what is the pharmacy hinting?

[Out of Steam]

Many name-brand drugs have a savings program sponsored by the manufacturer. I'm enrolled in two of them, saving just over $100 a month between them.

 

[RetMD21]

Pharmacies seem to vary by how helpful they will be. I am not sure if this is pharmacist discretion or corporate policy.

 

[travelover]

Pharmacies seem to vary by how helpful they will be. I am not sure if this is pharmacist discretion or corporate policy.

Costco won't accept GoodRx coupons if you have Medicare, but my local Fred Meyer pharmacy will, so definitely corporate policy in that case.

 

[bingybear]

I found that if I used goodrx. So I needed to decide if I wanted the discount or to have it apply to my deductible.

 

[razztazz]

Many name-brand drugs have a savings program sponsored by the manufacturer. I'm enrolled in two of them, saving just over $100 a month between them.

I've always had good enough insurance that I haven't delved too much into this. Gig me if I'm wrong but I have always been under the impression that those "drug savings" and "help for people who need drugs" programs apply only to people who don't have any insurance. If you have insurance you have to just go with that flow.

 

[Charlotte]

My college aged daughter works part time in a pharmacy as a tech and she said she points out the price to the customer each time at checkout, just to make sure the price is what they were expecting. Sometimes the $$ is higher than a customer can afford, sometimes insurance has paid or not paid.

She was saying that just the other day, a customer had to walk away from their prescription because a single month supply cost $600 and they couldn’t pay for it.

She regularly rings up prescriptions in that price range and once had a single prescription ring up at $1200. Ouch, drugs can be expensive.

 

[athena53]

My college aged daughter works part time in a pharmacy as a tech and she said she points out the price to the customer each time at checkout, just to make sure the price is what they were expecting. Sometimes the $$ is higher than a customer can afford, sometimes insurance has paid or not paid.

I have one prescription, no GoodRx discount, $385 for a supply that typically lasts me 3-4 months. I do load up at year-end once I've satisfied the deductible!

Every year for the first refill the pharmacist typically looks at the price and says quietly, "This is a bit expensive" or something similar. Since it alleviates a symptom of menopause, if the pharmacist is female I just smile and tell them this is Big Pharma's revenge on post-menopausal women who want to have an active sex life. I can imagine that some customers decide they don't want to pay that much for something that's not life-saving.

 

[Out of Steam]

I've always had good enough insurance that I haven't delved too much into this. Gig me if I'm wrong but I have always been under the impression that those "drug savings" and "help for people who need drugs" programs apply only to people who don't have any insurance. If you have insurance you have to just go with that flow.

No, I have quite good insurance, just with some copayments for brand-name drugs that are higher than average. These are manufacturer-sponsored cards specific to the drug, and don't have income limitations.

 

[grayv]

the whispering part sounds like a respectful courtesy, in case you could not afford it.

there are probably some people who would decline to buy the drug, and just do without.

 

[razztazz]

No, I have quite good insurance, just with some copayments for brand-name drugs that are higher than average. These are manufacturer-sponsored cards specific to the drug, and don't have income limitations.

I don't think I would need to avail myself of this at this time. All of my drugs are either "no co-pay" from me (free drugs) or 10 bucks, but it's sure good to know there's an alternate route since I ain't gettin' any younger.

 

[OldShooter]

When I pick up an rx at the pharmacy, if the price is over $50 or so, the clerk generally points to it and whispers, "Oh! Is the price OK on this one?" Since this has now happened a few times, I'm thinking they are hinting something, like maybe I'm supposed to flinch at the price and they'll reduce it? Or, are they hinting there's a Goodrx coupon? Are they not allowed to just come out and say so unless the patient requests it? I've tried a generic reply like, "Wow, yes, that is expensive!" but that does not change the price. It feels like there's some knowledge I'm missing that could help here.

I have one drug that can be a several hundred dollar hit depending on where we are in the insurance payment shell game. I have gotten those calls before they mail the scrip out and assumed that they are a courtesy heads-up for customers for whom the charge many be a problem or even push them over a credit limit. So though I do appreciate the courtesy, I have had them mark my customer record to indicate that the calls are unnecessary.

