is "GoodRX" legit?

[Gil Bang 25949]

So, I need a prescription that isn't covered by my insurance. 

I looked online and something called "Good RX" says I can print the coupon, take it to the pharmacy, and get the shit i need super cheap.  Reviews online seem good.

I tried calling the pharmacy and nobody's answering the phone there. 

[Handcruser 2805]

So, I need a prescription that isn't covered by my insurance. 
I looked online and something called "Good RX" says I can print the coupon, take it to the pharmacy, and get the shit i need super cheap.  Reviews online seem good.
I tried calling the pharmacy and nobody's answering the phone there. 

Yes. Legit and great. Just show up with the app on your phone and they’ll scan the code.

[conVINCEd 21469]

I don’t know how it works, but it works.

[Jerry Callo 8700]

Works great with generic prescriptions.  Around here, HEB is overall the cheapest - some medicines might be cheaper at Costco, but HEB on balance is the cheapest. 

[Lat22 4013]

19 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

I don’t know how it works, but it works.

Yep.  This.  

[BearSchlong 8087]

I'm on my phone but there's a thread somewhere from a few years back, IIRC a pharmacy manager had an ax to grind because he was forced, by some insurance contract, to fill a whole lot of prescriptions at a loss for good rx.

[Gil Bang 25949]

It worked.

[Herbie Hancock 7347]

As smart as you fancy yourself to be and you’re asking in 2021 if GoodRX is legit?

[Bevo 13576]

32 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

It worked.

How much was the little blue pill?

[Gil Bang 25949]

Not dick pills.  Propecia for my thinning hair.   11 bucks for a 100 day supply.  Pretty, pretty, pretty good. 

[elfenix 34237]

i always ask and sometimes they give me a cheaper price than good rx is showing. 

[Zepol87 9185]

4 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

I don’t know how it works, but it works.

I have some friends that work in a pharmacy that hate it but I use it when I can. Need to ask them why they hate it 

[conVINCEd 21469]

34 minutes ago, Zepol87 said:

I have some friends that work in a pharmacy that hate it but I use it when I can. Need to ask them why they hate it 

There’s some voodoo shit going on there.  It sometimes doesn’t work as well.  Couple of years ago it knocked down by a couple hundred bucks.  A couple of months ago it was cheaper to use my insurance.  Run it both ways  and see what’s cheaper.

[TKthunder2 4991]

This article explained it pretty well.  It’s paywalled now though.

https://fortune.com/2021/04/29/goodrx-prescription-drug-costs-pbms/

[boilerhorn 1377]

https://www.quora.com/How-do-prescription-discount-coupon-plans-like-GoodRx-work

This explains it fairly well, too.

Quote

What GoodRx does is gain access to the rates negotiated by insurance companies with pharmacies through middlemen known as “Pharmacy Benefit Managers” Bear with me a moment as pharmaceutical pricing is Byzantine in complexity and Kafkaesque in absurdity and opacity.

Your pharmacy purchases medication from a wholesale distributor, such as Mc Kessen, at a certain price, which is the “ Acquisition Price” . This price is then dramatically increased to the public “ rack rate- nobody really pays that “ price. The “Pharmacy Benefit Managers” negotiate a discount from that wildly inflated price for an insurance company which applies to all medications , usually 70–90%. This can lead to some bizarre pricing issues depending on the Acquisition Price the pharmacy has.

If your eyes have not glazed over yet, the contracts the insurance companies have also allow for that discount to be given to cash paying customers, as if the cash price for a medication is lower than the insurance co-pay, the insurance company pays nothing, which they like, and the difference between the cash price, say $4 for a generic medication and the co- pay of say, $20, gets kicked back to the Pharmacy Benefit Manager-

You don’t know about any of this unless you specifically ask the pharmacist if the cash price is lower. So for some patients on 4–5 generic medications the difference between the $16/month they are paying and the $100/month co-pay gets skimmed of by the middleman. Particularly for the elderly on a fixed income, this may be technically legal…but hardly ethical IMHO.

