Have Your Prescription Medications and Some Back-Up Meds Too

In these tough economic times, a lot of people have to choose between buying food, medicine, or are barely able to afford their meds. There are ways to save on prescription drugs, and ensure that you have enough medicine to last for a up to a month after your last prescription refill.

Quite a few pharmacies have programs where generic drugs cost $4.00 for a 30-day supply, and a 90-day supply costs $10.00. To get a three-month supply, a 90-day prescription from your doctor is required. Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer are two participating pharmacies, but there are many more. The 90-day plan is a total cost of $40.00 per year. A person with seven prescription meds would pay substantially less than he would if he were buying his prescriptions by the month. The $4.00 per month plan is great for those that have four or less medications to purchase. Many insurance companies have a medication-by-mail program where a 90-day supply can be obtained for the cost that equals one month co-pay.

Most Insurance companies also limit medication refills to one per month. For a person that is on a medication that and needs to take it every 4 hours, the drug runs out quickly. For another person that is struggling just to pay the required co-pay and frequently has to do without her medicine until the next payday, the following method is very helpful, and will work for a variety of scenarios. It will also work for people that do not have prescription drug plans that help pay for their meds.

When you get your prescriptions filled, there are 2 things that you can do to build a one-month back-up reserve of your oral medications.

1. Set a few pills aside (7 or less) and put them in a separate container with a label that contains the name of the drug, the expiration date, and what it is for. If you have prescription insurance, most insurance companies will let pharmacies process refills when you have less than 7 days of medication remaining.
2. If you have any medication left over from the previous refill when you get your new refill, you can place the leftover medication in your back-up stock instead of setting medication aside when you first get your refill.

Either one of these suggestions will work, and will achieve the same result.

It is important to stop when you have a one-month supply of each medication. If there is more than a 30-day supply, keeping track of rotating your medications will be difficult. To make sure that you always have fresh back-up meds, regularly trade the new refill of each med with your current back-up stock so that your medication never expires.

Since oral medications usually don't expire for several months, this article is intended toward those. Even though it can be done, it is not recommended that this method be used to create a reserve of medications that have to be injected such as insulin. These types of medications can spoil, and have some very nasty or fatal effects if not used correctly, and within the correct time limit.

© Copyright 2008 Patti McMann. All rights reserved.

Patti McMann is a freelance writer. She writes on a variety of topics for print and electronic publications. She has a diverse background in many subjects, and has degrees in business, marketing, and information technology. She is the author of the popular eBook "Diabetes: A Beginner's Guide to the Basics." Her website is http://www.pattimcmann.com