How do discount cards and resources affect my Medicare Prescription Drug plan?
Answered by 20 licensed agents
Normally Discount Cards (Good RX and others) may discount your Prescription cost at certain pharmacies. This may be a way to save on Prescriptions when there is a higher copay. These companies may gather your information and market Medicare plans.
There are State Resources available to help with Prescription costs. There are many generic medications that could be $0 copay in Medicare Advantage or Standalone RX plan. Brand Medications can have copays.
State programs have an application and can take up to 2 weeks to 4 months to be approved. These programs have income guidelines to qualify. Most do not consider assets.
NJ PAAD
PA PACE
If you have questions on the state resources, please contact me for more information.
They do not affect your Medicare insurance and they do not help your Medicare insurance.
Discount cards and programs line GoodRx are separate programs that work very well with purchasing inexpensive generic drugs in case you didn’t have a Part D drug plan.
In most cases, discount cards or pharmaceutical company assistance is not available once a senior enrolls into Medicare Part D or Part C (with drug coverage). There are exceptions to this, but Medicare Part D/Part C can provide significant coverage support for most commonly prescribed medications.
They can supplement depending on the availability of your Rx and a plan in a given plan area. Discount cards are another option when regular Rx plan options are not available.
Discount cards can be a nice little hack for saving money on prescriptions, but they come with a catch, they don’t count toward your Medicare Part D out-of-pocket costs. Sometimes, they’ll get you a better deal than your plan’s copay, but other times, your Part D coverage is the smarter choice. Think of them as a backup tool in your savings toolbox—use them when they work in your favor, but don’t rely on them to help you hit your deductible or out-of-pocket max!
They don’t. They are as if they didn’t exist as it does not count toward meeting your prescription deductible or your maximum out of pocket. Their cost is totally on you.
Using Discount Cards like GoodRx on some generic medications can be cheaper than using plans you pay for under Medicare Part D.
Please remember if you have a Social Security amount under $1,883 and Assets(not including your home and car) under $17,220 you may qualify for Extra Help. This means covered drugs will not cost more than $12.15 for a month's supply. Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 to get started. These are 2025 income/asset numbers.
Good question! Here’s a simple answer. It’s one or the other. If you pay for a prescription using your Medicare Prescription drug plan card Then you work towards Medicare‘s catastrophic coverage (in 2025 that amount is $2K), Meaning that whatever you spend towards covered medication’s, gets you closer to hitting your $2000 out-of-pocket maximum a.k.a. catastrophic coverage. once you hit $2000 out-of-pocket you no longer pay a penny for any covered medication’s. Using your Medicare prescription drug coverage will typically give you a pretty big discount on your medication‘s as it is a pre-negotiated discounted rate between the drug company and the insurance company.
If you were to use something like goodRX, you may get a discounted medication but there is no cap to what you may pay throughout the year. Everyone’s situation is different, so for some folks, I’m a huge fan of good RX but for others I strongly encourage sticking to using your Medicare prescription drug plan.
Discount cards can be helpful in certain situations. Just be aware that any prescription purchases on discount programs do NOT count against your annual maximum out-of-pocket limit, so if you are trying to get to the limit as soon as possible so that your drug costs fall to zero, you may want to avoid discount cards.
You can't use prescription discount cards with your Medicare Part D benefits, but you can use them instead of them if the discount offers a lower price than your plan's cost.
If you use any type of discount cards or resources outside of your Prescription Drug plan, your costs will not count towards your Deductible nor towards your Maximum Out of Pocket.
If you choose to use a discount card to pay for a prescription because it's cheaper than the Medicare Prescription Drug plan, you can use it for the cheaper price. However, it will not count towards your out-of-pocket expenses.
You cannot use a discount prescription drug card in conjunction with Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. You must choose either to use your Part D prescription drug card or the discount card, you cannot use both at the same time.
They really don’t. Popular discount cards like “Good Rx “ can be used to give you a better price on some medications.
However, they do not count towards your Rx deductibles or true out-of-pocket costs. They are not insurance plans, so they are just standalone discounts!
You can use them to possibly save money on prescriptions. However they will not go toward your deductible if applicable. Sometimes the savings is well worth using them. Always ask the pharmacist which option will give you the best deal.