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Drug Discount Card Program Comes to Manatee County

Help for Manatee County’s 80,000 uninsured, as well as insured residents with high pharmacy costs, could result in $1.8 million of savings in first year

 

Over 100,000 Manatee County residents could be helped through a new discount drug card program being announced here today. Sarasota-based Genuity Group will begin mailing free prescription drug discount cards to hundreds of residents this week and thousands more could receive them soon. BetterRxCard is the first such program to provide both a free drug discount card – to reduce costs when insurance is not available – and an optional feature that addresses high co-pay costs for thousands more that are insured.

 

McKechnie Field in Bradenton, FL, winter home of the Pittsburg Pirates

 Free discount drug card programs are not insurance, but do provide significant discounts – often well above 50% – if no insurance is available for a prescription drug.  The BetterRxCard may be used at over 100 local pharmacies with no restrictions – no age, income, or residency requirements – and everyone qualifies to use the card at any of the nearly 60,000 U.S. pharmacies that participate.

 

During a recent trial using a national chain pharmacy located in Manatee County the average savings was 48.63% while the average monthly savings was $108.

 

 

 

Most discount card programs only assist the uninsured and do not offer help with high co-pay costs for those with insurance.  BetterRxCard adds a new kind of tool to its discount card and is offering it as an option. The tool, called EquivaMeds, is a patent-pending service that can reduce pharmacy costs for many with insurance.  In a 2009 trial conducted in Manatee and Sarasota County it identified an average savings of $821.83. Other results include;

 

• 50% of the visitors found savings
• Of those who found savings, 70% saved more than $400/year and 37% saved more than $800/yr
• Individual saving amounts ranged from $157 to $3,115 per year.

 

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study, 59% of Americans – insured and uninsured -- had some kind of monthly prescription drug cost.  By combining BetterRxCard and EquivaMeds together, the program is available to nearly two-thirds of all Manatee County residents.

 

To complement the mailings, Genuity Group said it plans a comprehensive print advertising campaign in local newspapers to inform Manatee County residents about this new, free program, and that its web site, www.BetterRxCard.com, will introduce a Spanish language version later in March.

 

For more information on BetterRxCard contact Genuity Group at 941.955.1800 or visit our web site: www.BetterRxCard.com.

 

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