The Best Prescription Card Last Month

Have you ever encountered a prescription discount card that consistently provided the best price for your patients’ antibiotics scripts, only to discover this week the current offer isn't any better than the cash price? With a cost conscious patient impatiently waiting at the counter, you are left to frantically search various prescription discount websites for an alternative solution.Without a Pharmacy Savings website, it can feel like a never-ending game of searching for the best prices online. But why does this happen?

Understanding the Prescription Pricing Puzzle

Negotiating prescription prices for each medication, one by one, would be incredibly time-consuming. Your Pharmacy’s team responsible for negotiations can't afford to engage in discussions about thousands of medications. As a result, pharmacies typically establish agreements with prescription discount card providers based on an average price. This average price is often a percentage of the Average Wholesale Price (AWP) of the medications. Which means that any prescription discount card provider must maintain an average percentage of AWP across all processed claims.

From Prescription Relief to Surprise: The Changing Prices

To illustrate why prices for commonly prescribed medications like antibiotics and inhalers can fluctuate on your preferred discount card platforms, let's consider an example. Imagine a discount card provider that has negotiated an average discount of 85% off AWP. They aim for an average across all medications of 85% but decide to offer deeper discounts on antibiotics to attract more users. However, the more the card is used for antibiotics, the lower their average across all medications drops. Once they realize that their average claim is now 80% AWP, the discount provider must reduce the discount offered, raising the price, to restore the average to 85% AWP. So, when you notice the price of antibiotics rising with each card use, it's the prescription discount card's way of adhering to their agreement.

Don't Get Frustrated Searching for Savings

Discount card providers hope that you'll continue using their card despite rising prices. However, a recent survey of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians revealed that 54% of them are willing to try multiple prescription discount cards to find the most affordable option for their patients. While you can search individual sites with good track records for specific medications, a quicker and easier way is to use a Pharmacy Savings website like RxCard Compare. This website allows you to search multiple prescription discount cards and manufacturer coupons, enabling you to find the best affordability options for your patients.