Self-pay at the pharmacy: The Rx for saving money on prescriptions
By: Prescryptive Health
The next time you step up to the pharmacy counter, don’t assume insurance is the cheapest option. Ask what your medication will cost out of pocket and find out if you’re getting the best possible price.
Prescription prices keep going up and too many people are left looking for new ways to afford the medications they need. An estimated 81 million prescriptions get left at the pharmacy due to cost. When medicine doesn’t get picked up because the price is too high, better health gets left behind, too.
But there are options. Mobile-first technology is putting more prescription power in the patient’s hand, providing the ability to shop for better prices on medications. And pharmacies are adapting to cost challenges, too. One of the up-and-coming changes to the process: pharmacies that offer more ways for customers to save, including “self pay” for prescriptions.
It’s no secret: the current pharmaceutical system is broken and in desperate need of an overhaul. With too many middlemen, including PBMs, ready to take a cut of the sale, prices get inflated and the customers foot the bill. The self-pay model sidesteps the middle and passes the savings on to patients.
According to Avalere Health, 91% of prescriptions in the United States are currently filled through insurance. However, cash pharmacies are growing in numbers, and many pharmacists say they believe the savings offered and the ability to shop for different drugs will draw in more customers.
Not only does self-pay benefit the customer, but it also allows pharmacists to focus on their business and their patients instead of the system. Less time spent on the back and forth with PBMs means more time to help their communities stay healthy.
The benefits of self pay:
- Patients save money on generic drugs
- Eliminates the need for a pharmacy discount card
- No middleman or insurance company interference
- 100% transparent pricing of prescription medications
- More time for pharmacists to focus on their patients
If you have insurance with great coverage, self-pay might not be for you. But if you’re one of the millions of people in the U.S. on a high-deductible plan, or no insurance at all, self-pay might be the smartest way to pay. A mobile-first tool like myPrescryptive can show you all the options for how to pay at the pharmacy, and let you know the self-pay price before you get there.