Vent: I was overcharged for my prescriptions

[simonsmom]

I think you should all find and support a small local independant pharmacy. the pharmacists usually have a bigger interest in you and your business and can work with you better! the retail pharmacists have no say in anything- it's all corporate

 

[Hannathy]

A perscription is needed for higher strengths of ibuprofen. Not exactly sure, but I believe it's 600mg or higher. Over-the-counter ibuprofen is of lesser strength.

And no way should if have cost what the Previous Poster was quoted. It should be on the list of $4 or $10 generics, depending on the strength and quantity dispensed.

Jim

I know that but it is pretty simple to just take 4 OTC vs getting a prescription. That is what we always told people, just take 3 or 4 etc. and like I said 1000 of the 200 mg is $9 at Sam's.

 

[Piecey]

On the paper with instructions that was stapled to each bag for my 2 prescriptions it shows this (both are the same)...

Date: 08/06/2010 DAW:0 (I'm not sure what DAW is)

RX: with the prescription number here followed by a space and 2 zeroes

INS: $0.00

PAID PRESCRIPTION

PAY: $10.00

++++++++

So, I assume insurance wasn't billed anything.
I just thought I'd post what was on the papers that came with the prescriptions.

Ours always says "0" for insurance billed, too. The only time there has ever been anything there is for my prenatal, which is brand name.

Is your insurance/prescription part of a government program of any kind (including federal employee, military, medicare, medicaid?)

If so, they can't legally offer you a cash price. We just went through this w/ my MIL and her medicare prescription plan...she pays $35 month for 3 meds that are available for $30 for a 90 day supply for anyone else.

It's annoying, but there are soo many restrictions on federal plans I've given up on understanding them. We have GEHA (DH is a federal employee) and even when I had primary coverage through United, GEHA being my secondary through DH, every pharmacy in town claimed I couldn't pay the $4 "lesser" price even though my United copay was $10 because I had GEHA (federal) coverage as secondary.
So I constantly paid more for certain scripts, even though I had two forms of insurance, than people who walked in off the street without insurance did.
Luckily they only overlapped a few months and now I just get to deal with all the GEHA restrictions.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

It's annoying, but there are soo many restrictions on federal plans I've given up on understanding them. We have GEHA (DH is a federal employee) and even when I had primary coverage through United, GEHA being my secondary through DH, every pharmacy in town claimed I couldn't pay the $4 "lesser" price even though my United copay was $10 because I had GEHA (federal) coverage as secondary.
So I constantly paid more for certain scripts, even though I had two forms of insurance, than people who walked in off the street without insurance did.
Luckily they only overlapped a few months and now I just get to deal with all the GEHA restrictions.

What slays me about this is the gov. buys more drugs than anyone and claims to have contracts to keep costs down and everyone complains they pay out the least for doc visits etc. (doctors, hospitals I mean) but yet for scripts they charge more to gov. customers. Seems so backwards!

I don't fill scripts at cvs anymore because every once in awhile I would end up with a weird co pay. They should always be $3 or $9 but sometimes cvs would charge me $6.50 but could never tell me why. They also take forever!

 

[Heidict]

I think you should all find and support a small local independant pharmacy. the pharmacists usually have a bigger interest in you and your business and can work with you better! the retail pharmacists have no say in anything- it's all corporate

I would love to but there aren't any around any more. They have all been run out by the big pharmacies. I'm sure there are some in the bigger towns/cities around here, but they would be so inconvenient for me that I just end up using Walgreens because they are close and easy.

 

[Lewisc]

Is your insurance/prescription part of a government program of any kind (including federal employee, military, medicare, medicaid?)

If so, they can't legally offer you a cash price. We just went through this w/ my MIL and her medicare prescription plan...she pays $35 month for 3 meds that are available for $30 for a 90 day supply for anyone else.

It's more work but have your scripts filled in two different stores. Have your generic drugs filled at Target/WalMart etc. Tell the pharmacist you don't have insurance. Go to a different pharmacy for anything that's more expensive then your copay.

 

[Piecey]

What slays me about this is the gov. buys more drugs than anyone and claims to have contracts to keep costs down and everyone complains they pay out the least for doc visits etc. (doctors, hospitals I mean) but yet for scripts they charge more to gov. customers. Seems so backwards!

I don't fill scripts at cvs anymore because every once in awhile I would end up with a weird co pay. They should always be $3 or $9 but sometimes cvs would charge me $6.50 but could never tell me why. They also take forever!

When I had my son I had both policies- United as my primary (through me) and GEHA as my secondary (through DH).

The portion GEHA would have paid my OB was $400 more than United did. I never understood why her office billed both, since GEHA didn't pay the difference that United wrote off, but they did so I got to see what GEHA WOULD have paid had they been primary.
They put a place on the EOB showing their negotiated amount, but subtracted United's write off and came up with $0 liability for them and myself. [My United policy covered hospital stays and all expenses incurred in relation to them at 100%]...
I hope that makes sense.

The hospital got everything they billed for, to the penny, so I'm not sure about that.

 

[midas]

It's more work but have your scripts filled in two different stores. Have your generic drugs filled at Target/WalMart etc. Tell the pharmacist you don't have insurance. Go to a different pharmacy for anything that's more expensive then your copay.

As a pharmacist, I would never recommend anyone do this! The reason is that unless you know all the potential interactions of the drugs you are taking (and NO the internet may not give you all of them) you could be putting yourself into potential harm.

The pharmacist's job is not just putting pills into a bottle and charging you for them. Among other things, we have to screen your prescription against the drugs you are currently taking to make sure there is no interaction. We have no way of knowing what you are taking if you are secretly taking your "cheap" prescriptions somewhere else to be filled without insurance. (If you get them filled at multiple pharmacies using your insurance, they will alert us to a potential problem since they track everything you take).

The solution would be to take all your prescriptions to one pharmacy that has the 4.00 generics. They transmit that price to the insurance as their usual price and you would pay that as your generic copay and the higher amount for your brand drugs.

 

[daleswife]

Not to take over your thread or anything, but today at rite aid, I went to get my sons benadryl and otc the store brand was $4.99. Well they didnt have any in the pharmacy, so I went to get a bottle from the floor. She said its not covered under my insurance. NO problem, I'll just get the bottle out here. she took the bottle and slapped a prescription lable on it and I brought them home. Well I looked at my receipt and realized she charged me $8.58 for it!!! WTH???? UGH. I will pay more attention next time. No lables and I'll just buy it off the floor!!!