But it turns out this may be costing us money. For many popular drugs—including lisinopril, levothyroxine, and prescription ibuprofen—insurance copays are often higher than what people would pay with a discount from GoodRx. In effect, using insurance means you could end up paying a lot more.
The below list shows 25 drugs where a discount on GoodRx can offer a cheaper price than a typical insurance copay. The list reflects a new analysis of GoodRx prices compared to a sample of typical copay charges for people paying with insurance. We started with a database of thousands of prescriptions paid for with insurance, showing the average copay prices paid at US pharmacies. Then, we compared those average copays with the lowest discount prices routinely available on GoodRx for those same prescriptions. The potential savings reflects the difference between the average copay and the lower GoodRx discount price.
25 Drugs Where GoodRx Is Often Cheaper Than Insurance
The surprise here is that insurance is often not the best price. In fact, many people can save 30% or more paying cash with a GoodRx discount instead of paying with their insurance.
Of course, insurance copays can vary greatly—counting all the variations and varieties, there are thousands of different insurance plans in the US, making it exceptionally difficult to predict what any one person’s price will be until they get to the pharmacy counter.
But for these 25 drugs, GoodRx offers a cheaper price for at least one out of every four prescriptions filled (depending on insurance coverage, copay, etc)—this means that people taking one of these drugs would do well to check prices by comparing their insurance cost against the GoodRx discount price. There’s a good chance that GoodRx will beat the insurance price, and offer significant savings.
To get the GoodRx price for a medication when you have insurance, you should tell the pharmacist you want to pay cash and show them the GoodRx discount or coupon. You can print out coupons from GoodRx.com, email or text them to yourself, or access them on the GoodRx mobile app.
And you may want to file a claim for reimbursement to your insurance company, or have them apply your cash payment against your deductible (if you have one). Here’s how to do that.
Source: Read Full Article