Literally!
I was at the VA (Veterans Administration) Hospital a few weeks ago to see the nuerologist for my migraines. I have been taking Imitrex through my civilian Dr, but am changing over to getting my medication from the VA to reduce the cost. The Dr was perscribing me a new migraine medication (the VA doesn’t have Imitrex on the formulary but does have something similar), and told me that the dosage was 1/2 a pill.
When I asked him why 1/2 a pill he told me. “Well, if I perscribed you the lower dosage you would only get 8 pills every two months, this way you get 8 pills and can cut them in half for 16 doses-and only pay the co-pay once.”
Yeah for the Doc looking out for me! Obviously this wouldn’t work with any type of coated time released medication, gel-caps etc. But with the cost of medication, even with co-pays, these days it is worth asking your doctor if he/she can perscribe a higher dosage that you can cut.
Just for the record, you can buy a pill cutter at most drugstores for just a few dollars. Mine is the more “expensive” type with a razor type cutting blade and a little lock on it (see picture, click for link)-I think I paid $4 for it.
Great idea, Jenn! I once knew a lady whose doctor gave her a 4x dosage prescription so she could quadruple the value of her co-pay.
Speaking of co-pays, just the whole idea has me a little bewildered. I once had to pay a co-pay of $10 on a $10.91 prescription, but then someone else I knew with the same plan paid just $10 for a $500 prescription!!! While I’d be thrilled at the prospect of getting a prescription at 1/50th its price, I kinda feel silly when my insurance only saves me 91 cents on a prescription. Oh well.
Nick- I think that you just pay a flat fee no matter what the price of the medication-sort of like the deductible on your car insurance 🙂 It does seem silly to only have the insurance cover $.91
I was a pharmacy technician for only a few years, so take this for what it’s worth.
I’d be careful with a quadruple strength pill and splitting it twice. You usually lose a little bit in the splitter. And sometimes it doesn’t split quite in half. Splitting in fourths might just compound that error.
For what it’s worth, we often split pills at the hospital I worked at.
thanks for the info Lazy Man. Looks like double stregnth is the way to go then. . ..
I say watch out for the new 2 in 1 drugs. I’ve seen ads on TV for Caduet. It has two ingredients. One is Amlodipine and the other is Atorvastatin. With my RxDrugCard I can get 30 tablets of Amlodipine for $9 and 30 tablets of Simvastatin for $9. I’ll bet they are charging more than $18 for this new drug! Don’t pressure your doctor into giving you something just because it’s new. Do your homework. Find a drug card like I did at http://www.rxdrugcard.com. I think that RxDrugCard.com is the best drug card available for prescription discounts.