Finding Ways To Save On Prescription Drugs

The high cost of spending for prescription drugs, which seem to keep on getting higher every time you go to a pharmacy, is proving to be a problem as much as the condition that needs medical attention. All the more reason for some lifestyle changes to help reduce your need for medicines.

There are popular, safe, and effective ways to save on prescription drugs. By increasing your activity level, losing weight, and improving your diet, some chronic illness like high blood pressure, diabetes, and low back pain may have fewer medicine requirements.

Another way is by going generic. Generic drugs are cheap medicines or less expensive duplicates of brand-name medicines. Consult your doctor or pharmacist if you can take a generic equivalent for the brand-name medicine that you are taking. Generic medicines are made according to the same strict U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards as brand-name drugs and therefore have the same quality, strength, purity, and stability as their more expensive counterparts. However, not all brand-name medicines have generic equivalents.

When scouting for cheap medicines, it is important that your pharmacist knows your medical history, including all the prescription and over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements, and herbal alternatives you are taking, even if they are not dispensed at that particular pharmacy to avoid potential drug interactions, side effects, or other problems.
Online drugstores offer savings schemes by means of price discount promos aside from saving you trips to the pharmacy.

Another strategy that can help you save money without losing drug effectiveness or safety is by pill splitting. Some tablets are available at double the dose with the same or almost the same cost as lower doses. By splitting the larger dose, you can essentially get two doses for the price of one. However, some medicines should not be split, including timed-release pills and capsules.

Ask your doctor or pharmacist if any of your prescription medicines are sold at higher dosages and if it's possible to split them. Talk to your pharmacist about how to split pills with an inexpensive, easy-to-use pill splitter.