This falls into the category of "How come I didn't know this before?" Being the age I am, I take a few pills every morning — some vitamins, some prescriptions. The prescriptions aren't vital ones and my health insurance gives them all to me either free or for a few bucks…with one recent exception. Last month, one of my doctors suggested I should take a certain new (to me) pill and he warned, "Your insurance might not cover this one."
He was right. I took the prescription to my friendly neighborhood CVS Pharmacy and when they filled it, the lady behind the counter told me it would be $63.00 for my thirty pills. I know there are people reading this who pay a lot more for some some necessary drug but this one didn't seem particularly necessary and $63.00 is more than double what I've been spending on all my other medications per month. I started wondering if maybe I didn't need to spend $750+ a year on this new (to me) medication.
Fortunately, I have a friend at my friendly neighborhood CVS Pharmacy. I don't know her name but she always remembers mine. She's an older woman who works behind the counter and I think she likes me. When she sees me waiting in line to pick up a prescription, she instantly fetches it and if the registers are all busy, opens a new one for me.
It was a different CVS employee who told me my new prescription would be $63.00 and my friend, noticing my momentary hesitancy, came over and told the lady waiting on me, "I'll take care of Mr. Evanier here." Then she looked at my prescription and said, "That's too much" and went over to one of their computers and did this or that…or something. When she came back, my prescription was now $32.35. I thanked her, paid, thanked her again and left with my pills. I somehow didn't think to ask her, "How did you do that?"
Last night, I went in to pick up my refill on that medication. My friend was not on the premises and the lady who waited on me this time said the next thirty days of pills would be $106 and some change. I told her the story of how the price had been lowered the previous month and she said, "Let me see what I can do." She went over to the other computer, did this and that and then asked me, "Is $32.35 okay?"
I said it was fine and she rang it up for $32.35, just like before. This time though, I asked her, "How did you do that?" She said, "We have a discount card we can apply."
Usually when it looks like I'll be taking some medication indefinitely, I have my doctor give me a 90-day prescription and I send it to Caremark, which is the mail order division of CVS and they fill it every three months thereafter. I asked the lady in the CVS last night, "If I do that, can they give me the same discount?" She said, "Sure. Just tell them you want the discount."
Hearing, as we all do about how rough it can be to pay for necessary drugs these days, I'm a bit stunned. I'm sure it doesn't work with every prescription but it worked with that one. Maybe it would have worked with some of the others I've had filled there. I never thought to ask.