Affording Medications for Lupus: Programs & Assistance

1. Talk to your doctor The first tip for affording medications is one that you can and should do every time you visit your clinician. Bringing up your financial concerns with your doctor, nurses, patient advocates, and/or pharmacists is useful as they may know of assistance programs or discount cards. Generic drugs Your doctor may be able to prescribe generic drugs, as opposed to name brand drugs. Generic drugs are copies of brand name drugs in dosage form, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, performance characteristics and intended use. Generic medications are also approved by the FDA. Why are generics cheaper? Drug companies have to get patents on new drugs. Those patents last for 20 years and give the companies exclusive rights to make and sell a specific drug. When the patents expire, generic drug companies can make chemically identical medications (as evaluated by the FDA). Then generic companies can sell the drugs at a considerably cheaper price. R&D costs for new medications are incredibly high, but generic drug companies do not have these costs. This is how generic drugs can be effective, approved medications at a cheaper price. Insurance formularies Additionally, the electronic medical record (EMR) your doctor likely uses to order medications may have additional information about the drugs covered by your insurance. Different insurance companies work with pharmacy benefits managers to create a formulary, or lists of approved medications. By working with your doctor, it may be possible to find treatment methods that are covered! Drug samples Samples: Not just at Costco and Sam’s Club! Drug representatives will drop off samples of medications at doctor’s offices. Samples are provided for free. While this may not be a longterm solution, it may help! This can be a great option to help with affording medications that are new to the treatment plan.

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