It’s no fun being sick or injured, or to be recovering from surgery, but paying for prescription medication can be almost as bad. When you pick up a prescription at a pharmacy, you often have no clue what it’s going to cost ahead of time, even with insurance. In the U.S., med prices cause sticker shock so often that 30 percent of all prescriptions are left at the counter, according to Blink Health. With Blink Health’s free discount drug program, the pain of paying for prescription drugs may be lessened.
Many wrongly assume that if they have insurance, they’re all set. Not so. “There’s a common misconception in this country. Patients believe that, because they’re covered by insurance, they’re paying the lowest price at the pharmacy counter. This is not the case,” said Blink Health co-founder and COO Matt Chaiken.
According to the company, Blink can offer lower prices on more than 15,000 medications, most of which are generic and cost less than $10 on Blink Health. The low prices are possible because of the purchasing power of the combined membership of Blink Health and an allied company, MedImpact. The list of pharmacy chains that accept Blink Health includes Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, and many others.
To use Blink Health go to BlinkHealth.com or open the Blink Health app on your iOS or Android smartphone. Enter your medication by name, dose, and quantity and you’ll get a price quote. If you want to go forward, pay for the meds online. A “Blink Card” which acts as a proof of purchase is sent to your phone. Simply go to the pharmacy with your prescription and show your receipt. As long as you have a valid prescription from a physician, they’ll fill the prescription and you pay nothing more at the pharmacy.
It’s all simple in concept. If you already know the cost of prescriptions, you’ll know quickly if the Blink Price is better. If you don’t know what the med cost would be without Blink, you can always call or even go to the pharmacy and show them your insurance card, if you have one, and get a price quote. If the Blink Price is lower, which the company says will be most of the time, step away, pay via the Blink Health app and then show the pharmacist your Blink Card. Easy as pie.
It doesn’t cost you anything to check out your prescription first on Blink Health. With the complexity of many insurance plans, you might find that it’s cheaper to buy via Blink Health at your pharmacy then to use your insurance. To encourage people to check out its service, Blink offers all new members $5 off on their first medication through the network and $10 in credit for referring new users.
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