I just got a prescription for a nasal steroid. Since it came with a $40 coupon, I fear it may be expensive. Ignoring the insurance issue for the moment, are prescription medications priced like anything else, in that the price can vary from store to store?
If so, is there any way to check prices other than to give them your insurance information? I hate to go through that more than once.
Yes, they charge different prices. One of my mother’s psoriasis prescriptions is significantly cheaper at Hanaford than anywhere else, which is important because her insurance won’t cover it at the size she buys so she needs to pay out of pocket (apparently insurance will only pay for a two-ounce tube, which with her fixed copay costs 75% of buying a pound size container herself). Until she did this a few years ago I didn’t know that it was common to go to one pharmacy for some of your prescriptions, and elsewhere for others.
I believe you can ask the pharmacy what they charge for the drug and extrapolate how much you’d pay from your copay rate. The actual price would probably require them knowing which insurance company your policy is with at the very least.
Yes very different…I’d just let your fingers do the walking and call around first.
Your copay is not usually based on the cash price of the medication, so if you give them your insurance information the price should be the same from pharmacy to pharmacy. It would really only be relevant if you’re paying cash for the medication.
FYI- usually the cheapest prescriptions are at the club stores like Costco, Sam’s or BJ’s and you do NOT need to be a member to fill prescriptions there. In fact, they are legally prohibited from requiring you to belong in order to use their pharmacies.
Sorry I glossed over the “ignore the insurance issue” part. You can call and ask the cash price of the medication, and yeah it will vary from store to store. Brand names probably won’t vary that much, maybe a couple dollars, but generics can vary by quite a bit.
Setting all of this aside, is there any reason you’re using a prescription for a name-brand nasal steroid? (I doubt you’re getting a coupon for a generic, which is why I make this assumption.) There are a bunch of generics out there, and AFAIK they’re not much different from the expensive, more recent versions. You might want to ask your doctor if fluticasone or one of the other generics might be sufficient for you; those are much cheaper.
Just in case someone wanted a cite for the first few answers …
Thank you, everyone!
The reason I am looking into the non-generic is that the MD claimed it is not as terrible-tasting as the generic. The sample is pretty awful, so I wonder if the generic can be much worse.
Canada drugs or other similar Canadian online drug stores will get you very competitive, if not the best, prices sans insurance.
Some pharmacies (you can search online) have lists of meds that are $4 for a months supply and $10 for 3 months.
If you do a search on '$4 prescription’s they will come up and they will have a list of the meds for that price.
Some others charge $11.99 for 3 months.
Shop around online.
Since this has gotten bumped, I want to pass along a cool piece of advice I got at work: there’s a website called “good RX” that lets you search for a drug by your zip code, so you can get the best price from area stores.
My wife uses this. It’s really worth checking out.