Ok, now this is where Goodrx comes in: They obtain the contracted insurance company rate and make it public to cash paying customers- insurance companies go along since they pay nothing for the meds and save the money that would go to the PBM middleman. Good rx makes a small profit by having the insurance companies pay a percentage of that savings to them. But the consumer now has access to the insurance company rate, and given the complexity of it all even the negotiated rates can vary widely from one pharmacy to another.

While hardly perfect, it is a useful tool to be certain you are not being totally ripped off and getting at least a decent price. Another route to go is Costco’s pharmacy, which adds a percentage to the acquisition cost, but may not have the lowest acquisition cost.

Simple enough. But Good rx is a useful tool and it’s a good idea to check it before filling a script. With that said, a rational, transparent pricing structure would be much better.

Good luck in the wild world of pharmacy in the 21st century. Caveat Emptor.

 

 

[RPM 26319]

If Josiah Bartlet says it works, it works.

[Nueces River Rat 5538]

18 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

Not dick pills.  Propecia for my thinning hair.   11 bucks for a 100 day supply.  Pretty, pretty, pretty good. 

Those are cheap on line...  

[Gil Bang 25949]

1 hour ago, Nueces River Rat said:

Those are cheap on line...  

how much cheaper can they get?  I paid 11 cents per pill

[XYZ 2154]

Exhibit number eleventy billion of how the government is here to help corporations steal as much as possible.

[dcbc 14478]

After 6 months of no issues, BCBSTX decided to put my testosterone (medically low, not for gainz) up for prior approval.  Denied this morning.  GoodRX to the rescue, and it appears to be cheaper than what I was paying with insurance.

[veritas aequitas 443]

Works great for me, they have now bought out one of the online teledoc things I use and that has gone well too. 

[ROFL BOX 6649]

On 9/28/2021 at 2:50 PM, XYZ said:

Exhibit number eleventy billion of how the government is here to help corporations steal as much as possible.

Oh, so you ARE in support of Universal Healthcare?

[Nice Guy Eddie 13511]

If you pay with GoodRx, just remember that you may need to take action to ensure the $ amount is counted towards your deductible. it's possible it may not if the drug is not covered by your insurance plan at all. It's always good to followup.

[Willfully Horn 8014]

On 9/27/2021 at 1:45 PM, Handcruser said:

Yes. Legit and great. Just show up with the app on your phone and they’ll scan the code.

This. Accept the pos rep on behalf of GoodRX.

[HRSchenker 2268]

GoodRx is one of the biggest scams in health care and it's so crazy to see people use it. There's no such thing as "free" in health care. When you use GoodRx you are charged a fee ranging from $5 to $25 that I collect on your behalf and send to them. Because it's transmitted like insurance, I give them your name, date of birth, gender, address, telephone number, and of course the names and strength of meds you fill. What you don't see on the pharmacy end is that this usually results in a negative reimbursement so I'm paying this company to fill your prescription. A company that I don't have a contract with yet wants to the public that these are negotiated rates. Total bullshit. They're also obligated to inform you on those cards that they're not insurance because everything I transmit is not allowed reimbursement under your insurance plan. If you ever get into a situation where you need to meet your deductible or max out of pocket spending, you will spend more due to using GoodRx. 

