BetterRxCard


Saving Consumers Time and Money on Prescription Drug Costs

Pharmacies can't do much about your high co-pays

by BetterRxCard 4. January 2010 20:06

I saw this article (well, it's more of a response from one pharmacist, an owner/operator) and thought it provided some good perspective on the challenges of co-pays. 

 

Here, the pharmacist talks about how they are helpless to do much about charging you less than the copay for the drug your doctor prescribed. And he's right.  The pharmacy can get in trouble if they try to deviate in any way from what the rules are as laid out by the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and/or the "payer" (your insurance company basically).

 

Okay, so what do you do about high copays?  You can complain to your benefits person at your company. While they may empathize, there is probably little they can do about it.

 

The better way would be to work with your doctor to see if there is another drug on your formulary that would work just as well for you, but cost less. You can go out and research this on websites, take notes, then find out how much the new drug costs and if it is on your formulary at all.  The next time you are in the doctor’s office you can strike up that conversation and see where it goes.

 

Or you can try a service like EquivaMeds, the option we've added to the BetterRxCard discount drug program.  EquivaMeds does all this for you, typically providing multiple options for your doctor to consider.  This information is new to your physician since they don't know how much drugs cost or what you pay for them at the pharmacy.

 

So eureka!  You and your doctor now both have access to new information you didn't have before, and it all takes about 3 minutes. Risk free?  Yeah, pretty much, since the service won't charge you anything unless it can first save you at least $120/year. And with the BetterRxCard, you can save 75% off the one-time fee of $19.95 if you choose to; like I said, it's an option.

 

Frankly, I think any pharmacist would love to have something like this to provide to patients.  It would be a nice option for their customers and would save the pharmacist, physician, and customer time and money. That makes it a win/win/win!

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About ... Genuity Group

For years, Genuity Group has been engaged in finding new ways to save money on prescription drugs by blending technology with patients needs and doctor and pharmacist requirements. Along the way we learnd a lot! We used that knowledge to  created new, innovative ways to help consumers and employers save money on prescription drugs.

 

In 2006, we created a new technology that would save millions of dollars off the cost of brand name drugs for self-insured employers and consumers. That technology, called EquivaMeds, is a patent-pending tool that has averaged more than $700 per year in savings for consumers nationwide – nearly four times more savings than is possible with a traditional discount drug card.

 

In 2009, we introduced BetterRxCard, a discount drug card program that not only provided the best discounts available for consumers when insurance wasn't an option, but it also provides a way to save on expensive brand name drugs.



Now I we're sharing some of what I've learned here.  Sure, we'll talk about projects we're working on, like the BetterRxCard and EquivaMeds.  But there are other ways out there to save and many other things to consider when you are in a position that you need to find the facts and make a decision.  I hope we provide some of the information to help you, one of the  58% of Americans that have some form of monthly prescription drug cost, save money.

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