what is the pharmacy hinting?

[Car-Guy]

Obviously US taxpayers.

That of course, was my point.

 

[Turbo29]

US Government revenue: $4.05 trillion
US Government expenditures: $6.82 trillion
Government Revenue | U.S. Treasury Data Lab

 

[Gotadimple]

I just found the cheapest price for my prescription on GoodRX was through GeniusRX. Price is crazy low. Before I place an order I wanted to see if anyone knows anything about GeniusRX or has any experience with them.

GoodRx is not a pharmacy. They aggregate pricing from pharmacies and display it on their website. Some pharmacies may discount further with a coupon or pharmacy card from GoodRx - because the pharmacy will not file a claim with your insurance company.

GeniusRx is a pharmacy licensed in 49 states (see About on their website). They are an internet pharmacy - there are no local stores, you get your meds in the US Mail. Search GeniusRx Reviews for any reviews. You might want to consider what your insurance carrier's price is for mail order compared to this company's quote.

They also do no insurance paperwork filing and discount based on their profitability model. They look to be a fairly new entity, and it doesn't appear that they have any contracts with insurance companies (which is neither good or bad).

 

[Earlygirl]

That is good, but the customer STILL has to ask, and since the law is only 3 yrs old, I'll be a lot of pharmacists have the old habit of charging not the cheapest price and not volunteering and solution.

Our Costco refused to take GoodRx because we had a drug plan. They would take it if we didn't have a drug plan, so we paid extra for the drug because we had a plan
Seems worse than the gag order !

So what if I went to Costco and just said I didn't have a drug plan? Would I be able to use Goodrx or Singlecare? I just checked and the price is cheaper. Luckily right now I don't buy that many prescriptions, so I don't care if it goes toward my deductible.

 

[HGTVFanatic]

I have never experienced this because I use a mail order pharmacy. However, I read awhile ago that sometimes the insurance copay is more than if you just paid out-of-pocket. However, believe it or not, they are not allowed to tell you that. I would look it up if I were you. Or maybe you could just ask how much would it be if you paid cash.

 

[brett]

Perhaps the clerk is tipping you the wink......shop around because our prices are out to lunch.

We often take OTC products to the pharmacist. He usually advises us to buy them and tells us the only difference is the price. Same for some prescription meds.

 

[bigriver]

I retired at 55 and my insurance doesn’t cover my medication. My insurance had copays and my medications were up to $500 a month.
At Sams I haven’t had to pay over $10 a month for each of them. I had looked into Kroger prior. Just a thought

 

[brett]

I never understood why people do not shop prescriptions just like they do other items. Not much different than buying groceries or clothing.

Especially expensive Rx or those that are bought regularly. Lots of applications our there to check pricing.

Our insurer how offers an on line program to check prices. Alas, it does not cover our city. Wish it did since it could have an impact on our annual HSA amount.

 

[isisdave]

You can use Goodrx INSTEAD OF your Medicare drug plan, but not WITH it. I do this all the time. My local Costco has a real wizard of a young man who always figures out the cheapest way.

Besides Goodrx, there is also the free AARP Optum card, and the new Amazon Prime card, and several others. So far, all our prescriptions are free via Medicare (they're all "preventive" I guess) except one, and on that one GoodRx is best.

 

[Earlygirl]

Just checked Goodrx, Singlecare, Geniusrx, Amazon Prime Pharmacy, and Aarp Optum card. For the prescription I need, Singlecare (using Costco) and Amazon Prime Pharmacy were the best prices.


Oh I should have mentioned that it is much higher using the insurance.

 

[travelover]

I never understood why people do not shop prescriptions just like they do other items.................

Many docs want to send the prescription straight to your druggist electronically. I have to ask for a paper prescription so I can shop it around. It is also extra work for the doc, so they don't like paper prescriptions

You can use Goodrx INSTEAD OF your Medicare drug plan, but not WITH it. I do this all the time. My local Costco has a real wizard of a young man who always figures out the cheapest way.........

Not at my Costco in WA. They have my Medicare number on file and will not allow me to buy drugs with GoodRx for myself, though I buy drugs for my dog there with GoodRx.

