Member-only story
Your Pharmacy Is Probably Overcharging You
Here’s how to save money (and not get ripped off)
About a month and a half ago, Jane*, a woman in her twenties, entered a Manhattan drugstore whose brand would be familiar to most Americans. She went to the pharmacy to pick up two prescriptions her doctor had sent in. One was for a new form of birth control, and while Jane was shocked to hear it would cost her $50, she nevertheless paid for it. For the other prescription, she was initially quoted a price of $80 — but it was her lucky day, the pharmacy staffer told her: A coupon he found behind the counter would reduce that price to $18. (*Jane is a pseudonym for privacy reasons, Elemental has confirmed the story.)
When Jane called her doctor to ask for a more wallet-friendly birth control going forward, she learned the pharmacy had not filled the prescription her doctor sent; it had instead substituted a different brand-name medication with the same active ingredients. She could have gotten that medication for $13 instead of $50 if she’d known to use a GoodRx pharmacy discount card. And if the pharmacy had simply filled the prescription the doctor had written, her birth control would have been free.
Fuming, she returned to the pharmacy to request an explanation and a refund. The explanation she got only made her feel worse: Everything the pharmacy did was legal, said the pharmacist. And there would be no refund.
Picking up a prescription from a retail pharmacy is supposed to be straightforward — you drop off your prescription, or your doctor calls it in. If you’re lucky enough to be insured, you fork over your insurance information. After a few minutes, you collect your little paper bag, pay your money, and go.
What you might not realize is that the way your prescription is priced is far from straightforward — and can vary enormously based on factors beyond your control. Meaning, you might be paying more than you need to for your prescriptions. Here’s what you should know.
Understand the system
If your doctor prescribes a brand-name medication, it’s not unlikely that the pharmacist will substitute a generic form of the medication rather than the brand (the profit margin for the pharmacy on a generic will…
