How to Get Medications for Less

The best way to reduce your prescription drug costs is to follow a healthier lifestyle. Improving your diet, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight and quitting smoking can improve your health enough that you may be able to give up or take lower doses of expensive medications.

The following strategies from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can help you cut your prescription costs by 50 percent or more.

Ask for generics

If your doctor prescribes a brand-name drug, always ask if there’s a generic equivalent. Generics retail for 50 to 70 percent less, on average, than brand names and usually have lower co-pays.

Generics meet the same FDA effectiveness and safety standards as their brand-name counterparts.

Shop around

Prices can vary dramatically from neighborhood pharmacies, large retail chains and online sources.

If your health insurance has a drug plan, include it in your cost comparison.

Split the difference

Some pills shouldn’t be split, such as those with time-release coatings. But depending on what you take, you may be able to cut your costs in half by asking your doctor for a higher-dosage version and splitting the pills with a pill-splitter.

Order in bulk

If you take a medication daily, buying a 90-day supply instead of a 30-day refill can reduce dispensing fees or co-pays.

Ask for substitutes

If you’re taking a brand-name drug for which no generic is available, ask your doctor if you can switch to a less expensive drug in the same category.

In some cases, you may even be able to take an over-the-counter (OTC) drug instead of a prescription. For example, Nexium, a prescription heartburn remedy, costs $120 for a month’s supply. The OTC drug Prilosec costs about $30 a month.

Do the math

Find out from your prescription drug plan what your out of pocket expenses will be when filing your prescriptions.