Prescription Drugs & Insurance Premiums
Shelby Luzenske, PharmD
How much do you pay each month for healthcare insurance?
Do you know how that amount—known as an insurance premium—was calculated?
It’s based on a lot of complex factors, including your age, location, and the type of insurance coverage you’ve chosen. Another factor is the amount of money you (and every other person covered by any insurance plan) spends on prescription drugs.
Insurance companies share healthcare costs among all insured members. If the total amount spent on prescriptions goes up—as it continues to do each year—insurance premiums go up to cover the rising costs.
Managing Your Prescription Spending
While you may not have direct control over your insurance premiums, you can take control of your prescription drug spending and potentially reduce your overall healthcare costs. Here are just a few examples:
- Generics: If a generic version of your medication is available, it can be significantly cheaper than the brand-name and just as effective.
- Therapeutic Alternatives: There are usually multiple medications that treat the same condition. If your current option is too expensive, talk with your doctor about other medications that could be a good fit.
- Mail-Order Pharmacies: Consider using mail-order if you take medications regularly to treat conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. These pharmacies often have lower prices and can save you time.
- Dose Supply Adjustment: Switching from a 30-day supply to a 90-day supply of your medication can be more cost-effective since there’s only one copay. Some patients can also get a 90-day supply at the cost of two 30-day copays.
- Assistance Programs: Many drug makers offer copay assistance, coupons or other programs for patients with high drug costs.
RxSS Can Help
Rx Savings Solutions (RxSS) is a service that connects to our members’ health insurance and pharmacy benefits to help find lower-cost options for prescriptions. They automatically search for the ways to save listed above (plus a bunch of others) and contact members when they could be paying less.
When RxSS members spend less on prescriptions, their health plan pays less, too, and that can help drive down the overall cost of healthcare (even insurance premiums).
If your employer or health plan comes with RxSS, make sure to activate your account to see if you could be saving money on prescription drugs.
more about rxSS
Here are a few ways you can use RxSS to lower out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses.
1 – See options for lower-cost medications
2 – Receive personalized notifications of savings opportunities
3 – Access personalized assistance from certified pharmacy technicians when you need it
