I am absolutely flabbergasted at what happened to me in the Target store Pharmacy today. I usually fill my prescription for Seasonique birth control at Target, and my insurance has always covered the cost down to $80, and then I have used a manufacturers coupon (at the recommendation of my Doctor) for $50 off every time. I dropped off my usual prescription and coupon off at the Target pharmacy today and told them I'd pick it up after 5pm. I showed up at 6:00 (after waiting 20 minutes in line) and requested my prescription. Suddenly, I was told that my coupon was no good, that my insurance did not cover my birth control, and that my prescription will cost me $299. My jaw dropped, and I quickly asked them to double check.
Regardless of the fact that my coupon was/was not any good or if my insurance covers the prescription or not, the price of $299 was what really floored me. I have filled this prescription before at the full retail price of $180. I also price shopped the other local pharmacies immediately: CVS ($209) Walgreens (they didn't answer the phone after 12 minutes on hold), Walmart ($211), Publix ($210), Sweetbay ($187, the best I found) AND GET THIS — the other local Target ($201!!!) Do pharmacies "name their own price" for prescriptions or is it "just get as much as you can" for them? I have lost all faith in this pharmacy and if they ever try and STEAL money like that from their consumers ever again I am calling my lawyer. Good thing I didn't purchase from them, no matter if I'm out of birth control or not! Not only did I double check with my insurance company that the birth control is indeed covered (it should be $80) but nowhere on the coupon that I used say that it is not valid after any number of uses.
My doctor writes me a new prescription every time just so that the coupon can be used! If anybody reads this, don't believe what any pharmacy says the price is: Price shop the $hit out of them until you find a reasonable price, no matter what your insurance covers or not. I'm sick of a prescription being this much here and then be so completely different at any other pharmacy. Even my boyfriend experienced a vast price difference in an expensive medication that he takes! One pharmacy had it for $19.23 a pill, but then he found it for $16.50 a pill somewhere else. It's like an office visit to the Doctor: If you tell them you're paying cash, then you pay $55, but if you use insurance, the Doctor bills your insurance company $182 for the same office visit! Something has to change with health care in this country or the whole country is going to go broke... Oh wait, it already has.
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