Walgreens has launched a brand new resolution that goals to make it simpler for shoppers to entry reductions on prescription medicines, the corporate introduced Thursday.
The Walgreens Rx Financial savings Finder combines totally different third-party low cost card choices into one platform. It permits prospects to seek for a prescription, discover a coupon for that prescription and textual content or e-mail the coupon to themselves. They then present the coupon to a Walgreens pharmacist once they fill the prescription. The answer is accessible at Walgreens.RxSense.com and works for any generic or brand-name drug.
“Looking for prescription financial savings might be time-consuming and complex – each for sufferers and pharmacists,” stated Rick Gates, chief pharmacy officer at Walgreens, in an e-mail. “Drug pricing varies considerably throughout varied value procuring platforms, typically leading to prospects paying greater than needed for his or her prescriptions. This instrument was created to make value predictability and discovering financial savings on prescriptions simpler. By eliminating the necessity for a handbook search throughout a number of low cost card web sites, we’re saving sufferers’ effort and time whereas additionally lessening the load on pharmacists to teach sufferers about low cost value choices.”
Gates added that due to excessive inflation, sufferers typically need to “stretch their medicines to keep away from a refill.” The Rx Financial savings Finder will assist enhance medicine adherence, he declared.
The instrument is free for all Walgreens prospects and doesn’t require a subscription or membership. The low cost playing cards can’t be used with insurance coverage, however the “financial savings these playing cards can provide could also be extra engaging than what’s out there with insurance coverage,” Gates stated.
Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens is launching the Rx Financial savings Finder after an 11-month pilot program, which saved sufferers about $70 million on their prescriptions. One pilot buyer stated that the answer “saves my time and would possibly even reveal financial savings playing cards I used to be beforehand unaware of,” in keeping with suggestions obtained by Walgreens and shared with MedCity Information. Pharmacists within the pilot program additionally reported success.
“In our space, we now have lots of sufferers with out insurance coverage, and we’ve been capable of save a couple of sufferers a good amount of cash on their prescriptions,” one pharmacist stated. “One affected person’s out-of-pocket prices dropped $75 for 2 prescriptions and we have been capable of maintain onto a affected person with out-of-network insurance coverage who didn’t need to go to a different pharmacy.”
A number of different firms even have options that purpose to scale back prescription drug prices for shoppers. Amazon gives RxPass, which provides Prime members entry to greater than 50 generic medicine for $5 a month. It additionally gives computerized coupons for merchandise like insulin vials and weight reduction medicines. GoodRx additionally helps shoppers discover coupons for prescribed drugs and exhibits which shops have the very best offers.
