NEW ORLEANS — Wayne Messina and Joe LaBella have been best friends for 50 years. They do almost everything together and were born in the same year. They even got the news that they each had prostate cancer just two weeks apart.
He called me up and says uh, ‘By the way, I want to tell you I have prostate cancer.’ and I cried like a baby,” remembers Wayne Messina, 75.
“That diagnosis is a gut punch when he called me and told me he's got it,” said Joe LaBella, 74.
They shared treatment stories, even the advice and treatment from Tulane doctors. They are on the same medication. The cost of the medication is $17,000 a month. Their Medicare out-of-pocket copayment would be anywhere from $2,100 to $3,300 a month.
“If I had to pay for the medicine that I'm taking, it would broke me, and I've been broke before. It's happened before, and it's no fun,” said LaBella.
So, Joe and Wayne turned to the pharmacy at the Tulane School of Medicine. It's a specialty pharmacy, so it deals with higher priced medications, usually for chronic illnesses, often requiring taking them with close guidance from the pharmacists. At Tulane, they got both men enrolled in a grant program. The lump sum they each got is paying those high copayments.
“Unfortunately, usually a retail pharmacy does not provide this information to the patient. This is kind of outside the scope of a regular retail pharmacy,” explained Dr. Grace Thacker, Regional Director for Tulane Pharmacies.
Here are four simple steps to save you money at the pharmacy.
TIP #1
Do a search for your medical condition, grant funding.
Next, let's look at coupons.
Registered pharmacist Ricky Mannino owns Mannino's Family Practice Pharmacy in Hammond.
He's also on the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, and he says beware, not all coupons are the same.
The coupons that really save customers money, if you get a coupon directly from the drug manufacturer,” explained registered pharmacist Ricky Mannino, owner of Mannino's Family Practice Pharmacy in Hammond.
“Most manufacturers offer these for any brand name drugs. It's just it does have to be a commercial payer. It can't be any Medicare plan,” said Dr. Thacker, about why people on government insurance can’t use coupons.
TIP #2
Check the website of the company that makes your medication. Look for a money-off coupon, or to see if you qualify, to have the prescription directly mailed to you for free.
But next, what about those discount coupons? One example is GoodRx.
“It's a discounted cash price, but then what happens is (if you use them) you're never ever going to meet your deductible (to get to a point where you have a lower copayment.) It's great for someone who is uninsured, and, you know, doesn't have a lot of medications,” explained Becky Cummins, Financial Counselor and Technician for the Tulane Pharmacy at the Tulane School of Medicine.
“I can tell you 95 percent of the time, our normal cash price is cheaper than what this discount coupon would want us to sell it for,” said Mannino.
Cash price doesn’t mean you have to pay with cash, It means that you are not running your payment through your health insurance company.
And if you're on Medicare, you can't use any coupons.
TIP #3
Some pharmacists say discount coupons are usually not worth it.
And finally, what about that cash price?
So, ask your pharmacist what is your insurance copayment compared to not running it through your insurance.
“We'll have instances like, the other day the cash price, the prescription price if we used the patient's insurance was $350. Our cash price was like $28,” said Mannino.
But remember, that will not go towards your deductible.
TIP #4
Ask the pharmacy, what is your cash price, not running through insurance.
At the Tulane Pharmacy, financial counselor Becky Cummins says she's seen patients need to go to the extreme to afford their prescriptions.
“It was cheaper for them to fly to Canada to get a medication than it was for them to use their insurance that they pay for monthly to get a medication that they needed,” Cummins remembers of one patient.
But when she can help patients like Wayne and Joe, the reward is a new friendship.
“I can tell you the crew at Tulane through this, they're the best, absolute best,” said LaBella.
“What they did for us was, you know, over and above, and we appreciate it,” added Messina.
And that financial help is not only saving money, but literally saving lives.
Below are several links to websites that can help you save money on prescriptions. Patients should avoid any site that charges a fee to search for assistance.
- Fund Finder
- NeedyMeds
- Diseases and Medications - HealthWell Foundation
- Funds – Co-Pay Relief
- Welcome!, Extra Help With Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs, Social Security
- Patient Aid Program | Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
- National Organization for Rare Disorders | NORD
- The Assistance Fund - TAF
- PAN portal - PAN Foundation
- Financial & Co-Payment Assistance for Cancer Patients
This is for specialty medications:
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.