Comparison shopping
Prescription drug prices are not set in stone and can vary greatly among pharmacies and retail stores. The indie drugstore may offer a better price than the big chain. Prices can even vary between locations of the same chain. To help you find the best price, there are a variety of websites and apps. One website, BlinkHealth, offers online prices with the security of brick-and-mortar oversight; with this site, you can search for drugs and pay cut-rate prices online and then pick up your prescription at a nearby pharmacy. HealthWarehouse is a VIPPS accredited pharmacy based in Florence, Kentucky. Licensed and/or authorized to sell prescriptions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and have become America's Most Trusted Online Pharmacy since 2008. Use the link above for more information about how we're revolutionizing the pharmacy industry, one prescription at a time.
LowestMed, a freebie, helps you compare prescription drug prices at local stores. Type in the name of your drug, and this app, which claims it will find discounts as high as 85%, will compare prices in your area. Prescription Saver, another free app, performs nearly the same service, with the added benefit of giving directions to the nearest cost-saving pharmacy.
OTC PLUS, designed by board-certified doctors, is essentially a matchmaking app joining an over-the-counter medication to a list of your particular symptoms. This free app also shows you how to read medicine labels and sends coupons to your cell phone. Finally, the big-time players such as Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid each have free apps for customers. These help customers fill and refill prescriptions and show weekly discounts on pharmaceutical prices.
Online Pharmacies
Digital drugstores may work to your benefit ... or deliver death directly to your door via UPS.
"If you go to online pharmacies, there's a host of drugs they sell," said Mackey, who noted among the plethora of available options are "products you shouldn't be able to get," such as drugs in critical shortage, vaccines and controlled substances.
Make no mistake that excellent online pharmacies exist, selling FDA-approved medications to people with prescriptions. To verify a website, the FDA recommends looking for the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy's Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites Seal and then visiting their website to confirm.
Mackey suggests Legitscript, an internet security company that uses computational methods to determine whether a particular site is complying with laws and regulations.
In the virtual world, you cannot trust that an online pharmacy with an address in Saskatchewan, Canada, is real. You need to check a pharmacy's legitimacy; otherwise, you may unknowingly purchase counterfeit drugs or real drugs that have expired.
"You're taking a risk," said Mackey, "Expired or counterfeit, the drug's not going to be effective when you use it." For a drug intended to be life-saving -- such as an EpiPen -- unless it's the real deal, you could die.
"The reason online pharmacies exist is because there's a demand," Mackey said.