Prescription Costs - Techniques To Reduce Costs

Techniques To Reduce Costs

Ways to Reduce Prescription Costs

Pill splitting

Many pill-form drugs are produced in several different dosages. For example, a medicine may be prescribed at a 25 mg or a 50 mg dose. Some medicines can be prescribed at a higher dose and then the tablets can be split into two or more parts. High-dose pill are often much cheaper per unit weight than their low-dose counterparts. Not all pills can be split, since some come as time release capsules or require very precise dosing.

Generic drugs

Generic drugs are much less expensive than brand-name drugs. Many people think that generics are less effective or less safe than a brand name drug, but this is an error. Once a drug is developed, it is protected by patent and sold as a brand name drug for several years, and can be sold as a generic drug or under a different brand when the patent expires.

90-day supply

Some drugs are available in a three-month supply at a lower unit cost than a smaller supply.

Stopping medicines that may no longer be needed

Taking a prescription medicine may become so routine that patients continue to take it even when it is no longer necessary. However, many medicines may not be needed indefinitely.

Buying from cheaper supplier

Different suppliers may have different prices. There are several government and commercial websites that will compare the prices for a given dosage of a given medication at different pharmacies.

Target followed suit in some locations soon after Wal-Mart. Many other chains have followed their lead, including CVS and Sams Club(owned by walmart). Most chains in the USA now offer some sort of discount plan. This is usually in the form of a special price list, a loyalty discount program, or price matching of other competitors schemes. Prescription pricing has become extremely competitive, with such discounts often resulting in a charge lower than the copay through a patients insurance.

Counterfeit medications

There are many counterfeit medicines on the market, posing as both generic and proprietary brands. The counterfeits may be less effective than the real drug, or may have no active ingredients at all. This is a particular problem in countries with poor supervision of the pharmaceutical sector, which often also have many inhabitants with low incomes. Medicines bought over the Internet are also often found to be counterfeit. This can make saving on prescription costs risky.

Research regarding out-of-pocket prescription costs

While there are many mechanisms for reducing out-of-pocket prescription costs, pharmaceutical samples actually do not reduce prescription costs. Even after receiving samples, sample recipients remain disproportionately burdened by prescription costs.

For many drugs, especially brand-name antihypertensive fixed-dose medications, the clinical benefits must be balanced with patient financial burden and nonadherence during prescribing.

A study has been done on the cost effectiveness of purchasing a three-month supply, which finds that there is a quantitative cost difference when patients in the U.S. fill larger quantities of a prescription drug for a chronic condition.

Another way to perhaps reduce out-of-pocket costs is to improve physicians' access to health information technology. While physicians with high rates of IT use do not significantly higher knowledge of drug costs, it has been suggested that health IT should be improved to make it easier for physicians to access cost information at the point of care.