5 Ways to Save on Your Medication

1. Take advantage of drugstore discounts. Stores such as Kmart, Sam's Club, and Walmart offer hundreds of common generic drugs at very low prices- sometimes as low as $4 to $10- which could be less than your insurance co-pay. Ask the pharmacist whether the store has a discount program. Note: Money spent on meds purchased using these discount programs doesn't go toward your insurance deductible.
2. Beware pricey combo drugs. When the patient on a drugs nears its end, some manufracterers reformulate the medication into something "new" they can price higher than the generic expensive migrine drug Treximet is actually a combinaion of two older, low-cost generic drugs: sumatriptan and naproxen. Nine tablets of 85-500mg Treximet cost $695 at healthwarehouse.com. But the same website offers nine 100 mg tablets of sumatriptan for less than $16 and nine 500 mg naproxen tablets for about $5. That's a savings of $674.
3. Ask your doctor: "How much does this drug cost?" A CR poll of 200 doctors in 2016 found that they generally don't discuss the cost of a drug with their patients. But if price is an object for you and you let your doctor know that, he or she look up the drug's cost and, if necessary, help you find a more affordable alternative, such as the medication's genertic equivalent.
4. Don't assume using your insurance at the pharmacy is the cheapest. A survey of pharmacists by the National Community Pharmacists Association found that many knew of instances of "clawbacks"- when the price your insurer makes the pharmacy charge you is more than the pharmacy's normal retail price. Think your pharmacist will flag that when it happens? Not necessary. Some pharmacists can tell you about lower prices only if you ask first. 
5. Ask your doctor whether you can stop taking any of your meds. A 2017 CR national durvey shows that when patients asked their healthcare providers whether they can stop taking on or more of their precription medications, in 71 percent of the cases the doctor elimitated at least one drug.  

By  Consumer Reports, Issue Februrary 2018