responded to other asthma controller medications."

Good luck and best of health,

Edward Jardini MD, author "How to Save on Prescription Drugs: 20 Cost-saving Methods" (Celestial Arts, 2008)

free samples

Posted on July 23rd, 2009 by peggy

This should say - DON'T turn down free samples - if they are the prescriptions that you use. My insurance would not pay for Advair - my asthma inhaler. My doctor gave me a number of free samples so that I would not be without my medication.

prescription costs

Posted on July 23rd, 2009 by Donna

This article didn't help me much. I have third stage chronic kidney disease and am going through the "long" process of SSD. and am not working thus no income. makes it hard to get all the meds that I need to take on a daily day--thus I skip on some to stretch them out.

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