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Walgreens problems with GoodRX?
Old 05-03-2019, 01:40 PM   #1
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Walgreens problems with GoodRX?

Went to Walgreens for a refill, gave them the GoodRX coupon - same one I’ve been using with them for over a year. They rang up the “list price”, said the GoodRX coupon lower price on my phone was wrong, and blew me off completely.

Something similar happened to DW a week ago. Just wondering if this is a local Walgreens imcident or if others are experiencing this elsewhere.
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Old 05-03-2019, 03:36 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelB View Post
Went to Walgreens for a refill, gave them the GoodRX coupon - same one I’ve been using with them for over a year. They rang up the “list price”, said the GoodRX coupon lower price on my phone was wrong, and blew me off completely.

Something similar happened to DW a week ago. Just wondering if this is a local Walgreens imcident or if others are experiencing this elsewhere.
Not Walgreens, but occasionally my pharmacy will try to charge the inflated price (like, triple the price), and I've had to show the goodrx coupon. Your pharmacy is contractually obligated to accept them. Goodrx has a help line here https://support.goodrx.com/hc/en-us/...odRx-Now-what-.
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Old 05-03-2019, 03:50 PM   #3
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When I've looked to use Goodrx at Walgreens, Walgreens told me that rx was out of stock.
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Old 05-03-2019, 03:54 PM   #4
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I'm new to this, so haven't dropped my insurance yet.

I don't quite understand how it works... Here's what gets me...
Are the prices stable with GoodRX. Seems like when I go to the website there are several drugs with low prices... Is that just for the day or the week or the month? .... or if I have a prescription that has to be renewed every 90 days, does it automatically give the lowest price... How often does that vary?

Do you have to check the website every time to see if your particular prescription is at a special price?

Ons of the prescriptions I'm supposed to be taking is Xarelto, which is regularly $455.00. And on GoodRX is $448.00. Is it apt to be reduced , say, to $400.00 for a month?

The pharmacist at Walmart doesn't want to talk about this stuff, so we've change pharmacists.

So... the basic question is... can we generally expect to get the same price each time we fill the prescriptions? I realize that if the manufacturer raises prices there will be a change, but in the meantime, can I expect the prices to be mostly stable.

For the two of us, we're paying $1600/yr with an insurer for a lower cost prescription policy, and the prices are almost the same as what we paid when we tried GoodRX.

Doesn't matter much, with $4 or $8 drugs, but at some point we're talking real money.

The new pharmacist tried to explain, but it didn't make sense to me... I'm not very smart.
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Old 05-03-2019, 04:00 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by tfudtuckerpucker View Post
Not Walgreens, but occasionally my pharmacy will try to charge the inflated price (like, triple the price), and I've had to show the goodrx coupon. Your pharmacy is contractually obligated to accept them. Goodrx has a help line here https://support.goodrx.com/hc/en-us/...odRx-Now-what-.
Thanks, I didn’t know they had a help line and will give it a try.
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Old 05-03-2019, 04:51 PM   #6
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There is another good app called RX Saver by retail me not. I used the phone coupon at Walgreens last week and their price was off by about 12 cents or so but no hassle from them about using the coupon.
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Old 05-04-2019, 10:40 AM   #7
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See my responses below. The first one should answer the basic question your pharmacist was explaining to you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by imoldernu View Post
I'm new to this, so haven't dropped my insurance yet.
> And you probably don't want to. There is a long-term cost to those over 65 who do not have pharmacy coverage.

GoodRx contracts with pharmacies to display their pricing and pharmacies are obliged to accept the coupon price. They don't control the prices - the insurance carriers through their pharmacy benefit managers control the pricing. Prices on GoodRx assume you do not have insurance.

If you decide to use a GoodRx coupon rather than your insurance, you will need to ask the pharmacist to run the prescription without contacting your insurer. They may not be able to do this due to their contracts with insurers.

I don't quite understand how it works... Here's what gets me...
Are the prices stable with GoodRX. Seems like when I go to the website there are several drugs with low prices... Is that just for the day or the week or the month? .... or if I have a prescription that has to be renewed every 90 days, does it automatically give the lowest price... How often does that vary?

>You would have to ask GoodRx how often their site is updated with revised pricing. They list the prices that the pharmacies have given them, and yes, that can change.

Do you have to check the website every time to see if your particular prescription is at a special price?
>Yes you do, and they recommend you check before you order a refill.

