Open enrollment and renewal season is a great time to share tips with your employees about how to save money on health care services and prescriptions. Here are some recommendations from the Schauer Group employee benefits team:
For health care services:
Group health plans are required to give plan participants a way to estimate what their personal out-of-pocket costs will be for common services. Some of our health insurance partners offer online tools that let you research the service you need, the providers who offer it, and the expected cost to you. Here’s how you access those estimators:For prescriptions:
Your health insurance company provides a prescription drug formulary, which lists medications covered by your plan and can help you and your doctor determine which prescriptions will be most affordable. If you want to see the actual cost of a specific prescription – and search for discounts – try these tools:- GoodRx: GoodRx helps you find the lowest cost for your prescription at nearby pharmacies. While GoodRx is not insurance, and it can’t be combined with your insurance, it’s still worth checking. In some cases, the GoodRx drug cost might be lower than your co-pay or be a cheaper option in cases where the prescription you need isn’t covered by your health care plan. GoodRx offers both digital coupons for specific drugs and a physical prescription savings card that can be shown at pharmacies for discounts.
- AultSaveRx: AultCare has a similar online tool that uses information both from your health plan and GoodRx. Through the portal, you can search for your generic prescriptions and compare costs between using your health plan and using a third-party coupon.
- Optum Rx: AultCare’s self-funded clients have access to Optum Rx Price Edge – a tool that can offer lower copays on covered, generic medications and discounted prices on medications that aren’t covered by your plan.
