How to Slash Prescription Costs

With health expenses on the rise, many patients are looking for ways to slash costs. Here are some tips for cutting your prescription costs:

1.Look for Pharmacy coupons. Many pharmacies send out advertisements offering gift-cards for bringing a new prescription to be filled or transferring a prescription from another pharmacy. Transferring a prescription isn't that hard. The easiest way I've found to transfer is to call the pharmacy that you want the prescription to go to and ask them to do it! Then you can spend your gift-card to pick up your next prescription. Also check and see if a pharmacy near you accepts competitor coupons. My favorite pharmacy to use is one inside of a grocery store. Then I can use the gift-card for groceries! There are a few exclusions so read the coupon carefully. One exclusion that appears often says that you can't get a gift-card if you are using Medicaid to pay for your prescription. So check and see how much the prescription is without using Medicaid and see if you would still come out with some profit if you paid for the prescription out of pocket.

2.Ask your doctor for samples. Pharmacy representatives visit doctors on a regular basis and leave an abundance of prescription samples all the time. So next time you are at the doctor, ask if he has samples of the medications that he is prescribing you. My doctor regularly gives out his samples and typically will give me the entire course of medication in little sample packs. It doesn't hurt to ask. The worst that could happen is that the doctor says he doesn't have any available.

3. Ask for a generic. Generic prescriptions usually have a lower co-payment on most insurance plans. So be sure to ask your doctor for a generic instead of a brand name one. I've never had a medication not work because it was a generic. After all the Food and Drug Administration oversees prescriptions.

4. Check Walmart and Target $4 lists. Both Walmart and Target have launched a $4 list for generic drugs. So once you have your generic prescription see if the medication is included on one of the lists. If your co-payment is less than $4 you get the co-payment price. If the $4 price is less, you get the prescription for $4.

5. Ask about Pill Splitting. Some pills can be split in half. Ask your doctor to see if you are a candidate for this. It could cut your prescription costs in half.