Part D surprise

[Karl]

I went on medicare in December 2018. I have the Prescription plan part D with Envision. During 2018, up until December, I had a high deductible policy through my former employer. I take atorvastatin. 4 times I got 90 day refills on the atorvastatin in 2018 – once in AZ and 3 times in MI. Each time the charge to me was zero. I did not meet my deductible at any time during the year. I understood that there were certain common drugs that patients were not charged for and thought my insurance was immaterial to the transaction. Today I refilled the script for the first time since going on medicare and was charged $20 by Walgreens in FL. I questioned the tech but he did not have a clue. Checking the Envision website it verifies that the $20 is what I would be charged. If I had went to CVS the cost would have been $2. CVS is in my future. In MI Meijer does not charge for atorvastatin – maybe Walgreens was price matching there? Meijer is not in AZ though. I am confused – anyone have an idea what happened to my free drug?

 

[Sue J]

Last year I was surprised that DHs low dose statin was free using our ACA high deductible plan. I called our insurance and they told me that as part of the Affordable Care Act certain generic preventative Rxs were covered at 100%. Statins are in this category.

So, I guess this does not apply to Medicare. These should be fairly low cost using GoodRx or RxSaver.

 

[Karl]

Well that makes sense - actually it doesn't but health insurance is like taxes - you have to know all the rules and regs to get the best results. Also common sense does not apply. Switching to CVS is such a minor cost that I will live with that. Mail order is free but we travel a lot so did not want to have meds at home in MI and be in FL or AZ.

 

[SheitlQueen]

Thanks for the tip about Envision, prices are more reasonable than what I have been looking at.

 

[Sunset]

Thanks for the tip about Envision, prices are more reasonable than what I have been looking at.

You can at the medicare site list the exact drugs you take, and it will show you the expected cost for all the part D plans available.
I did notice changing purchase locations had an effect, as they let specify where you like to shop.
I thought it was an excellent feature of Medicare.
Previous year he spent around $7K for drugs which promoted the search, and last year the same drugs cost him nearly $2K.
The plan was roughly the same cost per month.
(I did it for Dad during the medicare switching time)