How These People Saved Serious Cash On Their Prescription Meds

Prescription drug prices in the U.S. are a sight (err..fright?) to behold. Often more than double the prices in other countries, U.S. pharmacy medication prices are harmful to consumers. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, three in ten Americans have admitted to not taking medication as prescribed due to cost. Even routine drugs like albendazole, which has been in use since the ‘70s, can run as much as $200 per pill.

PharmacyChecker’s goal is to help consumers safely access lower-cost drugs. To do so, PharmacyChecker verifies and monitors mail-order pharmacies both abroad and in the U.S. On this very website, consumers can compare prices of drugs sold at verified internet pharmacies, with the goal of eventually finding both a price and a legitimate pharmacy that suits their needs. PharmacyChecker also administers a U.S. Prescription Discount Card, which provides discounts at local brick-and-mortar U.S. pharmacies. (It is important to support local businesses!)

Suffice it to say, consumers have saved a lot of money with PharmacyChecker’s help.

Robert was able to find cheaper meds in Canada

A customer named Robert C. wrote in March of this year:

We first started buying drugs in Canada 10 years ago, because our Doctor recommended buying there. A drug my wife used was $1,300 through Medicare, but the same brand was just $90 from Canada. I heard about Pharmacy Checker a few years later and started buying drugs from companies, that they approved. Several of my friends also use Pharmacy Checker with out [sic] any problems. Later there were other costly drugs, that I got for a fraction of the cost I would have paid. Thank you Pharmacy Checker.

Medicare can be particularly troublesome when it comes to prescription drugs. The Medicare Donut Hole, the coverage period after enrollees meet their limit but before they reach catastrophic coverage, leads to steep increases in drug prices. Though the donut hole has purportedly closed, prescription drug prices still plague Medicare enrollees.

Gail’s generic Parkinson’s drug is sold online for a steep discount

A customer named Gail wrote on Facebook:

I recommend this site to all my friends and particularly those in the Parkinson's community. Meds that have gone generic are still astronomically priced in the US and patients often abandon taking them. PharmacyChecker gives them a safe option to find a secure pharmacy to obtain their drugs at an affordable price.

The Parkinson’s medication carbidopa-levodopa can be as much as $42 for 90 tablets. While this price may not seem astronomical, consider the alternative: At a PharmacyChecker-accredited international pharmacy, the same quantity sells for closer to $30. With the PharmacyChecker U.S. Discount Card, around $18.50.

Compare Carbidopa-Levodopa Prices

Nurses know online pharmacies help patients afford medication

Paige, a nurse in Texas, wrote in a testimonial for PharmacyChecker that she always recommends using PharmacyChecker to find affordable medications:

At our local clinic, we never want to hurt our local hometown pharmacy's business, but if it comes down to a patient being able to afford to take a necessary medication or go without, we choose to help them out by referring them to PharmacyChecker.com.

PharmacyChecker understands that you want to support your local U.S. pharmacy. Like many other small businesses, locally-owned pharmacies (like the ones that aren’t Walgreens) are hurting. But taking prescription drugs can be a matter of life and death; in this case, the decision to purchase drugs from an accredited international pharmacy is easy.

Shopping at Canadian online pharmacies proves cheaper than Medicare for these Americans

Writing their review on SiteJabber, a customer noted that, even with Medicare Part D (the drug benefit), drug prices in Canada tend to be far lower:

I check PharmacyChecker frequently to discover prices at legitimate Canadian pharmacies that are lower than what I can get at U.S. pharmacies even with my Medicare Part D. I also use it to compare prices at various Canadian pharmacies. Most of them honor the lower price. And recently PharmacyChecker has added comparisons at pharmacies near me and has offered a Prescription Discount Card for my local pharmacies. All these features are enormously helpful in my being to lower medical medicine bills for my wife and me.

On Facebook, a customer named Steve noted that their medication moved “tiers,” forcing them to pay 50% of the full price of the drug:

I am a medicare patient and many of my drugs are unaffordable.Silverscript/medicare pulled a nasty trick on us and moved life saving drugs over to a tier 4 which requires us to pay 50% of the actual drug costs. That makes my insulin, and blood platelet meds, and other meds so expensive that i can't even begin to afford them. My only alternative was to not take them or not eat or pay my house note.

Remember that this is not uncommon: Nearly three in ten patients in the U.S. report not taking medication as prescribed due to cost. (We will keep repeating this statistic until it is not true.)

The “tiers” to which Steve is referring is how Medicare Part D prioritizes prescription drug coverage according to the drug formulary. Tier 1 drugs will often have no copay. The higher the tier, the higher the copay. In Steve’s case, Medicare only covers 50% of the cost of a tier 4 drug. Silverscript, the formulary Steve uses, lists tier 4 as “non-preferred brand name drugs.”

Here is a break quick break down of the tier system:

Note: the word “preferred” means the drug has been widely accepted, safe to use and a cost effective option.

Tier 1 ($): Preferred Generic - This is the lowest tier. It usually encompasses the cheapest generic drug options.

Tier 2 ($$): Generic - This tier includes non-preferred generic drug options, such as generic drugs that still have high price tags.

Tier 3 ($$$): Preferred Brand - This tier includes preferred brand drug and non-preferred generic drug options.

Tier 4 ($$$$): Non-preferred Brand - This tier includes non-preferred brand drug and non-preferred generic drug options.

Tier 5 ($$$$$): Specialty Tier - This tier includes the most expensive drug options which may require monitoring and specific storage/handling procedures.

Chronic diseases with high-cost medical treatments, drugs moving formulary tiers, Medicare coverage in general -- these are just a few binds in which Americans find themselves while navigating paying for healthcare in the U.S.. PharmacyChecker cannot solve these problems for patients, but we can point you toward an alternative, a proverbial emergency escape hatch. Drug savings save lives. PharmacyChecker can map you towards the savings that can save you.