But the program expired for good at the end of 2015, once a similar generic became available.Īround 60 programs have followed Pataday’s example in recent years, Davis said, including on drugs for chronic hepatitis C infection, for ADHD and for preventing organ rejection after transplants. Patients with allergic symptoms once could get up to $110 off Pataday eye drops, which are sold by Novartis’sĪlcon, through a coupon program. But patients always run the risk of a program’s not being extended. Most coupon programs technically expire at the end of the year but are renewed each year, effectively lasting for several years. Mylan called its EpiPen coupon program the “$0 co-pay card,” but consumers with high-deductible plans found it was worth only $100 off on a more than $600 product. “That’s where a lot of patients run into problems with them,” said Elizabeth Davis, head of data and content at GoodRx.Ĭopay savings programs are sometimes misleadingly named.
Samplings include free trials for anywhere between two weeks and three months, or a free month followed by lower prices for a period of time, with normal prices then resuming.
Related: What is the individual health-insurance market and why is everyone so worried about it?Ĭoupons - which can cover more than one drug - often limit how much can be saved over the course of a year, or offer incentives last for a shorter term. More than half of the coupon programs examined for a September New England Journal of Medicine article, or 62% of 374, were offered on drugs with cheaper alternatives.
Nearly 40% of the about 460 programs in drug-price comparison tool GoodRx’s database contain this kind of fine print. Coupons can’t legally be used by patients enrolled in public insurance programs including Medicare and Medicaid. The Cialis coupon can be used on certain fill sizes until the limit is reached, according to its fine print.Ĭo-pay savings coupons may also be available in the first year or so that a drug faces competition from a cheaper option, as an incentive for patients to stick with the name-brand drug.Īmid wide variation by drug and drug maker, serious limits exist. And a coupon allows new patients up to $200 off of Eli Lilly & Co.’s Cialis Which has a list price of about $550, for up to three prescription fills. Coupon programs associated with expensive, popular medications tend to be the most used.Ĭonsumers can score up to $150 off the price of Pfizer’s Viagra PFE, “They may think they’re getting a really good deal, but in reality it’s costing them more money.”Ĭoupons are usually offered for brand-name drugs without generic competition.
“At the end of the day, the consumer is always paying for it, in some form or fashion,” said Michael Rea, the founder and chief executive officer of Rx Savings Solutions, a software company that works with employers and health plans to help patients comparison shop. Read more: Big Pharma won’t stop raising prices in 2017 - it’ll just do it smarter Most people are understandably enthusiastic when finding out about the programs, which aren’t always advertised and allow for consumers to decrease their out-of-pocket costs.ĭrug makers say these programs help patients whose insurance calls for high cost sharing to afford their prescriptions.īut recent research has bolstered critics’ claims that these coupons only serve manufacturers’ interests, pushing patients away from cheaper alternatives and costing the broader health-care system billions of dollars in the process. Drug manufacturers offer co-pay savings or discount cards as apparent deals, which they pitch to consumers as a way to pay “as little as” a specific low price or even as carrying no cost at all.