Now that we are in the thick of the holiday season and there is a tendency to overspend, I decided to share some money saving opportunities. I have always loved to get a good deal and save money. Now that I am retired, I have plenty, maybe too much, time to find exciting ways to save money. As I come across noteworthy money saving opportunities, I will write about them in this blog.

I notice as I have gotten a bit older, I am taking more prescription medications. Even with health insurance, paying for multiple prescriptions is expensive and potentially even a financial crisis. This financial burden is particularly cumbersome when purchasing a recurring prescription.

I found three excellent ways to save money on prescription costs. The first is GoodRx. GoodRx is an application that runs on your smartphone. You can also use the website from a computer or other device. All you do is enter your location and prescription name, GoodRx will then find the best price at near-by pharmacies. You might be thinking I have health insurance, isn’t using my insurance always the best deal? For this past year, GoodRx has beaten my insurance cost62% of the time, including the lower cost mail order option. When you find the GoodRx deal you want, simply show the coupon from the app to the pharmacist to get advertised price. If you don’t know your insurance cost, most pharmacists will take coupon information andcompare it to your insurance cost and give you the best deal. So far, I haven’tfound any strings with using GoodRx.

The second way to save money on prescription costs is to use manufacturing coupons. I recently received a prescribed medication that cost over $800 on GoodRx and withmy insurance. I was despondent thinking I would justhave to pay the $800. While searching for a cheaper solution, I discovered themanufacturer for this medication had a coupon that reduced my cost to $15. Iwas dubious that the coupon would work,but it did. I begin investigating these manufacturing coupons and found theyare mostly available for brand-nameprescriptions with no generic alternative. I realize there may be some concernthat those paying the higher price are subsidizing the coupon. This financial imbalance bothered me for about onesecond as I drove to the pharmacy to save over $785.

How is it possible for the insurance co-pay to be more expensive than the direct price of the drug, particularly if GoodRx or a manufacturer coupon is applied. The companies that manage your health insurance charge what is known as a “clawback” to cover their costs and improve their profits. Shown below is a good article describing how the “clawback” works.

USC study shows that patients overpay for drug prescriptions 23 percent of the time

The third way to save money is to pay cash. This process is as simple as asking your pharmacist for the cash price of the medication. Some drug manufacturers are incented to lower their cash price to cut out paying the middleman. This technique is particularly useful at Wal-Mart and Costco. It is always a good idea to ask your pharmacist for the cash price.

As you can see from this confusing morass, there are many serious issues with prescriptiondrug pricing transparency in this country, butI will save this topic for another blog.

If you aren’t taking many prescription drugs today, eventually you will. Make sure all your family members, especially senior citizens, are aware of the great money saving opportunities.

Make the most of this day!