Viagra 100 mg Pill Splitting for Considerable
Savings
(latest Viagra 100mg news)
The following represent articles that address the topic of pill
splitting, yes you can save a considerable amount of money by
splitting pills:
An Easy Remedy: Cut Your Drug Bills in Half by
Cutting Pills in Half
Wall Street Journal
August 2007
Save Money On Prescription Medications
Consumer Reports
July 2007
Cutting Drug Costs, Cooperation Is Key
Martin F. Downs, Medical Writer
Helping Patients Avoid Hard Choices
Managed Care
October 2007
An Easy
Remedy: Cut Your Drug Bills in Half by Cutting Pills in Half
Wall Street Journal
August 2007
Looking for ways to
cut your prescription drug costs? Try buying bigger pills and
cutting them in half.
Pill splitting is a deceptively simple way
to save money on drugs, but few consumers or even doctors are
aware that it's an option. A quirk in the way drugs
are manufactured and priced means many drugs cost about the same
per pill, regardless of the dosage. As a result, patients who
buy a larger pill that contains twice the dose they need can cut
it in half and save as much as 50 percent.
Save by purchasing the Viagra 100mg
tablets and then splitting the tablets in half in order to provide (2)
Viagra 50mg doses (Viagra 50mg is the recommended dose for most
individuals) {click here for details}.
For example, Merck's
cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor costs about £1.94 a pill,
whether the dose is for 20 milligrams or 40 milligrams. A
patient who needs a 20-milligram daily dose can cut a
40-milligram pill in half, dropping the cost to just £0.97,
saving more than £700 annually.
A patient who
needs a 75-milligram daily dose of Pfizer's antidepressant
Zoloft would pay £3.66 to take three 25-milligram pills. But
splitting a combination of 100-milligram and 50-milligram pills
to achieve a 75-milligram dose lowers the cost to just £2.53, a
savings of 62 percent — or more than £750.00 annually. Given
that many older, uninsured patients have several prescriptions,
the annual savings from pill splitting can add up to thousands
of dollars.
Cardiologist Joseph
Rogers regularly counsels patients to split pills, "In the
Europe, about £400 million worth of Viagra was sold last year,"
says Dr. Rogers. "If everybody split their pill, that would save
£200 million. That's not going to solve the whole problem of
drug pricing, but it's a nice first step."
Save by purchasing the Viagra 100mg
tablets and then splitting the tablets in half in order to provide (2)
Viagra 50mg doses (Viagra 50mg is the recommended dose for most
individuals) {click here for details}.
A typical
50-milligram dose of Pfizer's Viagra costs £4.20, the same as a
100-milligram pill. Splitting the larger pill lowers the price
to just £2.10 a dose.
But it's the way
pharmaceutical firms manufacture and price their drugs that
makes pill-splitting possible.
Many pills are "scored" — manufactured with
an indented line down the middle — for the sole purpose of
allowing them to be cut in half.
Drug firms score pills to give doctors
flexibility to adjust a patient's dosage.
In addition,
pharmacies can't stock dozens of different dose sizes, so drug
firms make pills in a few standard doses with score lines so
they can be split if necessary. Pill making is also a complex
and expensive process, and it's cheaper for drug companies to
score pills than to manufacturer a variety of doses.
Only a doctor can
prescribe a larger-dose pill, so patients must discuss
pill-splitting with a physician. To split pills evenly and
safely, Dr. Rogers suggests using a pill-splitting tool, rather
than a knife. Mrs. Budny paid £2.39 for a plastic pill-splitter
at her local drugstore.
Although some
patients may worry that splitting pills will result in an uneven
cut and a dose that is slightly high or low, Dr. Rogers says
those variations rarely matter.
"There's
a lot of room to play with," Dr. Rogers says. "The
drug companies all say this is very specific, but there's a
little less science involved than what everybody is led to
believe."
Save by purchasing the Viagra 100mg
tablets and then splitting the tablets in half in order to provide (2)
Viagra 50mg doses (Viagra 50mg is the recommended dose for most
individuals) {click here for details}.
Save Money On Prescription Medications,
Consumer Reports
July 2007
How much can you
save? Consumer Reports on Health, a sister publication, recently
sampled retail prices at six independent, chain, and
mass-merchandiser pharmacies in the Washington, D.C., area for
two top-selling medications: atorvastatin (Lipitor) and
quinapril (Accupril), used to reduce cholesterol and blood
pressure, respectively. The potential saving for quinapril was
£55.00 per year; for atorvastatin, £60.00.
Not all companies
will match the best price you find. CVS stores wouldn't even
match cheaper drug prices we found on the company's own web
site.
But that's not the
only way to save.
