Major insurer pushes pill-splitting savings

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8172095/

Chopping his Lipitor tablets in half gives Randy Schneider a little thrill.

“I kind of chuckle when I do this,” said the 41-year-old line worker at a cheese factory. “It’s like I’m making good money per minute if you figure it out.”

Schneider saves about $31 for a six-month supply, because double-strength pills don’t cost much more than single-strength ones. It takes him 10 minutes to cut the 90 pills in two, and he gets the same supply of cholesterol medicine for less money.

Now, the nation’s second-largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, is getting behind the practice, giving away pill-splitters and providing advice on which drugs can be safely cut in half.

[Broken_Hero]

1. Good lord....

Is this what our healthcare has made us poor folk stoop to? Well, it seems like it. I have done the samething with the medication that i take for thinning my blood, and i feel the pain of paying high prices for medication......its just another example of the republican partys number one rule...1. Money=More valuable than anything else, even a persons health

[ClintonTyree]

3. NO....

IT'S ABOUT YOUR "SAFETY". :eyes: Yeah, right!

[ClintonTyree]

2. I used to do that with my BP medicine....

My Doc prescribed Accupril, which come in 20mg. and 40mg. tablets. The 40mg. tablets were, for some reason, cheaper, so he prescribed the 40mg. tablets and told me to cut them in half for my daily dosage. My Doctor HATES HMOs, drug companies and large corporations that screw their employees on drug plans. Needless to say, I LOVE :loveya: my Doctor. I've never met another like hi.

[cap]

4. you cant split all pills safely...

eom

[Patty Diana]

6. Correct_Sustained Release Meds CAN'T be split

the intact coating is essential to their release after ingestion

[coolhandlulu]

5. Kaiser has been doing this for a while now.

I just hope the drug companies dont catch on to this because they will just raise the prices. And it's true that all pills cannot be split, but why not save money when you can?

[Radio_Lady]

8. I've been advised to do this within the Kaiser plan with Lipitor.

Next Mail Order Pharmacy order, I plan to ask them what the price difference is.

I'm already doing this for about two years with 25 mg. hydrocortothiazide (spelling???) (a diuretic drug for high blood pressure)by cutting it half to 12.5 mg. but it is a %&*@+# nuisance. Sometimes it cuts evenly, sometimes it crumbles....

Thanks for the link, Rambo -- that is, at least half of it!

[question everything]

7. Well, how else can you pay your CEO $94 million?

And the rest of the exeuctives?

[prole_for_peace]

9. splitting a pill in half does not always result in half the meds.

the meds are mixed with other things to make the pill. all the meds could be in one half and all the filler could be in the other.