Insulin Copay Card & Other Discount Info

Medicines
1

I happened into the endo office to ask for a new RX, and the lady who was filling in was amazing. She told me (seriously, first time in 11 years anyone mentioned this) that most medications offer a discount prescription card. I had no idea. Of course, @Eric did - and I found this thread while I was looking on FUD for info: Good savings on Novo Nordisk insulins

The receptionist mentioned that Novalog and Humalog are quite similar (feel free to refute, we are a Humalog house) and that I should price check both RX’s and see which was cheaper for us, using copays or a discount card or both.

Here’s the catch: I called the pharmacy we use (Costco) and they refused to tell me what the price would be without a valid prescription. So apparently, I need our doctor to call in both a RX for Humalog (vials and quickpens and possibly cartridges) and Novolog (vials and quickpens possibly cartridges). The quickpens, I think, will be cheaper because they come in a box with 5-300 unit pens (1500u), while the vial is 1000u. Currently, EH is on the OmniPod, and we are using the cartridges we’ve got from last month to fill it up. Still, we spend a lot on prescriptions because I’ve been too lazy to really do legwork to make it cheaper, and I had no idea that this stuff existed. We do have a PPO health insurance plan which covers most pharmacy items (meds, insulin, pods, needles, etc.)

I went ahead and filled out a form on the Novalog website to see what the discount would be, but it’s not clear what the savings would actually be, due to the fact that after providing all the info they said they couldn’t process my request at this time. Blah.

Humalog’s website seems to cater to T2/Insulin Resistant T1 users, making discounts available on only the U200 quickpens, so I didn’t bother to sign up for that.

EH uses the Freestyle Lite meter and strips, which comes with a pretty high copay every month, but years ago when I griped about it, he informed me that it was worth most of our money so he didn’t have to milk a gallon of blood out of his finger for the stupid OneTouch we had ten times a day, so I quit arguing about it. I went to their website and it was crap, the offers were non-existent I think. Something along the lines of “Go to your pharmacy and ask for our products and you’ll pay a low price!!! Automatic, more affordable co-pay for test strips every month. No sign up or savings card needed.” Which is ridiculous. No sign up = no discount = same price = probably expensive.

I am curious if anyone else has had experience using these cards (I read @docslotnick uses one and @Eric has done this) and could guide me in the right direction for figuring this out. I mean, I went BY THE ENDO’s office for an RX and didn’t manage to leave with one, and then got turned down by the pharmacy, so I’m not doing very well thus far.

2

Are you paying cash without any insurance involvement?

3

Oh goodness, no. I am sorry, I should edit my post. We have a PPO which covers a lot of things (including the OmniPod pods, weirdly). But we are still out of pocket around $200 a month if we fill all the prescriptions.

The cash price for all of it would be around $2000 I believe.

4

Sorry, I missed the question. Are you asking about a savings card for FreeStyle strips? I have one. It gives pretty decent savings for me. If that is what you are looking for, I can get my card and tell you what it says on it.

Are you saying you couldn’t get a script for FreeStyle strips? I’m not sure what is going on with your endo! Since EH is on the omnipod, and it uses those strips, that is a no-brainer. That should be prescribed.

Sorry, quite possible I am missing stuff here. Lemme know!

5

Sorry, I think my original post was terribly confusing.

I wanted to bring about a discussion of these discount cards because I think that PWD don’t know about them sometimes.

We have an RX for test strips. I would like to know if anyone has a discount card for test strips (or insulin, for that matter).

I couldn’t get a price quote for anything from our pharmacy without a valid prescription, and my endo’s office (the new one) didn’t realize that when they sent me away to price check things. I think it is silly that a person needs an RX to find out how much something would cost from a pharmacy - seems like a waste of everyones time.

6

Yes, I have a card for both FreeStyle strips and Novo products (NovoLog, Levemir). They both work, and are totally legit. It’s a decent discount on the co-pay.

That seems to be fairly standard. The price depends on your insurance, and they can’t check that until you get the script. You can get a cash-pay price, but in order to find out what you would pay with your insurance, a script is required. That’s the way I have always had to process it.

7

Well, that’s frustrating. Glad to know I’m not doing something wrong though.

I did manage to sign up for the Novolog discount card, and I will report back on how that goes. I need to get an RX for Novolog though.

8

My discount card for Nordisk products gives a really nice discount - I paid $25 each for Novolog and Levemir vials when I was using them, and I pay $50 for NovoPen cartridges (5) now. I think it will depend on your insurance copay though - the card gives you $100 off whatever your copay is. Mine is $150 for cartridges, so brings it down to $50.

Also, when you use it for the first time, make sure if it says you get a free box of needles (mine does), that you get your needles!

I’ll look at my card later and can post specific wording.