My husband who is disabled with a double brain injury full blown glaucoma in his right eye dysphagia a muscle disorder which is deemed the most painful. and hernia. We have to use discount cards to fill his pain prescription.
Walmart said they no longer accept those so I asked if they had any other program to help pay on them.I was told NOT ON THOSE but the price tripled.it went up to 75 dollars cash.I called other pharmacies after I got home and their cash price was 49$ .How can that be such a big difference.
This is how the BIG CHAINS … try to chase some prescription patrons away…
In this particular incident.. WALMART stopped accepting a Rx discount card and then charged the pt WAY ABOVE what is apparently the “going rate” in this particular market place.
Many people seem to be under the opinion that these large chains got LARGE because they offer lower prices .. and/or they offer lower prices because they are LARGE….
And even if you have a “drug card”, those drug cards have ” contractually gagged” pharmacists from telling pts that their cash price is less than your insurance copay.
Dealing with chain pharmacies and drug cards is much like going to Las Vegas and gambling… it is set up so that “the house” has the edge to win.
what is a pt to do ?… check out your local independent pharmacy http://www.ncpanet.org/home/find-your-local-pharmacy
check the prices on www.goodrx.com .. I have heard that these prices are not always exact for a particular store but are typically very close… at least it gives the pt a place to call and check the price. IF they will give you a price on a C-II over the phone.
Filed under: General Problems
Dropped my insurance for meds, depleted them to the cheapest available, with no change in level of effectiveness. Now, my bill is < 1/3 of what it was when I had "insurance". $600/yr is much better than $2200/yr!