Wednesday, September 8, 2010

After Doc, Before Pharmacy

Some people just directly take their prescriptions or have their doctors fax or call in their prescriptions to the pharmacy.  If you're trying to make the most of your money it's best to take some time and wait before you take it in and do these steps.
1) Activate: Quite a few of the free trial or money off coupons the doctor will give you in the last step require verification and activation before they can be used, look over your card/coupon the doctor handed you to make sure you understand how much it is supposed to save you and that it is activated before you bring it in.
2) Gift Card: Many drug store chains offer $25 gift cards if you bring them a new prescription, while this is not an instant savings it's still $25 more than you would have had, and if you really have a prefered pharmacy, you can always get them to transfer it to that one later.  Just go into your prefered pharmacy and they'll do the work to get your prescription to their store.
3) Coupons: Yes at this stage you also can print out your own coupons for medications online, I find http://www.internetdrugcoupons.com to be the best, I send all the links I find to there.  However there's more to this step than initially seems and I will be addressing it in a detailed manner in my next post.
4) Prescription Discount Cards: For those who do not have insurance this is always a good idea, but how to choose the best one? That as well needs an entire post dedicated to it, so continue to follow me to learn more detailed information!
EXTRA HARD MODE: Are you poor? Below the poverty line poor? Many drug companies offer their own programs, this is quite a bit difficult and takes quite a bit of work, so that too will be it's own blog post.
We're beginning to get into the more complex tips and tricks of saving money in the pharmacy now :P

2 comments:

  1. I didn't know about the Gift card thing. good idea on both parts... one "good deal" and one repeat buyer. now all they need is a two year contract and they can move into the subscribership arena with directv verizon and the banks.

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