 

[Ronnieboy]

At the pharmacy I work at we verify the price with the patient before we order it in. 1st so we don’t have an expensive med that the patient didn’t want sitting on our shelf. That costs money. 2nd is in case they don’t want it when they are at the register. Best to refuse it at the point of sale than buying it and wanting to return it later- because the pharmacy can’t redispense the prescription after it has left the pharmacy. For safety’s sake. Whould you want a medication that had been purchased, then returned to the pharmacy?
“Expensive” is different for every person. You’d be surprised at how many people call back or try to return drugs because they had ‘buyers remorse’ or their husband was sent in to get the script and if the wife knew how expensive it was they never would have got it! Well next time tell your husband how much he is allowed to spend
When a pharmacy takes back a med it has to eat the cost. While most people say, “so what, they’re a big corporation, they can afford it” it always comes back in the form of higher prices for other items.
Costco doesn’t accept goodrx for “star” drugs because Medicare actually penalizes the pharmacy, through fees and chargebacks via the insurance company when patients aren’t compliant on said star drugs. This is mainly blood pressure, diabetic, cholesterol, and people with diabetes taking a statin. When you buy a 90 day supply of lisinopril on insurance and you are refilling it every 90 days approximately, the insurance tracks that and sees you’re in compliance. If you buy 90 days on insurance and then in 3 months get 90 days on goodrx then 90 days later on insurance, it looks like that you have missed 90 days worth of meds and you aren’t compliant. They (ins) can’t “see” what you got on goodrx. We are talking millions of dollars per year. And with Costco’s gross margin being about 10% less than the average chain pharmacy, it is a razor thin margin that they are dealing with. It got so bad that it was basically lose money or refuse to take good rx for those meds and they chose the latter. I get a report every morning printed out with any “flags” where someone had one of those Star drugs filled and it was run as cash or something other than med d and we have to investigate it and determine why it was billed that way and probably refuse to fill it if it can’t be fun on Medicare part d.
It is a joke.

 

[travelover]

.........
Costco doesn’t accept Goodrx for “star” drugs because Medicare actually penalizes the pharmacy, through fees and charge backs via the insurance company when patients aren’t compliant on said star drugs. .......

Thanks for the explanation regarding Costco. I'll just do business elsewhere for my "star" drugs.

 

[Koolau]

Don't be fooled by the false choice. The world is 7+ billion people. No one ever said that we have to be chumps and pay for all the research for the whole world. And, in fact, we don't. Big Pharma spends more on advertising than research and a lot of the actual research is funded by the US government, anyway.

Perhaps I didn't say it well, but it was not my intent to suggest a "choice" between alternatives. My point was that the two "issues" exist at the same time. 1) Drug pricing is a mess - a comment on our current discussion. 2) Drug companies still, occasionally hit one out of the park - one reason we're willing to be "over charged", perhaps.

My original point is that the "evil drug companies" do occasionally come up with a miraculous and even life-saving drug. A classic example: The acid blockers (and then the proton pump inhibitors) that began showing up 35 years ago. My dad suffered with ulcers for years. Eventually, he had to have a good portion of his stomach removed and the nerves that allowed acid flow to the remainder were (in some way) cut. The surgery was successful and he no longer suffered from the results of acid in the stomach. BUT, 10 years later, the very first acid blockers came out. You no longer hear about (wide spread) ulcers and the surgeries required to save many lives per year. Did the drug companies make a bundle on the deal. You betcha! So did I. I bought their stock! YMMV

Returning you now...

 

[bs300]

I've been using the GoodRX app on my iPhone. I look it up and if less than using insurance I show the pharmacy and they accept it.

 

[CaptTom]

OK, I give up. What's a "star" drug?

 

[brett]

Many docs want to send the prescription straight to your druggist electronically. I have to ask for a paper prescription so I can shop it around. It is also extra work for the doc, so they don't like paper prescriptions

Not at my Costco in WA. They have my Medicare number on file and will not allow me to buy drugs with GoodRx for myself, though I buy drugs for my dog there with GoodRx.

Our physicians will send the prescription to any pharmacy that we request. More than once we have called the office and asked that the repeat prescription be re-sent to another pharmacy because of location or price. All it takes is a phone call.

