Co-Pays Rising? New website Offers Online Options to Offset Costs

Rochester, MI (November 2, 2007) — When illness strikes, even those with good medical insurance are not financially immune. According to a recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, between 2000 and 2006 the average co-payment for preferred drugs rose 85%, from $13 to $24; with the average co-pay for non-preferred drugs rising 124%, from $17 to $38. Confronted with rising out of pocket medical costs, nearly one in every five insured patients choose to leave their prescriptions unfilled.

“We recognize that even if a patient has decent health care insurance, prescription co-pays can still represent a significant expense, especially for those who are required to take multiple medications or take medication over prolonged periods of time,” explains Dr. Jay Pinney, medical director of OPTIMIZERx Corporation, a Michigan-based patient advocacy portal that exists to educate consumers and reduce the expense of prescribed medications. “There is usually a good reason your doctor prescribes a given medicine. Don’t patients deserve to have the medication that’s been prescribed to them?”

Launched this year by a group of physicians and pharmaceutical industry veterans, OPTIMIZERx offers patients a single, simple Web site, http://www.optimizerx.com, where consumers can locate, evaluate, and participate in trial offers and other savings programs for the types of medicines they’re taking or may require in the future. While a variety of programs are available to assist the uninsured, the site is the first health care industry Web site to target prescription savings solutions for the majority of Americans who have traditional private health insurance.

Patients register at no charge and there are no income limits associated with participation in the OPTIMIZERx program. Offers vary: some are free trials of varying lengths, such as two weeks or thirty days; other offers are redeemable only once per person; still others can be used on multiple prescription fills. Many of the offers listed are available directly through pharmaceutical companies, but others are entirely unique to the site. There are several ways to redeem OPTIMIZERx offers, but most savings are received either at the point of sale or via rebate. The site also offers savings on over-the-counter medications and other healthcare products and services. At present, the site has a growing list of deals on about 180 prescription drugs used to treat a range of medical problems, from allergies to sleep disorders, heart disease to diabetes.

OPTIMIZERx has already helped hundreds of thousands of consumers better afford and maintain their branded prescription medicines through prescription coupons, rebates, free trials, and other educational support. To begin spending less on prescription co-pays, log on to www.optimizerx.com.

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