Tips to Trim on Your Family’s Prescription Spending

Branded medications cost more due to the research and tests went into producing it. Americans fill nearly 2 billion generic prescriptions each year for good reasons. These generics contain the same active ingredient as their brand-name counterparts and are just as strong, but cost nearly one-fourth of their brand-name versions. Big chain pharmacies including Walmart and Target charge only $4 for a 30-day supply of many generics. You may also get a 90-day supply of generics for just $10. And there are no extra fees or membership costs.

FDA has a list of pills that can be safely split. These pills have a score or split mark to indicate where you can split them. You can take a double-strength medication and then split it, this way; you can save money as double dose medicines usually cost less. Talk to your doctor if you could split your medication as some drugs may be harmful if split before use. Extended-release or slow-release medications should not be split. Also, split only one pill at a time and use up both halves before splitting another pill.

Shop around to save on prescription medications as medications prices may vary from pharmacy-to-pharmacy. Some get them directly from the manufacturers while others may use a middleman that may drive up the costs. Check drug prices at www.ezrxdrugcard.com for the lowest price of medications near your local pharmacies for savings on prescription drugs.

You may be able to make 5 to 15 percent saving on prescription medications by shopping from your plan’s preferred drugstore. These drugstores may be the only places where your plan can pay for your copays. However, insurers shuffle these stores, so check back the list of preferred pharmacies every year.

Enroll in a health savings account (HSA) or flexible savings account (FSA).  FSA and HSA allow you to pay for your family’s prescription medications with your pre-tax earnings. Depending on your marginal tax rate, you can save significantly on your family’s prescription medication costs. Employees often contribute to FSAs and HSAs. Their rules of these two accounts differ slightly, unlike HSAs that are rolled over to the next year, FSAs do not roll over to the next year, and you lose any money kept in it at the end of the year. So, keep only that amount of money in your FSA that you think you will be able to must utilize during a year.

If your income falls below a designated level, you may qualify for Medicare Extra Help wherein you will not have to pay more than $2.65 for generic medications and $6.60 for branded medications.

You can apply for State Pharmaceutical Assistance Program in case you do not qualify for Medicare Extra Help or Medicaid. However, these programs are not available in every state and do not cover every medication for every disease or condition. These programs have specific and variable eligibility requirements that are tailored for low-income, uninsured individuals to help manage their chronic and costly diseases.

Buy your medicines only from licensed pharmacies in the US. Do not get them from overseas mail-order pharmacies just to save money as quality and safety of such medications is not known.