In order to check on the price of a prescription drug, you have to send the prescription to the pharmacy (via your doctor) and they have to enter your insurance information AND fill it in order to tell you what the cost is under your insurance. In order to compare accurately, you then have to transfer or have another prescription written and sent to another pharmacy for comparison. The second pharmacy has to wait until it’s ready to be filled again in order to give you an accurate price. Or, you have to reject the prescription at the first pharmacy and wait for that to filter through the insurance company’s system in order for the second pharmacy to then fill and give you the price. God forbid you attempt to price shop at a third or fourth pharmacy.
If a pharmacy has your insurance information, they should be able to hit that system to tell you your cost for the medication without filling it or having the prescription in hand. You could then tell your doctor where to send the prescription once you know who’s got the best pricing.
The existing system is archaic and designed to prevent transparency and inhibit people’s ability to compare and choose.
I recently did 6 prescriptions and it took weeks and the prices that I was quoted online by my Pharmacy Benefit Manager were inaccurate and designed to get me to buy from them by quoting bad prices from retail pharmacies. It turned out that the retail pharmacies all had better or equal pricing to the PBM … ExpressScrips.