[El Tri 412]

11 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

GoodRx is one of the biggest scams in health care and it's so crazy to see people use it. There's no such thing as "free" in health care. When you use GoodRx you are charged a fee ranging from $5 to $25 that I collect on your behalf and send to them. Because it's transmitted like insurance, I give them your name, date of birth, gender, address, telephone number, and of course the names and strength of meds you fill. What you don't see on the pharmacy end is that this usually results in a negative reimbursement so I'm paying this company to fill your prescription. A company that I don't have a contract with yet wants to the public that these are negotiated rates. Total bullshit. They're also obligated to inform you on those cards that they're not insurance because everything I transmit is not allowed reimbursement under your insurance plan. If you ever get into a situation where you need to meet your deductible or max out of pocket spending, you will spend more due to using GoodRx. 

someone's mad

[Gil Bang 25949]

GoodRx is one of the biggest scams in health care and it's so crazy to see people use it. There's no such thing as "free" in health care. When you use GoodRx you are charged a fee ranging from $5 to $25 that I collect on your behalf and send to them. Because it's transmitted like insurance, I give them your name, date of birth, gender, address, telephone number, and of course the names and strength of meds you fill. What you don't see on the pharmacy end is that this usually results in a negative reimbursement so I'm paying this company to fill your prescription. A company that I don't have a contract with yet wants to the public that these are negotiated rates. Total bullshit. They're also obligated to inform you on those cards that they're not insurance because everything I transmit is not allowed reimbursement under your insurance plan. If you ever get into a situation where you need to meet your deductible or max out of pocket spending, you will spend more due to using GoodRx. 

Why participate?

[blacklab 11928]

29 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

GoodRx is one of the biggest scams in health care and it's so crazy to see people use it. There's no such thing as "free" in health care. When you use GoodRx you are charged a fee ranging from $5 to $25 that I collect on your behalf and send to them. Because it's transmitted like insurance, I give them your name, date of birth, gender, address, telephone number, and of course the names and strength of meds you fill. What you don't see on the pharmacy end is that this usually results in a negative reimbursement so I'm paying this company to fill your prescription. A company that I don't have a contract with yet wants to the public that these are negotiated rates. Total bullshit. They're also obligated to inform you on those cards that they're not insurance because everything I transmit is not allowed reimbursement under your insurance plan. If you ever get into a situation where you need to meet your deductible or max out of pocket spending, you will spend more due to using GoodRx. 

Is there something preventing you from refusing to accept GoodRx customers?

[gsoda3 3256]

19 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

If you pay with GoodRx, just remember that you may need to take action to ensure the $ amount is counted towards your deductible. it's possible it may not if the drug is not covered by your insurance plan at all. It's always good to followup.

i didn't know you could count that towards your deductible.  

[HRSchenker 2268]

33 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

Why participate?

 

33 minutes ago, blacklab said:

Is there something preventing you from refusing to accept GoodRx customers?

I don't. When I worked for the chains I had no choice but I still had access to the claim detail.

Gil what do you do for a living? I know you're in real estate but I don't know what exactly. I only ask so I can give you an example of how goodrx would work in your industry

[Nice Guy Eddie 13511]

3 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

i didn't know you could count that towards your deductible.  

It's up to your insurance to honor it. and perhaps they have ways to refuse to do so.

Regardless if you do nothing, I assume it will not count towards the deductible.

[gsoda3 3256]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

It's up to your insurance to honor it. and perhaps they have ways to refuse to do so.

Regardless if you do nothing, I assume it will not count towards the deductible.

i'll have to try that next time.  i always thought only meds you purchase through your insurance's affiliation counted towards the deducitble.

[Gil Bang 25949]

5 hours ago, HRSchenker said:

 

I don't. When I worked for the chains I had no choice but I still had access to the claim detail.

Gil what do you do for a living? I know you're in real estate but I don't know what exactly. I only ask so I can give you an example of how goodrx would work in your industry

These days, I'm a run-of-the-mill Realtor.

[GottaB 594]

Yeah. Pharmacies take a beating. And they have your data. Chains keep allowing it because they think you’re going to shop in the store.

It’s a messed up business model.

[Noah Fence 480]

On 9/27/2021 at 12:00 PM, Jerry Callo said:

Works great with generic prescriptions.  Around here, HEB is overall the cheapest - some medicines might be cheaper at Costco, but HEB on balance is the cheapest. 

But is HEB open?