Sometimes a drug plan’s copay is higher than the cash, but insurers’ “gag orders” keep pharmacists from telling Medicare beneficiaries. A little-known Medicare rule requires pharmacists to divulge the lower cash price if patients ask.
By Susan Jaffe | Kaiser Health News | May 30, 2018 | This KHN story also ran on 
As part of President Donald Trump’s blueprint to bring down prescription costs, Medicare officials have warned insurers that “gag orders”
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keeping pharmacists from alerting seniors that they could save money by paying cash — rather than using their insurance — are “unacceptable and contrary” to the government’s effort to promote price transparency.
But the agency stopped short of requiring insurers to lift such restrictions on pharmacists.
That doesn’t mean people with Medicare drug coverage are destined to overpay for prescriptions. Under a little-known Medicare rule, they can pay a lower cash price for prescriptions instead of using their insurance. But first, they must ask the pharmacist about that option…. [Continued at Kaiser Health News, NPR and CNN Money]…
Volume 402, Issue 10399