What do you do when your looking at a prescription that your insurance doesn't cover? What do you do when your insurance is charging you a high copay? What do you do when you NEED the medication but you have NO insurance or your insurance is doing one of the above?

I have the answer to those questions. I will also be able to give you tips on how you can cut your prescription costs to make it easier for you to get the medications you need at a price that you can afford. Now how am I going to help you, you may ask. I can help you because I work in a pharmacy and I see DAILY how people are let down by their insurance companies or who have no insurance and are looking at having to pay well over $100 on a medication that their doctor has prescribed for them. Below you will find many helpful tips in bringing down the cost of your prescription drugs.

What do you do when you have insurance but your insurance does not cover your medication?

First of all, everyone's insurance plans are different. I have seen where one person's insurance covers a medication for cosmetic purposes, and I have also seen the wider option of the insurance plans not covering cosmetic medications. In a case where your insurance does not cover your medication, whether it be a heart medication, or one used for cholesterol,or to one being prenatal tablets, there are ways that you can get the medication. If your insurance does not cover your medication, what the pharmacy can do is send a Prior Authorization form to your doctors office. This is a form basically that your doctor will fill out and send to the insurance, justifying why you should be put on the medication and why you need that particular medication. The insurance company will then either deny it or approve it. That process may take from a day to a couple of weeks. If you do not want to wait that long, the pharmacy may give your doctor a call and the doctor can change the medication to something that is similar to the one that he/she had prescribed first, or something in a different class that acts the same way or brings about the same results as the first one, which he/she will determine according to your condition.

 You can always opt for generics, which is what most insurances will want their clients to be taking, because of the cheaper costs. If you absolutely want the medication that your doctor prescribed there are many discounts and coupons available. You may go online to the drugs website. The manufacturer of that drug will most likely have many different types of money saving coupons that you can use again and again for as long as you are on the medication. The medications that are high in costs, are the ones that are most likely to have such discounts because they are aware the costs are high and some insurance companies may not cover them. Even if your insurance does cover the medication but there is a high copay on it, there are coupons from the drug companies for high copays, where you have to only pay around $25 for a medication where as without the coupon you would be paying $150. It pays to look around for discounts, and your doctors office may have discount cards lying around from when representatives of the drug companies come bye asking the doctors to prescribe the drugs they manufacture. More tips if you keep reading!!!

For those of you who do not have insurance for your medications, do not worry, there are plenty of ways to get your medications at a lower cost. Although being without insurance is not really a good idea, because God forbid you have an injury or illness that requires you to get a medication that costs around $800, ( and yes these costly medications do exist and go up to and above $1000). Now if your doctor prescribes you a medication, say an antibiotic or a painkiller, the pharmacy that you take it to matters. There are some pharmacies which charge cheaper for the medications. Before you take it anywhere you can call around to compare prices to find the best deal. Some pharmacies even will match the price of competitor pharmacies.

Now I am mostly talking about retail pharmacies and retail chain pharmacies, but some private pharmacies may cost less, which is a good reason why you should do your research if you want to save your hard earned cash and get the best deal. Now most pharmacies have discount programs that they offer to patients who do not have insurance. I work for CVS/Pharmacy and we give out a California discount to those who do not have insurance. This discount ranges from giving patients a couple dollars off their prescriptions to even cutting the price in half! It pays off to ask if there is a program or if it is possible to get a discount on medications.

You may also, as I have mentioned in the above paragraph, get coupon cards and discounts that you can print out directly from the manufacturer. Walmart and CVS as well as other pharmacies have started the discount plans of giving out a one month supply of medication for $4, to a three month supply of medications for $10, NOW THAT IS A DEAL. That is cheaper than what most insurances charge for one month! I recommend you look at those deals, especially if you are on maintenance medications, such as heart medication, or cholesterol, etc.

 If a medication is not covered or if you don't have insurance, there are still ways to get it cheap. Another awesome way to pay for your medicine is AAA. Triple A helps out big time at the pharmacy counter! You can use your AAA membership card and get a discount on your medication. You can actually get more off with your AAA card then with the california discount the pharmacies offer, on most medications that I have seen. So if you have AAA then use It!! They have awesome discounts and can really get you the best price!

 There are even ways to save on over the counter medications. If you can get your doctor to write a prescription for you on an over the counter medication, and you get it filled at a pharmacy, chances are your insurance will not cover it but getting it at a pharmacy you don't need to pay tax! Also to save money you can opt for the generic of an over the counter item. Instead of getting the Tylenol brand , you can buy the CVS brand or Walgreens brand for less and they work exactly the same! Your just paying more for the name when you buy brand name medications anyway.

 Retail pharamcies all compete with each other. How can you bank on their competition? Easy. They have started offering gift cards to patients who bring in new prescriptions or transfer their prescription from a different pharmacy to their pharmacy. Now how can you be the victor in this scenerio? Next time you get a new prescription from the doctor, even for an antibiotic, you can find a coupon for a new prescription and take it to the pharmacy. These pharmacies are offering anywhere from $20 to $30 for one prescription. Well what if you can't find the coupon for the pharmacy you want to take it to? Don't worry, many pharmacies accept competitor coupons. If you have a Rite Aid coupon for a transferred or new prescription you can take it to CVS and still get the $30 gift card. What is great about the gift cards is that you can literally buy whatever you want from the store, even PAY FOR YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS!!! The gift cards are treated just like cash at the store your in, and mostly all of the retail pharmacies ACCEPT competitor coupons! I have seen so many patients using this to their advantage its not even funny. Free gift cards..now that is a deal!

 I hope that the few tips I have offered helps you guys out! I know how it is when you can't afford to pay for a prescription, I have seen it with my own eyes, and have gone through it myself. If you have ANY questions at all about anything I can answer them for you. If I personally don't have the answer I will find the answer for you 100% guarantee, I work in the field and I am sure I can get the answer for you! Please don't hesitate to contact me I can help.