Since there aren’t many ways to reduce health care costs without compromising your actual care, I was really excited to find OneRx. OneRx is an app that is free and available to anyone who wants to make good, cost-effective decisions when purchasing prescription medication. It’s simple to use and allows you to comparison shop anytime, anywhere—even right from your doctor’s office.
Here’s what you do:
- Download the app for free for Apple or Android phones.
- Register.
- Simply snap and upload a picture of the front and back of your insurance card or fill out the information manually. (OneRx also works without any insurance information.) Within just a few minutes, you’re ready to search for medications, prices, and pharmacy locations. You’ll be able to see how much a medication costs, if it’s cheaper to buy it outright instead of using your insurance, and if there are coupons that can be redeemed at your pharmacy that will save you even more money.
Here’s how you can use OneRx:
- To find the best deal. OneRx allows you to comparison shop and lets you can see immediately if the medication that you or another family member’s been prescribed is actually covered by your insurance. If it’s not, and there are similar medications that can help you, then you can get simply get a script for a different medication. Here’s a story for you: One day, my son’s asthma doctor prescribed a refill for a very common inhaler. Our health insurance had recently changed, but I figured it was fine. Unfortunately, when I dropped the script off at my neighborhood pharmacy, they told me that it wasn’t covered and would be a ridiculous amount of money since it would be completely out-of-pocket. I had to call the doctor’s office, have them prescribe a new medication, and as a special bonus—it would now be costing more than the previous medication. On that day, OneRx would have been a huge help!
- To see if your prescription medication is less expensive with or without insurance. You may be thinking, “Well of course it’s less expensive when you use insurance! That’s why you have it.” I thought that too. However, using OneRx has taught me that it may actually be cheaper to buy the medication outright in some cases rather than use my insurance.
Many people don’t realize that pharmacies set their own prices for medications. If you have insurance but decide not to use it (or if your insurance doesn’t cover a particular medication), you may be able to get a good price by purchasing directly from the pharmacy. But, you don’t want to call every pharmacy in a 10-mile area. The good news is, you don’t have to, because OneRx will do it for you. Amoxicillin may only be an $8 co-pay, but your local pharmacy could sell it for just $4. OneRx will tell you instantly and also allows you to search for the medication by brand name or generic name.
- To instantly redeem coupons. One of the prescriptions that we need, the EpiPen, only comes in a two-pack. In addition to it being prohibitively expensive without insurance, you must buy two at once. Using OneRx, I’ve found that the retail price is $553.20, that my insurance will pay for most of it (phew!), AND that there is a coupon available that will bring the cost of this drug to $0.
Best of all, the coupon is just a click away. I press “Redeem Savings Now” and I see:
Now, I just have to show that screen to my pharmacist.
By clicking on Find a Pharmacy, I can also see what pharmacies in my immediate area stock the EpiPen and how much it will cost. I can also view a map that pinpoints my location, along with all of the pharmacies in my area.
One more money-saving idea: OneRx can save you money over a mail-order pharmacy, depending on how often you use your medications. My mail order insurance will often do a "buy two months get the third for free" offer. So, my son's inhaler is $35 a piece without insurance and $45 with insurance. For mail order, I'd get 3 inhalers for $90, which is a better deal. However, he would never use 3 inhalers before the time that the medicine expires—usually within a year—which means the medication without insurance and without mail order is a better deal. Would I have figured that out eventually? Maybe, but who knows how long it would have taken? With OneRx, I knew right away what the better deal was.
Whether you use employer-offered health insurance or purchase insurance independently, OneRx is a great tool that saves you time and money. I’ll also be using it to comparison shop when I have to choose whether to continue our insurance plan from last year or change to a different plan.
If you’re like to learn more about OneRx, visit their website. You can follow them on Facebook at OneRx and Twitter at @OneRxApp.
I received compensation for this review. All opinions are my own.
