Are you struggling with high prescription costs? You may want to check out Costco Home Delivery Pharmacy, where you could save more than a few bucks on your out-of-pocket prescription costs – even if you have insurance.
Cheaper Than Insurance Co-Pay?
Specifically, Costco’s cash prices are sometimes lower than your insurance copayment. You can also save a bundle on drugs that aren’t covered under your insurance.
We decided to try Costco’s home delivery pharmacy while looking for the best price on a medication which my husband takes that isn’t covered under insurance. Costco’s price was so good that I decided to check the cash price of my prescription, which has a $60 copayment despite being generic.
I was quoted prices via email that blew my mind and made me want to shout, “Where do I sign up?”
Please note that I have no affiliation with Costco whatsoever. I don’t even have a Costco membership and have never set foot in a Costco store. There is a Costco in my city, but the BJ’s and Sam’s Club are much closer to my house.
Getting the Ball Rolling
I started by emailing the Costco home delivery service using the address on their website. Someone got back to me within hours with the price quote I requested. I went back and forth with them to get more details. They continued to respond quickly to my inquiries.
I was prepared to buy a Costco membership if necessary but was told that you don’t need a Costco membership to use either the home delivery pharmacy or in-store pharmacy.
Our doctors had to send 90-day prescriptions to Costco Home Delivery Pharmacy, which wasn’t a problem. Overall, the process of getting our prescriptions went very smoothly.
Caveats
There are two main drawbacks to the Costco Home Delivery Pharmacy. One is that they don’t accept all the insurance plans that Costco store pharmacies accept. That wasn’t an issue for us, since we had prescriptions that either weren’t covered or had a high copayment.
The other drawback is the processing time for mail order, which they say can be up to a couple of weeks. In my case, the time between the pharmacy receiving my prescription and its delivery to my house was about 10 days. You’ll want to allow for that when requesting your refills.
I can’t speak to your particular situation with prescriptions, but we’re very happy that I looked into Costco Home Delivery Pharmacy. Any other prescriptions we have, we’ll still take to the pharmacy, since they’re generally covered under insurance and have low copayments.
For medications you need right away, you’ll still want to visit a local drugstore. Costco Home Delivery Pharmacy is definitely worth checking for medications which you get filled every month, especially if they aren’t covered by insurance or they have high insurance copayments.
How Big are the Savings?
Even for maintenance meds that are covered by insurance, you may want to check with the local Costco store pharmacy, which accepts many insurance plans, or another discounter like Walmart or Sam’s Club. The differences in prescription prices can be amazing.
What’s more, pharmacies often can’t tell you if your cash price for a prescription might actually be lower than your insurance copayment. For that, you need to specifically ask for the cash price.
Prescription prices vary widely. To save time in calling around, you can check GoodRx.com, a free site that lets you compare prescription drug prices at a variety of different stores.
GoodRx also offers coupons that can lower your out-of-pocket cost for a prescription. I’ve found that the site’s prescription prices aren’t completely accurate, but they did give me enough information to know that I needed to check prices at Costco.
The price for the non-covered medication would have been over $140 per month at a chain drugstore near my house. I was able to print a coupon from GoodRx that brought the price down to about $62 per month. Costco Home Delivery Pharmacy’s price on that same generic drug was about $35 for a three month supply or around $12 per month.
My prescription that used to cost $60 per month for an insurance copayment now costs about $85 for a three-month supply (less than $30 per month) – cash price, no insurance.
Overall, it pays to shop around for the best drug prices. A few minutes can save you hundreds of dollars a year in prescription costs.
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