Once a year, bring
all your drugs and nutritional supplements to your pharmacist
and physician so they can suggest any less expensive
alternatives. Sometimes inexpensive versions--including generics
or older, well-established drugs--work as well as newer,
higher-priced drugs. The doctor's review should focus first on
whether you still need all your medications. It's not unusual
for a person to start taking a drug such as a tranquilizer for a
specific symptom and to keep taking it even when it's no longer
necessary.
Ask your doctor for
free samples, especially if you need a one-time supply of a drug
for, say, a bacterial infection. But avoid samples for chronic
conditions if it means continuing on a costly new drug when
cheaper, effective alternatives are available.
You can sometimes
cut costs by asking your doctor to prescribe a drug at double
dose so you can divide the tablets at home with a pill splitter.
For instance, both the 10-mg. and 20-mg. pills of lisinopril
(Prinivil) for high blood pressure cost about £13.50 for a
30-day supply. If you need only 10 mg., you can buy the 20-mg.
version and cut the pills in half, saving £7.50 per month. But
not all pills can be split without compromising their
effectiveness.
Save by purchasing the Viagra 100mg
tablets and then splitting the tablets in half in order to provide (2)
Viagra 50mg doses (Viagra 50mg is the recommended dose for most
individuals) {click here for details}.
In Cutting Drug Costs, Cooperation Is Key
Martin F. Downs, Medical Writer
We all know
prescription drugs prices can be astronomical, and it doesn't
look like they'll be coming down anytime soon. There are plenty
of clever ways to shave dollars and cents off the cost of your
medications, but experts say that simply cooperating with your
healthcare provider can save you--and everyone else in
Europe--more money than any gimmick can.
Perhaps the most
popular way to save money on prescription drugs is pill
splitting. The concept is simple, and it seems like an excellent
idea: The price of many drugs is the same at a higher dose as it
is at a lower dose. So you buy your medication at two times the
dose you need, then cut the pills in half, and save 50%.
Save by purchasing the Viagra 100mg
tablets and then splitting the tablets in half in order to provide (2)
Viagra 50mg doses (Viagra 50mg is the recommended dose for most
individuals) {click here for details}.
Ascione says some
healthcare plans advise people to practice pill splitting. "A
number of managed-care companies are jumping on that bandwagon,"
he says.
But Dr. Korn
says he knows there is one drug that's okay to split:
Viagra (sildenafil). He says
people who take
Viagra don't have to follow a
strict dosing schedule. If they split the tablets, "so what?" he
says. "They cut them up, and that's fine."
Save by purchasing the Viagra 100mg
tablets and then splitting the tablets in half in order to provide (2)
Viagra 50mg doses (Viagra 50mg is the recommended dose for most
individuals) {click here for details}.
Helping Patients Avoid Hard Choices
Managed Care
October 2007
There are
ways for low-income groups to avoid paying top dollar for
prescriptions. Here's one way physicians can educate consumers.
The rapid escalation in the price of
prescription drugs presents some patients with a dire choice:
filling a prescription or buying groceries. Instead of skimping
on food or skipping the rent, patients who can't afford a co
payment — or who lack a pharmacy benefit altogether (the plight
of many Medicare beneficiaries) — may forgo filling the
prescription you've just given them. They may be too embarrassed
to ever let you know about their financial situation. Elderly
patients are especially likely to be in these straits.
Drug expenditures
have been increasing at an annual rate of about 15 percent —
faster than other components of health care spending. They
account for 8 percent of health care spending overall, but 10
percent of seniors' health care expenditures.
How To Save Money
on Prescriptions
Who doesn't want to
save money on prescriptions? Look below for some suggestions.
You can use the Internet to get telephone numbers and other
details about assistance programs provided by states and
pharmaceutical companies. If you don't have a computer, your
public library should be able to help you, free of charge.
Internet
pharmacies -
online pharmacies can provide substantial savings over the cost
of prescriptions filled locally. Be sure to order only products
that your doctor says you'll use for a long time. Otherwise, if
your doctor changes or stops your prescription, you'll waste
money.
Pill splitting -
it may be cheaper to split, say, Viagra 100-milligram tablets in
two than to buy
Viagra
50 milligram tablets. Ask your pharmacist about inexpensive
pill-splitting devices, and whether it is safe to split a given
product.
Save by purchasing the Viagra 100mg
tablets and then splitting the tablets in half in order to provide (2)
Viagra 50mg doses (Viagra 50mg is the recommended dose for most
individuals) {click here for details}.
Indigent-patient
programs - about 50 drug companies provide certain products
free of charge to needy patients.
Some companies make nearly all their
outpatient products available, but others are more restrictive.
In any case, your doctor must write a letter or submit a form to
request free prescription drugs for you.
