A Guide to the $4 Dollar Drug List

Within the past few years, community pharmacies have started to offer medications at a set price depending on a 30 or 90 day supply. Overall this consists of generic medications that are often prescribed for chronic disease states. However, there are subtle differences between each business on what is available on their lists that others do not cover.

Most of the big name brand stores and box pharmacies offer a $4 dollar drug list. This includes:

• Walmart
• Target
• Kroger
• Wegmans
• Acme
• Regional Stores

The medications offered on these lists are usually broken into their general indications. This Hub will attempt to address the most common disease states and their accompanying medications, as well as differences between supported drug lists.

Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS offer special prescription saving plans for a monthly enrollment. The benefit of these plans is that they offer slightly more medications than on the $4 dollar generic lists mentioned here. On the other hand, they tend to charge more for a 30-day supply ($9.99). It comes down to what medications that you are trying to purchase and if these plans would be more beneficial over others, or even worth enrolling.

The usage of the $4 dollar drugs and prescription plans can be very beneficial, especially in our hard economic times where we are trying to save money. However, one advice that must be stressed is to stay with as few pharmacies as possible and to maintain your prescriptions at one place if possible. This is due to the fact that they pharmacy filling your prescription will only know what you have filled at that branch (eg. Walgreens only knows what you have filled with them and not with Wal-Mart). The significance of this is that if you shop at different pharmacies and are taking all those medications, the pharmacists will never know, and will not be able to spot drug interactions. This is a problem that has been recognized, and can lead to significant medical issues if not caught. If you find yourself shopping at different pharmacies,do your best to keep the pharmacies up to date on what medications you are on, even if you do not fill there, so that the pharmacist can help keep you safe.

The most affordable insulin sans insurance would be the ReliOn brand available at Walmart. This includes: U-100, NPH, and 70/30. In addition, testing supplies are available, such as lancets and test strips.

Let me know if there are other pharmacies that you would like me to look into to update this list in the comments below.