Shop Around your Prescriptions

[Romer]

It is interesting that some prescriptions are cheaper going cash price, but not all. I read an article about several companies opening up Cash (non Insurance) pharmacy's.

I first learned about this a few years ago when my Acid Reflux drug went up at CVS. For a 90 day supply of ESOMEPRAZOLE MAGNESIUM they wanted $148. I asked them their cash price and it was $450. Yikes

I checked with Costco and their insurance price was $98, but their cash price is $18. Needless to say I went with Cash for this at Costco

I also take ROSUVASTATIN which is $35 on Insurance for a 90 day supply. My wife got this email for Amazon Prime Rx and the price (non Insurance) is $9.99

Then for my Blood Pressure medication Losartan, it was $17 on Amazon Prime Rx (Cash) and $7 at CVS through insurance and also cheaper at CVS then Costco.

What I take from this is you can get the best deal by sometimes splitting your prescription sources and cash vs Insurance

The 90 day supplies always seemed to be the better option

Based on my research for my situation the best deal for me is one via CVS (Insurance), One via Costco (cash) and one via AmazonPrimeRx (cash)

I hope I didn't violate any rules listing the Pharmacy names, but thought they would be helpful in identifying options people haven't thought of to save money

 

[disneysteve]

Also be sure to check discount programs like GoodRx as you can often get a better price using them or something similar. One of my mom's meds is about $200 less for 90 days using GoodRx.

 

[Bamaman]

I just got a refill on Farxiga, and it went up to $148. Obviously I went into the "donut hole" of Medicare. Retail is something like $515 a month.

What gets the public is the cost of insulin vials. Novolog is retail $315 a vial, but Trump broke the arms of the 3 pharma companies and got them to lower the price to $35 a month. We are thankful. Walmart charges $25 a vial for no-name insulin and they don't require a prescription even.

 

[ivinsfan]

If anyone chooses to do this be certain that you signed up and signed on to whatever online charting system your health provider uses. They would have an up to date list of your meds in case of emergency...back in the day an ER or urgent care provider would ring your pharmacy for an up to date meds lists. If you use multiple it's harder to collect that info.

 

[travelover]

Also be sure to check discount programs like GoodRx as you can often get a better price using them or something similar. One of my mom's meds is about $200 less for 90 days using GoodRx.

Yes, the cost savings with GoodRx can be astounding. I don't understand all I know about how they do it, but I'm sure a lot of people are getting screwed everyday on prescriptions.

 

[prudent_one]

Cost Plus Drugs (Mark Cuban's company) is another option but it's not always the best option. Just another place to check prices with.

To echo a prior comment, it's important that every place where you get prescriptions filled is aware of ALL medications you take. If you get everything from one pharmacy, no issue. But if you're using multiple pharmacies, each one needs to know all of your medications. Just like all of your physicians need to have a complete list.

 

[JoeWras]

I get my meds at a grocery store. They have a competing system to GoodRx. My pharmacist is so nice and checks all three: insurance, GoodRx, their inhouse clone of GoodRx.

Just like OP, insurance wants a lot for Rosuvastatin. Both GoodRx and the clone beat it by 1/2 or more. Bonus: GoodRx and Clone don't give me pushback. Insurance always wants to put up barriers like having to the call the doctor.

I think this is intentional. It is a bit of an FU by insurance to just see if you'll pay. If not, then they'll get you later because this isn't going to your yearly minimum out of pocket.

 

[frank]

I thought I read that on the new inflation reduction act that shots for shingles and others were going to be covered by medicare in 2023. anyone else seen this anywhere?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I thought I read that on the new inflation reduction act that shots for shingles and others were going to be covered by medicare in 2023. anyone else seen this anywhere?

Yes, and $35 Insulin.

All my prescriptions are $3 for 90 days (5 total = ~$5 a month) using Aetna Part D @ $7.70 a month. So total Drug costs per year is ~$152.4. It used to be less when Publix offered free BP & Statin drugs, but alas they stopped that in July 2022.

 

[bobbee25]

Goodrx

My wife uses a number of blood pressure and parkinson drugs. I was amazed that I can get them at a sizeable discount if we use Goodrx.
The price is considerably less than if we go through our insurance company.


Not all drug stores will provide the full Goodrx discount, but after checking with 2 or 3 we found one that does. Needless to say we use Goodrx at this drug store instead of our insurance policy.



For example, one RX is around $600 w/ insurance or $200 with Goodrx.

 

[frank]

my wife uses advair the price at retail drug stores was around 450. per month. goodrx was 120.64, so I started checking around and ended up ordering it from canada for 80 for 3 months. and if you find a good pharmacy up there they are really easy to work with and actual people to talk to in english.

 

[travelover]

my wife uses advair the price at retail drug stores was around 450. per month. goodrx was 120.64, so I started checking around and ended up ordering it from canada for 80 for 3 months. and if you find a good pharmacy up there they are really easy to work with and actual people to talk to in english.

How did you find a reliable Canadian pharmacy?

 

[Romer]

Here we are in limbo land between my employers Health Insurance and Cobra Kicking in

My wife needed an Xray to see if she had Pneumonia. They said it was $250. I then told them I would be paying out of pocket and the price changed to $72

Seems it isn't just Prescriptions

 

[sengsational]

Amazon is also getting into the prescription business.

For those who shop around, how does it work to move a prescription?

Doctors (actually the mega corps the doctors work for) want a single pharmacy specified and only do electronic prescriptions. I would like an intermediate "fake pharmacy" who's only tasks would be to watch for interactions, and make it easy for a set of true low cost pharmacies that I have shopped, to "get" the prescription and fill it.

 

[Sojourner]

Just a quick heads up regarding GoodRx. I've been using it for years to save money on my prescriptions, first at CVS and more recently at Kroger. Well, turns out that Kroger has stopped accepting GoodRx for some common prescriptions. There are a LOT of alternatives to GoodRx, thankfully, that still can be used at Kroger. So my advice would be (in general, not just for Kroger customers), always check around with all the major pharmacy coupon/discount apps to find the lowest price for each medication. Two (of many) that I found to be good alternatives:

• PharmacyChecker.com (IntegrityRx)
• WellRx

 

[JoeWras]

Just a quick heads up regarding GoodRx. I've been using it for years to save money on my prescriptions, first at CVS and more recently at Kroger. Well, turns out that Kroger has stopped accepting GoodRx for some common prescriptions. There are a LOT of alternatives to GoodRx, thankfully, that still can be used at Kroger. So my advice would be (in general, not just for Kroger customers), always check around with all the major pharmacy coupon/discount apps to find the lowest price for each medication. Two (of many) that I found to be good alternatives:

• PharmacyChecker.com (IntegrityRx)
• WellRx

I go to Harris Teeter, which is in the Kroger family. Harris Teeter has their own GoodRx-like deal which is better than GoodRx for my prescription, and isn't readily accessible to the public. Depending on how nice your pharmacist is, it can be worth asking them if they have other discount deals to try.

 

[Sojourner]

I go to Harris Teeter, which is in the Kroger family. Harris Teeter has their own GoodRx-like deal which is better than GoodRx for my prescription, and isn't readily accessible to the public. Depending on how nice your pharmacist is, it can be worth asking them if they have other discount deals to try.

Yep, the pharmacy tech mentioned the Kroger discount program to me last year. There's an annual fee for it (unlike GoodRx, WellRx, etc.), but if you have a number of prescriptions in their "free" tier, then it could be worth the price. Didn't make sense for me, though.

I'd guess that Kroger's dropping support for GoodRx had something to do with unwanted competition with their own in-house program.