30 Second Insurance Tips©

Tip 253- At the Corner of Nifty and Thrifty

Here are two ways to refill a prescription:

  1. wait in line at the pharmacy for 15 minutes behind the guy with a raging cold and the sweet little old lady who can’t seem to get her credit card to work.  Repeat every 30 days.
  2. use your insurer’s mail order program. You’ll get a 90 day refill conveniently delivered to your home.  And, you’ll save money. Say, for example, your brand name medication has a $40 co-pay. At the pharmacy, you’d spend $120 (3X $40) for a 90 day supply. Most mail order plans charge you 2.5X the retail co-pay, in this case $ 100.

The phone number for your mail order program is on your health insurance ID card. Typically, you can call 24/7. (Just like your pharmacy, right?)
One more quick thought.

Generic co-pays are usually half those for brand name drugs. In my example above, the annualized cost of the brand name drug at the pharmacy would be $480; for a generic drug bought through the mail order program, $200.

Spend the savings on a health club membership. Your mail order drug plan has freed up some time to actually use it!