 

[Dash man]

Many docs want to send the prescription straight to your druggist electronically. I have to ask for a paper prescription so I can shop it around. It is also extra work for the doc, so they don't like it.

I just have prescriptions sent electronically to my CVS pharmacy. If I want to purchase from somewhere else, such as Giant or Wegmans, I just call them and ask them to transfer the prescription from CVS. They take care of it. With one prescription from GoodRx, I was able to request it from them by mail order and filled out the request online. I had it within a week.

 

[brett]

The VERY last thing we want is to be 'captive' customers of any pharmacy.

Or any other business for that matter.

My daughter lives in rural area about 4 hours from a large city. They do not have a drug plan. She and one of her children are on expensive medication. She cut her prescription costs by having some prescriptions filled at a Costco in that closest large city. It arrives by mail, sometimes UPS, and sometimes it is picked up by a friend who happens to be in town depending on the urgency. She saves $1500. plus a year simply by asking the physician's office to redirect the rx to another pharmacy.

Why would she pay $360 for a prescription in town when she can source it elsewhere for $140-175? A big saving for a three minute phone call.

She has also had one or two scrips sent from the Costco she uses to one near our home when she has been visiting and needed a refill. No issue whatsoever.

We live in a world of electronic health records.

 

[RetMD21]

Michigan, and probably other states, are going to eprescriptions only. It was supposed to be today but it was put off a year to comply with the Covid delay in Medicare's part D eprescribing mandate. Still you should be able to get prescriptions transferred.

 

[travelover]

Our physicians will send the prescription to any pharmacy that we request. More than once we have called the office and asked that the repeat prescription be re-sent to another pharmacy because of location or price. All it takes is a phone call.

I just have prescriptions sent electronically to my CVS pharmacy. If I want to purchase from somewhere else, such as Giant or Wegmans, I just call them and ask them to transfer the prescription from CVS. They take care of it. With one prescription from GoodRx, I was able to request it from them by mail order and filled out the request online. I had it within a week.

Thanks for the input. I was under the impression that when the doc send the prescription to a pharmacy, they set about filling it. So, If I transfer the prescription to a lower cost pharmacy, it seems like the initial effort by the first pharmacy was wasted. With a paper prescription, I can find the lowest cost provider and just drop off the prescription. I guess if one was more rural that might be a bigger deal.

 

[Dean56]

Last week I picked up a prescription for my mom. Without telling him, the pharmacist pulled out his phone and checked the Good Rx & Single Care pricing and gave me the best price. I was a little shocked that he did this on his own. I thanked him for going the extra mile.

 

[Ronnieboy]

OK, I give up. What's a "star" drug?

A star(s) drug are specific drugs that have show to help reduce hospitalizations and mortality in people who take then consistently. Being compliant with their meds.

That would include blood pressure pills (Lisinoril, Losartan, etc.) Cholesterol pills, mainly statins (atovastatin, simvastatin, lovastatin, etc.) Diabetes meds (metformin, glyburide, glimepriride, etc.) There is also a metric on people who have diabetes, should also be on a statin and that is measured too.

I can honestly say that if you are getting 90 day supplies of these generic, inexpensive medications the price difference between good rx and your medicare part d is probably negligible. I am only talking about these specific GENERIC medications, not a non stars drug like asthma inhaler symbicort, or fluorouracil cream for your pre-cancerous skin spot. Go bonkers with GoodRx on that.

For example 90 tabs of lisinopril 20mg, a 90 day supply, is $11 at Costco-cash price, which means your medicare part d copay is probably the same price or less, the good rx price is $16.30 at the same Costco and the least expensive option on GoodRx is $10 at Wal-Mart, is it really worth $1 for 90 days, $4 for the year to give GoodRx all your personal and medical information?
Is it worth $1 to not use the mediare part D prescription plan that you are already paying for? Its not going to get you to the donut hole any faster and the donut hole is disappearing anyhow. Not worth the hassle of going to multiple pharmacies to get the GoodRx price at one and the better insurance prices at another. Donut hole gonners

I think not but that's just my own opinion, YMMV