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1. KNOWYOUR PLAN: If you’re one of the lucky few who can afford a medical aid, it pays to understand what you’re covered for and at what rates.
“Refer to the material you receive from your medical scheme, use their website and talk to your financial adviser about what you’re covered for,” says Deon Kotze, Discovery Health head of technical marketing.
Check to see if there are any added benefits that would help in reducing the cost of medication for you and your family.
2. USE NETWORK PHARMACIES: Some medical schemes have pharmacy networks that offer no co-payment on medicines that are on the scheme’s medicine list.
“Discovery Health Medical Scheme has more than 2 500 pharmacies in their network for members to choose from.
“It is worth finding out whether your medical scheme offers you this service, so you can make as much saving on your medicine spend as possible,” says Kotze.
3. OPT FOR GENERICS: Generics are basically copies of brand-name drugs, containing the same active ingredients at a reduced cost.
They become available when patents and copies can be made by rival pharmaceuticals.
Generics can be more than 50% cheaper. According to Mediscor, a pharmaceutical benefit manager, the use of generics has risen to 56.3% in South Africa.
However, we still lag behind countries like the US where the use of generics is 83%.
Don’t be wary of using generics.
4. DON’T GIVE IN TO THE HYPE: Pharmaceutical companies spend millions of rands promoting their brands and telling you to trust “only the name you know”.
They also try to direct you to pay more for targeted painkillers. Experts warn against listening to this type of marketing.
“I believe there is quite a lot of literature which indicates it is not possible for a pain relief medication to ‘target’ a particular site of pain.
"For example, if you take an anti-inflammatory medicine, the medication works on blocking the enzyme that causes inflammation everywhere.
"This seems to indicate that ‘targeted’ pain medication is more a marketing issue,” says one medical expert, who refused to be named.
5. USE REWARDS TO PAY: If you need extra cash why not make use of your rewards points and any cash back you receive from pharmacy chains, such as Clicks and Dis-Chem?
With Clicks, for example, you can get a free ClubCard, which you can use to swipe when you shop in the store or online to earn points.
It will take some time to accumulate a substantial sum because for every R5 you spend you earn only one point (for pharmacy purchases you earn points only on the dispensing fee).
You don’t get points on everything you pay for with Dis-Chem.
But if you shop regularly at Clicks and Dis-Chem and any other participating retailers, then it could all tally up – every little bit helps.
