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Hundreds of medications go up in price in 2021 but there are ways to save

Posted at 7:06 AM, Jan 20, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-22 14:31:03-05

Health care company GoodRx tracks prescription drug costs and so far this month, it's reporting 795 drugs have gone up in price, increasing in price by an average of 4.5% this month.

Click hereto see which drugs have increased in cost.

The company reports it's typical to see drug prices jump in January and July.

"Brand name medications every year increase between eight and nine point nine percent," said Hayat Pharmacist Doctor Hashim Zaibak. Dr. Zaibak isn't surprised to see drug prices up.

"Obviously COVID-19 impacted the supply chain. The international supply chain. Sometimes when the raw material is hard to get, some of the manufacturers will increase their pricing," Dr. Zaibak said.

If you have insurance, you're likely not going to pay the list price of a medication. But if you're uninsured, medication can get costly.

"The one thing that they can do to improve on the cost of the medication is communicate with the pharmacist," he explained.

"Sometimes one medication might cost $300 to 400, but there's another medication within the same class that costs $10," he said.

Another suggestion Dr. Zaibak has is to ask your pharmacist about manufacturer coupons.

"So sometimes, certain manufacturers will have coupons, so they come to us and we'll help them go through those challenges of finding and that's not easy sometimes it can be a challenge," he said.

Also, if your medication costs too much monthly, to cut down on the price see if you can get a one-year supply. Doctor Zaibak says this only works for people who have been on the same dose of a drug for a long period. For example, he recently helped out a customer taking a prescription for Parkinson's disease.

"I told him why don't you get a one year supply? So the doctor wrote him a prescription for a one year supply and it cost significantly less per month than GoodRx or any other option," Dr. Zaibak said.

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