Talk to your Dr about your medicine cost

How many times have you been given a prescription only to get to the pharmacy and have sticker shock, then decide if you could even afford it? When you see a medical provider, talk with them about the cost of your medications. Sometimes there is more than one medication to treat a condition and they can write you a script for the less expensive one. Providers have also been know to write scripts for a larger dose tablet and then tell you to split them in half to get the dosage they actually want you to have (please note, do NOT split your tablets in half unless the physician or pharmacy has told you to), or write the script for twice daily and only have you take it once daily (again, don't do this unless your provider tells you to). Another cost saving measure that physicians can sometimes help with are samples. Medication representatives want you to try their drugs, so they leave samples with the Dr to hand out to patients as a "get started" sample, which allows you a few days before you need to get the script filled. Even if they can give you 3 or 4 pills, that is 3 or 4 you didn't have to pay for. Once you figure out what medicine you will be taking, if it is a daily med, check to see if your pharmacy/insurance offers mail order prescriptions. Often time you can pay for 2 months and receive the 3rd month for no extra cost. The reason you can get such a cost break is that you are only paying the staff to count out your pills one time instead of 3 which is a cost savings to them as well. You also save yourself the cost of fuel to pick the script up which is an added bonus. Of course mail order means that you physician will have to write the script so that you can get a 3 month supply at a time, so ask. Many conditions will worsen if not treated, so skipping meds is not advised. If you are in a pinch and your physician has not been able to provide you with any of the above solutions, ask them if the drug company has a hardship program. Hardship programs involve applications and the physician to fill out some forms, so it can be sorta time consuming. There is not guarantee you will get approved, but if you truly have a hardship, this is worth applying for. No matter which route you take, you need to talk to your provider, if you don't, then they can't help you.