The Truth About Prescription Discount Cards

We get a lot of questions about prescription discount cards that people get online, in the mail, from family and friends, etc. Pharmacist Todd Pendergraft over at Broken Arrow Family Drug in Oklahoma, has created a video that really details how these “discount cards” work. The cliff notes version is this:

  1. You present discount card to pharmacy.
  2. Pharmacy runs the prescription on discount card.
  3. 99.9% of the time our cash price beats the discount card price.
  4. Discount card raises your co-pay that they bill us for. For example, our medication cost is $5, discount card co-pay is $15, discount card company charges us $10 to charge you more and make a profit.
  5. Discount card company now OWNS your personal information and WILL sell it.

See below video from Todd for an in-depth explanation.