Help For Prescription Medication Costs

As mentioned in the Part D Drug Coverage section, there are plenty of expensive medications. Even with drug coverage, you may still have to pay out thousands of dollars each year if you are on some Brand name and Specialty drugs.

What Options Do You Have For Reducing Your Drug Costs?

GoodRx: GoodRx and SingleCare offer prescription savings and discount cards and coupons that you present at your local pharmacy. Even if you have Medicare Part D prescription coverage, sometimes the same medication is less money when you use GoodRx or SingleCare.

Extra Help/LIS: LIS is short for Low Income Subsidy and officially known as Extra Help from Social Security.

Extra Help is a Medicare programs to help people with limited income and resources pay Medicare prescription drug costs.

Extra Help/LIS can be really beneficial and save you t h o u s a n d s o f d o l l a r s … p r o v i d i n g y o u q u a l i f y. Unfortunately if you make or have one penny too much… you don’t qualify.

To receive Extra Help/LIS, you will need to qualify based upon your yearly income and your resources. To learn more about Extra Help/LIS, go here.

Medicaid: Medicaid is primarily assistance from your State government. Typically each jurisdiction has a Social Services department that you can contact to learn more about Medicaid.

Medicaid is harder to qualify for than Extra Help/LIS. But, if you do qualify it can also help with your drug costs. To learn more about Medicaid, go to the Medicaid section on this website.

State Agencies/SHIP: Most states have a State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) that offers counseling and services to aid people with their healthcare and healthcare costs. To learn more, see the following links:

• https://www.vhcf.org/looking-for-help/prescription-medicine-access/co-pay-assistance-programs/

VA Benefits: Often overlooked or totally forgotten about— Veterans Administration Benefits are for qualifying military veterans and sometimes spouses. Those with VA Benefits can get very expensive medications for relatively low co-pays.

One time I was working with a client. I had been to his home and met with him and his wife on two prior occasions over the span of several years. The meeting was always about finding a Medicare plan that would save him money on his insulin. I offered potential options for reducing his medicine costs (Social Security Extra Help, manufacturer discounts and VA Benefits), but the meeting would always result in them sticking with their existing plan because there simply wasn’t a better option.

Then the next time I showed up because his Medicare Advantage Plan was terminating, he needed to enroll in a new plan. As I was filling in the enrollment form I asked him for his Medicare card. As he was going through his wallet, I noticed his VA card. I asked him if he had VA Benefits and he said yes. And to that I said: “Do you know that you could get your insulin for a fraction of the price that you have been currently paying by using the VA Benefits?” He said he wasn’t aware of that. Now he is and has taken advantage of his VA Benefits.

Manufacturer Discounts and Medicare’s Pharmaceutical Assistance Program: Most manufactures offers discounts and/or financial assistance on their more expensive medications. You typically have to qualify in some form or fashion. If you are on expensive medications, you should definitely contact the pharmaceutical company that manufactures your drug. 

You can learn more about manufacturer discounts by utilizing Medicare´s Pharmaceutical Assistance Program. Simply enter the name of your drug and if assistance is available it will provide some details and phone numbers and links to the programs available. 

Grants: Unless your doctor happens to tell you or you are on some trial medication, then you may not be aware that their are agencies and charity programs that offer grants on certain medications. See the links below for some of these programs.

• CancerCare CoPayment Assistance Foundation www.cancercarecopay.org/: Provides financial assistance for certain cancer treatment drugs.

• Good Days www.mygooddays.org: Provides financial assistance for people with certain chronic conditions who need medications.

• The HealthWell Foundation www.healthwellfoundation.org: Provides financial assistance for people with chronic and life-altering illnesses to help pay for drug copayments, premiums, and deductibles.

• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) www.lls.org: Provides financial assistance toward blood cancer treatment-related copays, private health insurance premiums, Medicare Part B, Medicare Part D, supplemental insurance, Medicare Advantage Plan premiums, Medicaid spend-downs or copay.

• National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) www.rarediseases.org: Provides financial assistance to help people pay for insurance premiums and copays.

• Patient Advocate Foundation’s Co-Pay Relief (CPR) www.copays.org: Provides financial assistance to help pay prescription drug copays.

• Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation https://panfoundation.org: Provides financial assistance to people with chronic and rare diseases who need help paying out-of -pocket costs.

• Patient Services Incorporated (PSI) www.patientservicesinc.org: Provides financial assistance to people with specific conditions to help pay their prescription copays, regardless of income.

Associations: Associations like the American Diabetes Association sometimes offer help with the costs of medications. To learn more about insulin savings go here: https://insulinhelp.org/

The American Cancer Society has a page dedicated to resources offering help with cancer medication costs. You can find it here: