This year’s dangerous flu season got to our house. Our oldest child brought it home and was too sick for school last Friday. Fortunately he only missed one day of school since we got a big winter storm that weekend and kept the kids out of school for a couple extra days. It gave him a chance to recover at home without missing lots of homework. yay, I guess. 😐
Since we caught it early, it was recommended that we get him on Tamiflu. Have you priced that lately? Whoa! Around here it retails for anywhere from $125 to $180 per dose pack, and that’s the generic! Sometimes a doctor will recommend the rest of the family also take it so they can try to prevent getting it themselves. Ok, $125 x 4 of us = $600 for Tamiflu. NOPE.
Here’s what I did. After choking a little bit I turned to my trusty discount drug sources; Samaritan’s discount program available through our member online dashboard and goodrx. Samaritan’s program is really good about getting me prices for my super local non chain pharmacy, which goodrx doesn’t really do (they sort of guestimate and get close most of the time). It’s a tossup which one gives me the best pricing so I like to check them both when prescriptions are needed. Goodrx revealed the cheapest option this time, showing me cash discount prices ranging from $51.94 to over $130! The cash rate of $51.94 was at walmart. When we went to pick up the script the pharmacy tech was concerned about the high cost, because their retail rate is $134. When I mentioned we were using the goodrx app, he ran the codes in his computer and was so surprised to see the price drop down to $51.94, exactly what the app said it would be.
The customer in front of me also used goodrx, and we were able to tell some friends about it who were also facing a huge charge for it. Saving that much money on medicine is a big deal. Normally our meds aren’t very pricey so goodrx will save me a nice $10-$30… but this time it saved me over $80.
I’m sure some insurance patients paid far less than $52 for their Tamiflu (some paid more, too), but they’re also paying huge premiums every month, more than the $495 our Samaritan family share costs. On the whole we are still way ahead on medical expenses compared to having insurance. I’m so thankful for Samaritan and the goodrx app to get us through this flu season without breaking the bank.
Hi and thank you for your dedication with this website that explains Samaritan. I am considering joining. I talked with a Samaritan customer service person on the phone this morning about the application, specifically pre-existing conditions, what they are, and how to note them on the application. I made a list of my medical experiences (a short list of minor problems – I am healthy thank the Lord) that might be considered pre-existing with the onset date, treatment, current status, etc and emailed it to the customer service person. My question to him was: would any of these conditions ever qualify for sharing and if so, which ones might qualify in the future and under what conditions? The customer service rep said that he would call me back. I still haven’t heard from him or anyone at Samaritan.
Is my request unreasonable? How can I proceed to get the answers that I need from Samaritan? Thank you, Carmen
Hi Carmen, I don’t think your request is unreasonable, I would ask the same things in your position and consider it a responsible part of the research. 🙂 Since it was this morning and your questions likely need some investigating, my guess is that they are doing their due diligence to find out good answers to your questions and it may take a little time. From all my experiences dealing with Samaritan staff I know they are not disregarding you or being neglectful on purpose. I have never spoken to a more caring, thoughtful or well meaning group of people in customer service. They are open 8-5 CST, so if further time was needed it could easily carry into the next business day, especially if his other duties today ran longer than expected. Assuming we know that he received your email successfully, I wouldn’t be too concerned about not hearing from him quite yet. You will very likely hear from him in the next day or so. If not, then please contact them again, they will likely have a ticket open with your request. They don’t operate like an insurance company, so they will actually try to answer the hypotheticals vs insurance which won’t talk about anything unless it’s already happened. I’m so glad to hear you are considering Samaritan. I find their way of caring for members to be very refreshing. The system upgrades they’ve had in the last few years are tremendous and made an already great process for health care even better. I hope you get the answers you seek very soon. God bless.