Many individuals and households feel the weight of prescription costs on their annual budget. Instead of cutting back on your other living expenses, consider learning new ways to cut back on prescription costs.
Here are a few tips for balancing expenses by managing prescription costs:
- Choose generic over name brands: Find out whether you can substitute your prescription meds for a less expensive generic brand. Americans on employer plans could have spent nearly 80 percent less in copays in 2015, if they had switched to generic drugs, according to Kaiser Family Foundation research.
- Shop around: Prescription costs vary from one retailer to another, even in the same region. Check your local pharmacies to see which one offers the most competitive price.
- It never hurts to ask: Check with your pharmacist to see what discounts may be available.
- Ask for an exception: Your insurance provider may cover a drug not on its list or allot a lower copay.
- You’ve got mail: Save money by ordering your common maintenance medications through the mail. On average, people save roughly a third on copays by ordering name-brand drugs through the mail. If purchasing from an online pharmacy, beware of online pharmacy scams. Sites that end in ‘pharmacy’ means that site has received approval by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
- Change things up: Consider checking other insurance plans and researching whether their formulary list covers your prescriptions. Call local pharmacies and tell them the plan you’re considering and what price you’d pay for your prescriptions
Stop overpaying for prescription costs if you don’t have to!