 | Highlight on Drugs | | |
Seven Ways To Get the Most From Your Health Care Dollar
August 1, 2003
Last reviewed and revised on August 12, 2008  By Harold J. DeMonaco, M.S.
Massachusetts General Hospital Drug therapy has become a significant part of health care costs for all of us. Although many of us have health insurance that "pays" for the majority of prescription drug costs, we all pay higher premiums as a result. For the elderly, prescription drug costs can be overwhelming. Because most of us are not experts in drug therapy, it is impossible for the average consumer to make sound judgments about the decision to use drug therapy or the choice of drug. However, that doesn't mean you cannot be part of the decision-making process. Discussing the options with your health-care provider — both costs and tradeoffs — is an important step toward participating in your treatment. Because there are so many different ways in which drug costs impact us, it is difficult to provide guidance that will allow all people to save money in all circumstances. But some general recommendations can be made: - Always ask your health care professional about the choices available. Most symptoms and diseases have many different treatment options. Your health care professional should be willing to discuss the options he or she is comfortable in prescribing with you. Common diseases and conditions have more choices available than less common ones.
- Always ask your health care professional to write the prescription for the generic form of the drug if there is one available. Generic drugs work just as well as brand-name drugs. The Food and Drug Administration has a strict set of rules that drug producers must live by. These same rules for quality apply to the brand-name maker and generic maker of prescription drugs. The difference in price can be very large and there is no difference in how well they work.
- If you are taking prescription drugs for a chronic condition such as high blood pressure, think about getting a three-month supply at a time and consider using a mail-order pharmacy. Many prescription health benefits plans offer lower copayments and many online pharmacies offer discounts for a three-month supply. When you have the option to choose your own mail-order pharmacy, especially an Internet-based pharmacy, look for a VIPPS seal of approval. For more information about online pharmacies, see our Drug Resource Center.
- Pill splitting is sometimes a good way to reduce your costs. Ask the pharmacist about tablet strength. Getting a tablet in twice the dose and cutting it in half sometimes can reduce your cost by as much as one-half. Not all tablets can be split. A good rule of thumb is to look for a scoring on the tablet.
- Most health insurance plans have a preferred list of drugs. Many will penalize the consumer by requiring a larger copayment for nonpreferred drugs or by not covering the drug at all. Ask your health care professional to prescribe drugs that are on the preferred list.
- Ask your pharmacist about less expensive drug options. He or she is in the best position to know which drugs can save you money. Then ask your doctor if switching to a less expensive alternative will work as well for you.
- Talk to your doctor not only about the potential risks and benefits of your medications, but also about price. All other things being equal, you may decide that one medicine is better than another at least in part because of its cost.
Harold J. DeMonaco, M.S., is senior clinical associate in the Decision Support and Quality Management Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is author of over 20 publications in the pharmacy and medical literature and routinely reviews manuscript submissions for eight medical journals.
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