GoodRx Review: 10 Things To Know Before You Use GoodRx

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When you go to fill a prescription, do you present your health insurance card at the pharmacy and assume you’re getting the lowest price? You may be paying too much.

The cash price for many prescription drugs — especially generics — is often less than insurance co-pays.

GoodRx Finds Coupons and Discounts on Prescription Drugs: Here’s How It Works!

GoodRx is a website and mobile app that finds discount prices for medications and tells you where to get the lowest price. It does the comparison shopping for you!

I previously wrote about how I combined discounts from GoodRx and pill splitting to lower the annual cost of one medication that I take from nearly $158 to just over $36!

Read on to learn more about GoodRx and how it can save you some money.

1. How Does GoodRx Work?

To find the cheapest price for your medication, all you have to do is visit GoodRx.com or use the mobile app and type in the drug name.

You’ll receive a list of the lowest prices at pharmacies near you. Here’s an example:

GoodRx mobile app
GoodRx mobile app – Results page

If you’ve been going to the same pharmacy for years, it’s important to check GoodRx before you leave the house because there may be better options nearby.

You can even check prices while you’re at the doctor’s office to make sure that you can afford your new script.

Once you’ve found the best price, either print out a coupon or have it sent to your phone. App users can just show the pharmacist the coupon from their device.

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You can use GoodRx coupons whether you have health insurance or not.

2. Will My Pharmacy Accept GoodRx?

More than 70,000 pharmacies in the United States — including major chains like Costco, Kroger, Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens — will accept GoodRx.

When you search GoodRx for your medication, you’ll see all of the pharmacies on the drug price page.

Participating pharmacies are contractually obligated to accept GoodRx coupons. If your pharmacist refuses to accept them, you can call GoodRx at (855) 268-2822.

There’s one big exception: GoodRx says Sam’s Club is no longer part of its network.

3. How Do I Join GoodRx?

The great thing about GoodRx is that you don’t have to sign up with your email, phone number, Facebook account or any other personal information to take advantage of the prescription drug discounts.

Just go to the website or app and search for your medication to see if you can save money!

4. How Much Can You Really Save With GoodRx?

GoodRx says it can save consumers up to 80% off the price of prescription drugs. From my experience, the app does a great job of highlighting $4 generics and even medications that are 100% free!

Take a look at the prices I found when I searched GoodRx for 30-day supplies of five popular generic medications:

  • Lipitor (atorvastatin): $8.25
  • Synthroid, Levoxyl, Unithroid (levothyroxine): $9.81
  • Prinivil, Zestril (lisinopril): Free
  • Flonase, Cultivate (fluticasone propionate): $11.19
  • Sterapred, Deltasone (prednisone): $13.63

To make sure that you always get the lowest price, GoodRx recommends that you provide your pharmacist with a new coupon every time that you fill or refill a prescription.

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5. What Is GoodRx Gold? 

GoodRx is free to use, but there is a premium membership program that does have a monthly fee involved.

I’ve only used the free version of GoodRx, but GoodRx Gold promises to save customers even more money — with 1,000 medications under $10.

GoodRx Gold is $5.99/month for individuals and $9.99/month for up to six family members, including pets.

6. Can GoodRx Be Combined With Insurance?

GoodRx can’t be combined with your health insurance or programs like Medicare or Medicaid.

If you have insurance, compare the GoodRx price to your insurance co-pay and see which is cheaper. You can always use GoodRx instead of your insurance.

Here’s a good tip to remember from GoodRx’s FAQ page:

“If you choose to use a GoodRx coupon or your GoodRx Gold membership, it’s important to ask the pharmacist not to run your prescription through your insurance or Medicare (Beware: This tends to happen often). Ask that the pharmacist use the coupon or Gold card to process the transaction as cash instead.”

7. Does GoodRx Sell Personal Medical Data?

GoodRx says it makes money from advertisements and referral fees, not by selling your personal medical data. That’s something the company says it won’t do.

However, GoodRx does share data in some cases. Here’s how the company puts it:

“It’s common practice for companies to share data for advertising and analytics purposes, which is what GoodRx does. And the small amount of data that is shared cannot be linked back to an individual person,” a GoodRx spokesperson said in a statement to Clark.com. “GoodRx has also gone above and beyond in implementing an opt-out and data deletion feature that is available to all users.”

GoodRx implemented the opt-out and data deletion feature after a Consumer Reports investigation. Here’s how you can opt out of cookies and tracking.

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8Is GoodRx Just for Generic Drugs?

Generic drugs can be a lot cheaper than their brand-name counterparts, even though they have the same active ingredients.

When you search for medications using GoodRx, you’ll typically see generics listed first. However, you also have the option to view pricing for brand-name drugs.

GoodRx mobile app - Choose generic or brand drugs
GoodRx mobile app – Choose generic or brand drugs

9. What Is GoodRx Care? 

Powered by HeyDoctor, GoodRx Care offers online medical services starting at $19 — no insurance required.

The service allows patients to chat online with a board-certified medical professional to discuss routine health conditions including high cholesterol, urinary tract infections, acne, hair loss prevention and more.

GoodRx says the private consultations take 10 minutes or less with no video or phone call required.

10. Does GoodRx Have Any Competitors? 

GoodRx has saved me hundreds of dollars since I first started using the service a few years ago, but it’s not your only option.

In the past, I’ve compared GoodRx’s prices to LowestMed, a similar website and app. LowestMed was acquired in May 2018 by RetailMeNot and renamed RetailMeNot RxSaver.

Before you fill your next prescription, check one or both of these services to make sure you’re getting the best price.

Have you ever used GoodRx to save on a prescription? Share your experience in our Clark.com Community!

This article was originally written by Michael Timmermann and published on June 11, 2018.

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Learn About Other Prescription Savings Apps:

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