Can You Use a Pharmacy Discount Card with a Health Insurance Plan?

We are all probably familiar with dealing with frustrations of health insurance expenses, as co-pays for doctor visits and prescription medications can really add up. And even with the best health insurance plan, high deductibles can cause your costs to surge.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by exorbitant prices of prescription medications, you will be happy to know you can lower the costs, even with a current health insurance plan, using a pharmacy discount card. In situations where your health insurance plan doesn’t cover a certain medication or you are in a high-deductible plan, a prescription discount card may be a great option for you.

What is A Pharmacy Discount Card?

It may sound like it’s too good to be true, but yes, pharmacy discount cards do exist, and you can use them even with your current health insurance plan to help alleviate your high prescription medication costs. A pharmacy discount card is a cost-savings card that you can present at your pharmacy when you are picking up and paying for a prescription medication.

How does a Pharmacy Discount Card Keep Prices Low?  

A pharmacy discount card keeps your prices low through several ways. It all comes down to how pharmacy discount cards are able to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies.

Firstly, pharmacy discount card companies can negotiate for bulk pricing on prescriptions through their network of cardholders. The second way is through overstock of pharmaceuticals. Similarly, to how you can enjoy lower prices on clothing when overstock from department stores reaches discount clothing stores, overstock of pharmaceuticals also lowers your prescription costs as well. The final way pharmacy discount companies are able to secure lower costs is through negotiating directly with pharmacies to facilitate savings for their cardholders.

How Much Can You Actually Save Using A Pharmacy Discount Card?

Your savings on prescriptions medications will of course vary depending on the prescription drug you are purchasing. Generally, consumers are able to save between 15-20 % on their prescription drugs using pharmacy discount cards. However, using Carecard’s services, you can enjoy up to 85% savings on your prescription costs. It’s good to know that your savings will be typically higher on generic medications. So if you regularly take prescription drugs, your savings using a pharmacy discount card will definitely add up, considerably.

How Does Insurance Come into Play?

The way it works, is you can either use a pharmacy discount card to pay for your prescription drugs or you can pay your regular co-pay. Note though that using a pharmacy discount card to pay for prescription medications will not count towards your deductible. And which option will be better for you comes down to you taking both your insurance card and pharmacy discount card to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription medication, and to see for yourself which offers better savings. Sometimes, your co-pay will be a reasonable cost for you, and other times, you will find that your pharmacy discount card yields substantial savings for you and is the better option.

Burt moral of the story is: Always try using a discount pharmacy card, because there is always a possibility of savings. Plus, you can weigh more options.

If you are looking for pharmacy discounts, Carecard could be a great option for you to save hundreds of dollars on your prescription costs.