Community Chat

[Kachina624]

I would get on the phone and call local pharmacies before filling a prescription to get the best price.   I've found Walgreens is usually the highest.   You might check the website GoodRX and see if there's a coupon that might cover your meds.   Another alternative might be to get it filled at a Canadian pharmacy.   You can check their prices after doing a search to find several.   Thousands of people use them. 

[Melania]

The only way to know is to call them and ask.

Also, look into mail order and keep in mind if it's regular insurance (not medicare) your costs could go down as the year goes on and your first fill is the highest with some plans.

DH read an article that you can negotiate what's the lowest rate you can get and they will do it. Who knew?

[Catty2]

I've used the CVS pharmacy for years and am happy with their prices and service.  One of my scripts comes from their specialty pharmacy and is rather costly but I don't have a choice if I want to manage my rheumatoid arthritis. 

[Tinkrbl44]

Walmart is definitely the cheapest .....  unless you have no co-pay and insurance covers it all.

[Meowingkitty]

We also are supposed to use CVS but we can use any pharmacy if we want. Last month my husband had an emergency appendectomy and upon his release from the hospital he was given the pain killer Percocet. I went to the CVS by our house and they said they were out and it would be 10 days before the supply would come in. Then the went to another CVS a mile away, same story. I then tried a third CVS down the road, same story again. What pharmacy runs out of a common painkiller? Went to Walgreens and had it in my hands within 5 minutes. We have every drugstore/pharmacy imaginable within a 5 mile radius. 

[Lucky Charm]

I had to go to an Urgent Care for a bad ear ache and sore throat as we are hundreds of miles away from home.

I had them send my script for amoxocylan (sp?) to a CVS as I knew I used them years ago, again, out of state.

Was so happy there were no *glitches*, they had our name, insurance on file and the prescription was only $6.65 for a ten day supply.

I have no complaints!

[hoosieroriginal]

I heard somewhere that the cheapest place to get your prescriptions are the big box stores (Sam's Club, Costco) - and you don't have to be a member to get a prescription filled there!

[I am still oxox]

The plan sets the prices not the pharmacy, if they are on your plan all of the pharmacies should have the same price

[Susan Louise]

DH is currently serching for another pharmacy that will be cheaper for his crestor...it just went up again! We have been using CVS for years, but will have to go to a 2nd pharmacy now just for that perscription.

[Havarti]

I have BC/BS and CVS is their “preferred” pharmacy. I am convinced it is “preferred” because there must be some type of financial benefit to BC/BS other than low rates to them (dare I speculate kick-backs???). The few times I tried CVS the prescriptions were at least 5 times more expensive to me than the same Rx at Wal-Mart.

Another thing that bothered me was that CVS reports back to BC/BS if you do not refill your Rx. I had the first 3 months of a blood pressure prescription filled at CVS (all at once) and when I found out the cost I switched to Wal-Mart for that prescription. CVS kept calling with automated voice messages reminding me to refill and then chastising me for not refilling my prescription. When I called them and opted out of these calls, I started receiving letters from BC/BS about the dangers of not taking necessary medicine. Clearly CVS reported to BC/BS that I had stopped filling that RX with them. BC/BS even sent me a giant pill box to encourage me to manage my pills (I only take one prescription). Apparently there is no cross-checking within BC/BS to see that the same prescription is being filled elsewhere. They do send me a regular statement recapping my RX history so they should know I simply switched pharmacies – it is reflected in their paperwork the Rx was filled each month. It all seemed to be a little “Big Brother” to me…we are watching you and keeping track of your actions. It felt creepy to me. It may have been different if I had dementia and didn’t know what I was doing, but then the calls and letters likely would not have had much impact at that point.

Just my experience and thoughts – others may view it as a nice service. But still….5 times the cost of Wal-Mart! The “preferred’ vendor is not preferred by me! I use Wal-mart & Costco and am very happy with both.