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 doctor.

Some health plans offer lower co-pays for generic drugs. Unless your doctor 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 doctor to see if generics are right for you.

Make sure you aren't paying more than the insurance company. When you go to a pharmacy to pick up your prescription, ask how much the medicine would cost if you bought it without using your insurance. Rarely, but sometimes, it would actually be less expensive than your co-payment. If that’s the case, you are better off not using your insurance card to get the medication. Look at the receipt, which is usually stapled to the bag your medicines come in. Some receipts show the amount paid by the insurance company or PBM, in addition to your co-payment. If the health plan or PBM is paying nothing, you should definitely ask how much the medicine would cost if you didn’t use your insurance.

Take advantage of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). Flexible spending accounts are offered by many employers. They allow you to put a portion of your paycheck into a special account before taxes. You can then use the tax-free money in the account to pay for health care costs like deductibles and copays for prescriptions or other services.