Time, effort and gas money are all factors in my decision about where I have my prescriptions filled. I usually use two. One is my primary—where most of my prescriptions are filled, and then the other is a back-up, in cases where my primary doesn’t have the needed item in stock. They work with each other. They are not a Target or Wal-Mart.

Are they worth my time, effort and gas to use them? It depends. When I have a child that is sick, that is usually when I am getting medication at this point in my life. And, when I’m getting the medication, I am on my way home from the doctors, with child in tow. The Target and Wal-Mart are out of the way. There is also the chance, such as the case of my primary, where the item that I am trying to obtain is out of stock. 9 times out of 10, they are not going to refer me to another pharmacy. From my experience, they don’t seem to network with others or really care about whether or not I get what I am looking for. They either have it or they don’t. So, I would be off to find it somewhere else. Targets and Wal-Marts don’t normally stock odd things. Its not condusive to their inventory system.

So—I stick with the pharmacy that is close at hand, and use the back up which is right next door. Also, there is only one 24hr pharmacy in my area. I know where it is, and I go there if I need to get medication at night, for whatever reason. This is not a Target or a Wal-Mart pharmacy either.

If I didn’t have the co-pay that I have—or if I had medication that wasn’t covered under my co-pay—or limited, I would more than likely seek out a pharmacy that had the medication at an affordable price, such as Target or Wal-Mart. But, I would also seek to obtain it cheaper online; possibly from out of the country–if cost was an extreme factor.
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You will need to know the specific type of arrhythmia in order for someone to accurately shop for coverage for you.
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Experience: http://www.lifeinsuranceadvisors.com

For most of our medication that is taken on a regular basis I use our insurance mail order prescriptions the savings is fabulous on copays and it comes straight through the door. I would check and see if your insurance offers it. We’ve had that benefit with several different insurance companies, most contract with a mail order pharmacy. The only thing is you can’t use it for immediate or short term medications like antibiotics, but you can use a local pharmacy for that.

If you use multiple pharmacies be sure they each have a list of ALL the meds you are taking regardless of if you fill them there or not because they need to check for drug interactions with new prescriptions, etc.
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If your insurance doesn’t have that kind of cut-off, it can pay to use different pharmacies and price each prescription at a few different ones before getting them filled. Just keep in mind how much it costs you to do that in terms of your time as well as the cost of gasoline to drive to pharmacies farther away from you.

Great question. We need to be wise consumers.
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