(Excepting unusual circumstances I always have my scrips mailed. I never need makeup or junk food, which appear to be pharmacies' main businesses. So no reason to go in.)

 

[CaptTom]

...I have always been under the impression that those "drug savings" and "help for people who need drugs" programs apply only to people who don't have any insurance...

I thought that too, until that one time I had a prescription which cost a couple of orders of magnitude more than I expected, even with my (usually very good) insurance. GoodRx saved the day, and I ended up paying some trivial amount.


Likewise my wife's meds. Insurance covers some, and the manufacturer kicks in most of the rest, again leaving a reasonable co-pay. There are annual limits, and of course they could cancel the program any time. But so far it's saved us quite a bit.

 

[Time2]

Many name-brand drugs have a savings program sponsored by the manufacturer. I'm enrolled in two of them, saving just over $100 a month between them.

I have a BP med that the lowest GoodRx price is $150, I get it through the manufacturer for $45 a month, if I get a 3 month supply. Saves me $100 a month. Then I only take 1/2 a pill, a whole pill makes my BP to low especially an standing op walking up steps. But, 1/2 pill does the job.

 

[Sunset]

I don’t think that is true anymore.

Pharmacist gag orders were made illegal in 2018. https://www.aarp.org/health/drugs-supplements/info-2018/gag-rules-pharmacists.html

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 !

 

[travelover]

...........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 !

I had the same experience so I moved my prescription over to a supermarket chain pharmacy that plays ball with GoodRx. I still buy my dog's prescriptions at Costco. He is uninsured.

 

[Sunset]

I had the same experience so I moved my prescription over a supermarket chain pharmacy that plays ball with GoodRx. I still buy my dog's prescriptions at Costco. He is uninsured.

We did the same thing, moved to Walmart as is closer.

 

[11522914]

I have an asthma drug that my Part D plan doesn’t cover and costs over $900/90 days. GoodRx doesn’t bring the price down, but SingleCare (similar to GoodRx) brings the cost down to $221/90days. My point is there are several prescription discount programs out there and it’s worth checking them all.

Thanks.

For someone who takes pride in finding the lowest price, I never thought to use something other than GoodRX since the savings were usually substantial.

I compared SingleCare to GoodRX and on one medicine I recently purchased I would have saved $30 using SingleCare.

 

[Koolau]

Two things that come to mind in all this discussion:

1) Dealing with point of service price variability (after all insurance/discounts) is problematic.

2) Some new prescription drugs are almost miraculous in their ability to save lives and/or limit suffering (what is that worth?).

How we resolve these two issues is anyone's guess at this point. YMMV

 

[RetiredHappy]

Yesterday my dermatologist prescribed a cream (Pimecrolimus). CVS texted me that my prescription was ready and the cost was $100. Along the way, I checked GoodRx and it came up as $83.22. I showed the pharmacy tech my GoodRx screen and she took down all the codes and went back to cancel out the prescription and redid it with GoodRx. Saved me $16.78.

 

[travelover]

.........
2) Some new prescription drugs are almost miraculous in their ability to save lives and/or limit suffering (what is that worth?). ........

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.

 

[RetMD21]

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 !

On one of wife's prescriptions Safeway gave us the GoodRx price w/o asking. Meijer (Michigan) hinted that the insurance price seemed high and gave us the Goodrx price when we mentioned it but didn't ask for a code or confirmation, Walgreens never mentions alternatives but will give you the discount if you give them the Goodrx details.

I mentioned my dissatisfaction in a previous thread. We started out just looking for an early refill for DW that the insurance wouldn't authorize and found that insurance/Walgreen was the most expensive option.

 

[Car-Guy]

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.

Interesting comments. Just curious, who funds the US government?

 

[Car-Guy]

2) Some new prescription drugs are almost miraculous in their ability to save lives and/or limit suffering (what is that worth?).

+1 (a lot) but YMMV

 

[freedomatlast]

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.

 

[Turbo29]

Interesting comments. Just curious, who funds the US government?

Obviously US taxpayers. If you consider the fact that the US Dollar is the world's reserve currency and you consider that US debt that is exported worldwide and then add the "inflation tax" and the fact that the US reserve currency status causes US inflation to be exported worldwide to an extent, you might say that the whole world funds the US government.