Bargain Shopping Your Prescriptions

Pharmaceutical prices are on the rise, as anyone who takes prescription medication knows. Seniors have an especially difficult time, since, on average, they take more medications than other age groups and are often on fixed incomes.

But budget-breaking prescription costs are not just effecting seniors. Get sick once and your prescription costs could be enough to send you scrambling for months to get your budget back on track. Have a condition that requires daily maintenance medications? Every month could put you in the position of having to choose between buying your necessary prescriptions and paying a bill or eating. There is help though. By employing some creative tactics, you can legally reduce your prescription costs.

Some chain retailers with pharmacy departments, like WalMart and Sams, offers a lot of prescriptions at significantly reduced prices. You can purchase a 30-day supply of some medications for only $4, or a 90-day supply for only $10. There are several hundred medications available on this program, so the chances are very good that something you need is on the list. You can pick up a copy of the covered prescriptions at your local WalMart, or you can go online to WalMart.com under the pharmacy department tab to get a list. Take a copy of this list with you when you go to your doctor so that he/she can find something that meets your needs.

Publix also wants to help you with your health-care costs, so they will give you a great deal on certain antibiotics doctors often prescribe. New or current customers can take in a prescription for one of eight different oral antibiotics to their neighborhood Publix Pharmacy and receive it FREE, up to a 14-day supply. There are no limits on the number of prescriptions you can have filled. And they're FREE to you regardless of your prescription insurance provider. The list of antibiotics is available at your local Publix pharmacy, or online at Publix.com under the pharmacy tab.

If your doctor wants to prescribe something that is not on either of these lists, ask for samples. Pharmaceutical companies often provide doctors with samples of new and popular medications to give to their patients. If your doctor has the samples, it is likely that you can get enough to treat your one-time illness, or get you through a month or so of maintenance medication. This is especially helpful if your doctor is wanting to try a different treatment for a chronic condition. It's a horrible waste of money to fill an entire prescription only to find out after a week or two that the medication isn't working for you.

Another place to get ongoing help with prescription costs is through the pharmaceuticals companies themselves. Pfizer offers patient assistance programs to people without prescription coverage. These programs provide:

• Savings on Pfizer medicines, regardless of age or income; or
• Free Pfizer medicines for people with limited incomes who qualify

Go to PfizerHelpfulAnswers.com to search by program or by drug. Pfizer does have pretty strict guidelines in who qualifies and who doesn't, but it's worth the time to fill out the application. Who knows, you may just meet the criteria.

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) is a nonprofit organization that helps to match qualifying patients who lack prescription coverage with public or private program that provide prescription assistance. Many people in the program get their prescriptions for free or nearly free. To access the Partnership for Prescription Assistance by phone, you can call toll-free, 1-888-4PPA-NOW (1-888-477-2669), or you can apply online at PPARX.org.

If you have checked out all of the above options, and find that you have to pay for your medications, there are still a few other ways that you can save money on your prescription costs.

The first is to take advantage of the pharmacy incentives. Several of the larger chains (CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, etc.) are offering $25 gift cards for your new and transferred prescriptions. While the gift card does not reduce the prescription price, it does help offset the cost of other items that you may be buying at that store. And, if you are already doing your bargain shopping at these stores, $25 translates into a lot of free toiletries and personal care items. The $25 gift card applies to every new/transferred prescription regardless of the prescription cost or insurance coverage you may have, and there are no rules that prohibit you from transferring that same prescription the next month to another pharmacy that offers a gift card incentive.

The second way to save money is to ask your doctor to write your prescription at double strength with instructions to take 1/2 of the pill. Surprisingly, most prescriptions are considerably cheaper this way (think "buying in bulk"). I personally cut my annual prescription costs by 25% using this method. You will need to purchase a pill cutter in order to implement this method and still get the correct dosage, but a model should cost you less than $5. Keep in mind, though, that your doctor is not going to prescribe 30 pills for 30 days at double dose. If it is a one month prescription at double dose you will only get 15 pills. Anything else would put your doctor in jeopardy of losing his license.

And, finally, ask your doctor to approve generics with your prescriptions. I think everyone already knows that generics are almost always cheaper than brand names, and when they are available the difference can be significant, but unless your doctor allows generics your pharmacists can not give them to you. Always make sure you ask for the cheapest medication available because in some instances the brand name is cheaper. If your medication is not available this month as a generic, ask again next month. At some point almost every medication becomes available as a generic, and you don't want to miss out on the savings when it does.

By using one or more of these strategies, you too can make prescription costs a little easier to swallow. (Yeah, I know, it's a bad joke, but you have to take them where you can get them...)