Pill splitting, if appropriate, can save money
You could reduce costs by splitting pills, but CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR!
Before I begin, a warning: Before you try pill splitting, CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR. Not all pills should be split (it can actually be dangerous in some cases to split a pill). And some doctors may not believe in pill splitting, since they want you to get exactly the right amount of medicine each day (when you split a pill, each half may have slightly differing amount of medicine). Some patients also may not be suitable for pill splitting (they might accidentally take a whole pill). Bottom line again: CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR.
Now that the warning is out of the way, what is pill splitting? Pill splitting is taking a pill, and cutting it in half. So, if you normally take a 25 mg pill once a day, you would now take 1/2 of a 50 mg pill once a day (and take the second half the next day). The result is that you use 1/2 the number of pills you otherwise would use, but still get the amount of medicine that you in some cases.
The way pharmacies and the drug manufacturers price their prescription drugs means that there may be some cost savings for you and also the insurance company. The insurance company might pass some of those savings on to you. Pill splitting works best in terms of saving money with tier-2 or tier-3 prescriptions (those brand name drugs, when you can’t get a generic alternative)
I actually got a letter from my insurance company telling me about their pill splitting program. It listed 3 medicines that they thought could be safely split, one of which I take on a long-term basis. If my doctor agreed, and changed my prescription appropriately, then I would only have to pay 1/2 of the normal copay amount for a 90 day supply of pills. This resulted in immediate savings. It should be noted that not all insurance companies pass on such savings to their customers (my doctor was surprised that my insurance company offered these savings).
If you don’t have insurance, the savings can be even more pronounced. Here is a quick bit of information on a couple of types of pills that my insurance company suggested for pill splitting. The example pricing was what Costco listed on their website when this article was written:
Lipitor 30 pills 100 pills
10 mg $ 88.27 $ 288.66
20 mg $ 124.61 $ 410.81
40 mg $ 124.61 $ 410.81
Cozaar 30 pills 100 pills
25 mg $ 58.49 $ 175.79
50 mg $ 68.69 $ 220.72
100 mg $ 94.21 $ 294.39
In the examples given, if you have to take 1 pill per day of 20 mg Lipitor, it would cost you about $4.15 per day for a 20 mg pill. But it would only cost $2.08 per day for 1/2 of a 40 mg pill.
So, if your particular medication happens to be a good candidate for pill splitting, and your doctor agrees, you might be able to save some hard earned money by taking advantage of pill splitting.
If you’re interested in whether this can work for you, speak with you doctor. I can’t stress this enough: CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR.
