Kayla first caught our attention with this tweet:
Kayla Humphrey on Twitter
@GoodRx saves lives!! I can’t sing there praises enough. Always check with them if your copay is high or a drug is not covered
Of course, we reached out to learn more about her work as a pharmacy technician, and how she uses GoodRx to help her patients.
Depending on where she’s needed, Kayla spends her shifts covering one of three different stations: drop-off (entering written prescriptions into the system and confirming e-prescriptions), production (preparing medications and checking for drug interactions), and pick-up (face-to-face time with patients to go over medications instructions and answer any questions they may have). The pick-up counter is where she can make the most impact with patients.
In Kayla’s experience, patients often don’t know that there are options to pay besides insurance and full cash price, when in fact there are multiple ways to lower the price of prescription medications, such as pharmacy discount coupons like GoodRx, manufacturer savings cards, and patient assistance programs (PAPs) like Lilly Cares. She says, “There’s always a way for patients to get the medication they need. They just need to ask.”
About 30% of Kayla’s patients are hit with surprise costs at the pharmacy counter because their medication is not covered by their insurance, isn’t a preferred drug or requires prior authorization. More often than not, patients actually choose to bite the bullet and pay the full cash price of the medication because they think it’s their only option, especially if they need it right away and can’t wait for a medication change or prior authorization.
Kayla will use GoodRx with a patient if she thinks it can help them save money. She says she’s lucky that the pharmacists she works with don’t mind her using her cell phone in these cases. Being able to pull up the GoodRx mobile app on the spot is incredibly useful since a lot of her customers are older and aren’t “technology-minded”, as she puts it. She’s then usually met with incredulous looks: “What? There are coupons?”
Even though Kayla was first introduced to GoodRx by her co-workers back when she started her job, she’s now the one who’s pushing for it at work. And it’s not just the coupons—Kayla also appreciates the articles GoodRx publishes because they keep her informed and help her explain why a medication might be so expensive in a way that patients can understand. That’s also an important part of her job. She tries to avoid using overly technical terms like formularies or prior authorization.
One of the biggest confusions is around what prior authorization is: Patients understandably assume that they already have authorization to get their prescription filled since their doctor prescribed it in the first place, but in reality, their insurance company needs to approve the medication before covering its costs.
Speaking with Kayla, we can tell she’s very passionate about helping patients. GoodRx just makes it easier to do so. Every price-related question or issue takes an extra five minutes, which can add up quickly if she’s performing formulary checks on eight medications for a single patient. She can make things go a lot faster and smoother if the price through GoodRx is much lower than what insurance is asking for, and if the patient can get their medication right away.
GoodRx started with a simple idea: Help people find affordable medications. Help people understand their options. Help people get what they need for their health. Have a story about how GoodRx helped you? Email us at [email protected] or tell us on Facebook or Twitter – don’t forget to tag #GoodRxHelps!
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