Can Blink Health Lower Your Prescription Drug Costs?
Blink Health is a startup business whose focus is to provide lower priced prescription medications to the millions of Americans – both insured and not – who take prescription drugs.
How can one company potentially offer lower priced prescriptions drugs? From Blink Health’s Mission Statement:
“We’re the first company to develop a proprietary technology to group millions of patients together, creating the strength to negotiate the lowest drug prices possible.
We’re also the first company to allow patients to purchase their medications online and pick them up at their local pharmacy.”
It was a recent story on NBC Nightly News that brought Blink to my attention. As a result, I decided to take a closer look at the company, and the service they’re offering.
Full disclosure: I have not used Blink Health for purchasing prescriptions, so I have no first-hand knowledge of how well the process works and whether or not its prescription drug pricing is competitive.
Prescription costs are a problem for many in the U.S., and I wanted to pass along the information for Blink Health so that those who are interested can see if Blink is a viable alternative to their current drug benefits.
How Does It Work?
As is related in Blink Health’s Mission Statement, the savings they are able to offer come from negotiated rates on generic medications with the various drug manufacturers.
It’s important to note, these prices are for generic medications. If you need a name brand drug, Blink Health likely isn’t for you.
The process for checking drug pricing and making a purchase seem fairly straightforward.
As a consumer, you simply go to the Blink Health website, enter the prescription medication you’d like to price, followed by the form of the medication, dosage and quantity; Blink will provide pricing based on the information submitted.
To ensure accurate pricing, be sure what you submit is exactly what your doctor has prescribed.
The price shown likely includes Blink Health’s $5 discount for your first medication purchase. Subsequent purchases would not include that $5 rebate. Keep that in mind when factoring ongoing prescription pricing.
Payment is made online at Blink’s website, after which you’ll receive a digital Blink Voucher you can print, email or SMS to your phone.
Go to your usual pharmacy – Blink is accepted at most pharmacies – and show the Blink Voucher to your pharmacist to confirm payment has been made and to receive your prescription.
Is Blink a Good Deal?
Only you will be able to tell if Blink can save you money on your prescriptions.
With so many different insurance plans, some with good prescription coverage, some with not so good prescription coverage, and some with no prescription coverage at all, only a review of what you’re currently paying for prescriptions compared to Blink’s pricing will tell you for sure.
But, the few minutes it will take to check are definitely worth it.
Questions Answered
Blink Health knows there are likely many questions related to their service, so they’ve included a lengthy FAQs section on their website.
Many of the questions I had when I first visited the site were answered by reviewing that FAQs page, so I encourage you to check it out.
What’s Your Experience
Health care costs, and especially prescription drug costs, continue to increase for many Americans.
If Blink Health’s prescription drug pricing program can help, even just a little, with lowering your prescription drug costs, that’s a good thing.
So give Blink’s pricing a look, and let us know if it resulted in any savings for you. And, should you use the service to actually purchase your prescriptions, please pass along your experiences.
If Blink truly is a viable alternative to current drug benefits, the more people that know about it, the better.
image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net and amenic181
