May 3, 2010

Lower Your Presciption Costs: BidRx


A few years ago, in an effort to save some money, my husband's employer signed our family up for BidRx. The premise is that you comparison shop for all sorts of items, but you are kind of at a disadvantage when it comes to shopping around for your prescriptions.

If you, or any member of your family, takes prescription medications on a regular basis it is worth a few minutes of your time to check out BidRx. They provide an "electronic marketplace" for you to instantly obtain discounts on prescriptions. It is basically a reverse Ebay. You tell them what medication you need and the pharmacies all try to earn your business by being the lowest bidder.

You see the bids from all the pharmacies and choose the pharmacy you prefer. The goal is that through the BidRx marketplace consumers get the best price. BidRx uses the power of the internet to create an open, competitive, and transparent marketplace for prescriptions.

You do have to register, but registration is free. To start a "bid", you input your prescription information and you will see several "instant" bids from various pharmacies. You can choose one of these to complete your deal immediately or you can wait a few days to see if any other pharmacy outbids any of the "instant" prices. If you accept a bid, you simply contact the pharmacy to arrange getting them the written prescription and payment.

Another way BidRx can save you money is when you put in your medication they will give you a list of other medications that are similar that could save you money (generics or different brands). They suggest you bring this list into your doctor to discuss the lowest cost, most beneficial medication. I have found that doctors often don't realize just how much prescriptions cost (plus it is different for everyone depending on insurance coverage).

BidRx works best for regular, continuing medications (not prescriptions you need on short notice). We have used this service multiple times and saved a bunch. Each time we have used BidRx the "winning" pharmacy happened to be a mail order pharmacy (Omro Pharmacy). We have been super satisfied with their service. It cost considerably less and the order shipped super fast.

BidRx is not insurance so you can use it in combination with your insurance to save money. Also you can just put in your prescription information to do a quick comparison without finalizing any transaction and there is never any obligation. If you don't have great insurance and the medication you take isn't on the discounted list for Target or Walmart, BidRx could definitely save you some money.

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