![]() ![]() Pharma company patient assistance programs. Contrary to some doctors’ concerns, this is not insurance fraud if you’re not buying it with insurance, and AFAIK there’s no such thing as defrauding a pharmacy.ģ. Do not ask the pharma companies or trust their literature – they will always say it’s unsafe, for self-interested reasons. Ask your doctor whether this is safe for whatever medication you use. Others like seizure medication are a bad idea to split in case you end up taking slightly different doses each time. Note that some pills cannot be divided in this way – cutting XR pills screws up the extended release mechanism. You’ll need a cooperative doctor willing to prescribe you the higher dose. Cut each 30 mg pill into sixths, and now you have six months’ worth of Abilify 5 mg, for a total cost of $5 per month. ![]() Remember how a month of Abilify 5 mg cost $30 with the coupon? Well, a month of Abilify 30 mg also costs $30. Even if you have insurance, GoodRx prices are sometimes lower than your copay.Ģ. This is not only important in and of itself, but its price comparison feature is also important to figure out how best to apply the other features in this category. GoodRx negotiates discounts so that individual consumers can get drugs for the same discounted price as insurances (or better) they also list the prices at each pharmacy so you know where to shop. If you have insurance, it all (mostly) cancels out in the end if you don’t, you end up paying inflated prices with no relation to reality. Insurances and pharmacies play a weird game where insurances say they’ll only pay one-tenth the sticker price for drugs, and pharmacies respond by dectupling the price of everything. For example, one month of Abilify 5 mg usually costs $930 at Safeway, but only $30 with a GoodRx coupon. This is first because it’s probably the most important thing most people can do to save money on health care. They might also have other ways to help you save money, like giving you the free sample boxes they get from drug reps.ġ. Often doctors don’t think about this and will be happy to work with you if they know you need it. ![]() If even after all this your prescription medication is too expensive, please talk to your doctor about whether it can be replaced with a less expensive medication. This section is about ways to get prescription medication for cheaper. If you’re not sure, check and look into the particular patchwork of assistance programs in your state and county. This is intended for people who already know they do not qualify for government assistance. ![]() None of this is medical advice use at your own risk. Within the US, they are a combination of legal and probably-legal I’ve tried to mark which is which but I am not a lawyer and can’t make promises. They are US-based and may not apply to other countries. This is a collection of tricks I’ve learned (mostly from them) to help deal with these situations. I have a lot of patients who are uninsured, or who bounce on and off insurance, or who have trouble affording their co-pays. Everyone knows medical care in the US is expensive even with insurance and prohibitively expensive without it. ![]()
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