Prescription costs variation

B

Bikini Widow

Registered User
Messages
86
Hi all,

My son was unwell and doctor prescribed glycerol-2g-suppositories-for-children-12-pack
  • I dropped the prescription into my normal pharmacy and paid for items listed and called back later to collect.
  • They explained they were out of the Glycerol Suppositories and refunded me the 6.15 price they had initially billed.
  • As I needed to get them I decided to go to a different Pharmacy.

Second local pharmacy then decided to charge me 27.31 price for the exact same product.

Looking online prices seem to vary between 6 euro to 20.00 for this product. But no other pharmacy comes close to 27.00 euro I was charged and paid as I needed to get them.


Can anyone provide insight as to why there is such a variance on cost? Am I being ripped off?

Many thanks,
BW
 
There may have been a prescription charge which accounts for some of it - your post implies you got multiple things in pharmacy #1, so the 6.15 may not have included the prescription charge
 

Is there a medication dispensing charge?

So I initially got a prescription for 14 days of medication supply and it costed me €12 at Boots pharmacy. After 2 weeks, consultant prescribed the same medication, but this time for 4 weeks and it costed me €13. I assumed this would cost double i.e. €24. 1. Is there a flat dispensing fee...
www.askaboutmoney.com

Check the above thread 'Is there a medication dispensing charge?'

But Messyleo's suggestion sound right to me.
 
There are some posts on this topic here:
link here

Is there a medication dispensing charge?

when I collected the prescription there were 3 DPS receipts in the bag each for €29. If you are paying more than €80 per month you should be able to avail of the Drug Payment Scheme with a max payment of €80. Whatever about only saving €7 (29 x 3 = €87) you or members of your family could...
www.askaboutmoney.com

Some pharmacies charge a mark-up per item and some charge a dispensing charge and some do both. I recently got 6 months of some of my prescribed drugs for €53 in Healthwave Dundrum versus €174 in my local pharmacy
 
Thanks all for feedback, very interesting to see the price transparency challenges in the bigger picture.

Also how naïve I was that these businesses, that do not actually put prices on their prescription medicine also have a grey / unclear mark up dispensing model.


Thanks again,
BW
 
Maybe not an option for everybody but in my experience Chemist Warehouse are by far the cheapest for any prescription meds that I have ever had to obtain - they don't seem to levy a separate dispensing charge and it if's subsumed into their retail price then it must be minimal.

Key Post - The Chemist Warehouse half the price of Healthwave!

I switched to Healthwave some years ago and they were about 60% of the price of my local pharmacy. Someone told me to check the The Chemist Warehouse and I was really shocked to find that they were less than half the price of Healtwave. Their website looks like a scam website and they don't...
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
Yup moved my HRT meds to them from Hickeys and saved €25 a month.
 
Do they have all prescription drugs? Looked at their catalogue there and could only see one of my meds listed - it was cheaper than Healthwave for that one though
 
GAAmam said:
Do they have all prescription drugs? Looked at their catalogue there and could only see one of my meds listed - it was cheaper than Healthwave for that one though
Click to expand...
Best to call them and ask. I'm not sure if their leaflets contain an exhaustive list of all prescription meds that they carry? Although I assumed that all pharmacies would have access to all prescription meds (subject to occasional supply issues) via their suppliers?
 
While they may not be as cheap as Chemist Warehouse, I've found Pure Pharmacy very competitive, when looking at the cost of prescription drugs, in recent years.

We really need a price checker website, to help combat this price gouging...
 
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