Use Your Plan: Tips for
Saving Money

Consider generic medications. One thing you can do to help control your health care costs is to consider taking generic medications. A generic must contain the same active ingredients and be of the same strength and form (tablets, liquid, etc.) as the original brand-name version. Inactive ingredients may be different, but these differences are generally harmless for most patients. For a very few medicines, generic and brand name products may not be precisely interchangeable. If you are concerned, you should talk to your health care provider.

Some prescription drug plans offer lower co-pays for generic drugs. Unless your health care provider has specified with a written prescription that no substitution may be made, pharmacists may be able to give you a generic version without asking you, depending on what state you live in. If you want to receive the original, brand-name version of a medicine instead of its generic version, you must tell your pharmacist when you take the prescription in, and you may have to pay more for it. Talk to your health care provider to see if generics are right for you.