Ons of the prescriptions I'm supposed to be taking is Xarelto, which is regularly $455.00. And on GoodRX is $448.00. Is it apt to be reduced , say, to $400.00 for a month?
>Only if the competition (meaning other pharmacies) have lower prices. Probably not likely until there is a generic version. Remember, GoodRx is based on the assumption that you don't have insurance. If an insurer (and their Pharmacy Benefit Manager) find that Xarelto is particularly effective they may offer it to their members at a below retail price. This is the reason you don't want to drop your Rx insurance, esp. if the premium is very low.

The pharmacist at Walmart doesn't want to talk about this stuff, so we've change pharmacists.

So... the basic question is... can we generally expect to get the same price each time we fill the prescriptions? I realize that if the manufacturer raises prices there will be a change, but in the meantime, can I expect the prices to be mostly stable.

For the two of us, we're paying $1600/yr with an insurer for a lower cost prescription policy, and the prices are almost the same as what we paid when we tried GoodRX.

Doesn't matter much, with $4 or $8 drugs, but at some point we're talking real money.

> For non-generic drugs that aren't heavily used or are fairly new, you won't see a big difference between insurance price and GoodRx price because the wholesale price is so high. Where there is volume of prescriptions, the pharmacy benefit manager can negotiate a price - but most pharmacies (unless they are Walmart or Walgreen's) cannot.

The new pharmacist tried to explain, but it didn't make sense to me... I'm not very smart.
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Old 05-04-2019, 10:51 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imoldernu View Post
I'm new to this, so haven't dropped my insurance yet.



Ons of the prescriptions I'm supposed to be taking is Xarelto, which is regularly $455.00. And on GoodRX is $448.00. Is it apt to be reduced , say, to $400.00 for a month?

:
Don't drop your Part D insurance counting on GoodRX!

I also take Xarelto and pay about $110 per 30 days with my Humana Part D insurance plan (after a $415 deductible). As you pointed out, the GoodRx price is much higher.

I always check GoodRx pricing before filling a prescription to be sure my insurance co-pay is a better deal and sometimes GoodRx wins. Sometimes not.

But there are drugs, such as Xarelto, where there is no good deal from any of the discount plans such as GoodRx and if you have dropped your Part D insurance, you're going to be up the proverbial creek.
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Old 05-04-2019, 12:40 PM   #9
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My wife takes a large number of prescription medicines. Even with Medicare Part D, the insurance doesn't really cover very much on her meds--most of which are now generics.

But beware that prescription prices are all over the place at different pharmacies--wide variance.

From what I read online, many of the big national drug store chains are not performing well in profitability. CVS just announced a number of store closings this week.
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Old 05-04-2019, 01:14 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelB View Post
Went to Walgreens for a refill, gave them the GoodRX coupon - same one I’ve been using with them for over a year. They rang up the “list price”, said the GoodRX coupon lower price on my phone was wrong, and blew me off completely.

Something similar happened to DW a week ago. Just wondering if this is a local Walgreens imcident or if others are experiencing this elsewhere.
1. As someone else mentioned, you can contact GoodRx.

2. Cross check with WellRx. For wife's generic prescription, WellRx was better than GoodRx - and both were up to 80% lower than the drug plan on our insurance!

3. If the price differential was not insignificant, and especially if one of their employees was blowing you off, tell Walgreens to shove it and get it filled somewhere else. Walgreens doesn't have a monopoly on prescriptions, nor are they the lowest priced.

4. First time wife used WellRx, the pharmacist input the Group/Bin/PCN codes on to her record in the computer system, and since then it prices all her prescriptions using it - no different than if WellRx were her insurance plan. We've been extremely happy with it compared to what our insurance provides.
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Old 05-04-2019, 02:06 PM   #11
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I don't like Walgreen's and their retail practices.

And that hurts to say, because I grew up with Walgreen's (Chicago, where they started over 100 yrs ago). We got all kinds of things there, from TV tubes, to ice cream, to Sunday brunch. They were also the only place around you could find a Band Aid on Sunday or Christmas.

But in recent years, corporate practices are not to my liking. So, I avoid them.
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Old 05-04-2019, 02:12 PM   #12
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I don't like Walgreen's and their retail practices.

And that hurts to say, because I grew up with Walgreen's (Chicago, where they started over 100 yrs ago). We got all kinds of things there, from TV tubes, to ice cream, to Sunday brunch. They were also the only place around you could find a Band Aid on Sunday or Christmas.

But in recent years, corporate practices are not to my liking. So, I avoid them.
I agree with JoeWras on this one. DW and I used Walgreens for years and after being treated rudely when they tried to give us the wrong prescription more than once, we started with a locally owned pharmacy and are thrilled by the service and prices. There are likely good Walgreen stores, but ours was constantly giving bad service.
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