By Charity Beall, CHM Chief Financial Officer (CFO) & Treasurer
*Editor’s note: This information was published in the September 2020 issue of Heartfelt Magazine, CHM’s monthly magazine that provides CHM membership-related tips and tricks, medical advice from doctors, testimonies from CHM members, and more. Please refer to the CHM Guidelines and applicable web pages for the most up-to-date information regarding CHM membership, sharing eligibility, and ministry news.*
One of our ministry goals is to give you tools to help you be a great steward of your fellow CHM members’ gifts. In the April and May editions of Dollars and Sense, CHM shared with you websites offering price-shopping tools for medical procedures. Did you know you can also price shop for prescriptions?
As a CHM member, you have access to the CHMRx prescription discount card; this is not a prescription plan, but a card that offers discounts to our members. Provide the card to your pharmacist at the time you are filling the prescription and ask about pricing. Members saved more than $45 million in prescription costs in 2019. Those savings were enjoyed by only 10 percent of our members, because that’s the percentage using the card. Don’t be left out! If you need a card, please contact CHMRx Member Services at 877-403-8233. (Note: The CHMRx card is not administered by CHM and this is not a CHM phone number.)
Two other recommended prescription price-shopping tools are GoodRx and SingleCare. When you visit your doctor and they suggest a prescription, pull out your smartphone and navigate to one of these websites. Enter the name of the drug and search. The results will show local pharmacy prices and coupon offers. Be sure to match your results with the prescribed dosage and quantity. Using one of these tools can potentially save you thousands of dollars annually.
Talk with your doctor about prescription drug pricing. Less expensive options and generics are often available.
As a CHM member you're a self-pay patient, defined as uninsured; as such, you are eligible for various drug assistance programs.
For example, there are many varieties of cancer drugs. Talk with your oncologist about options, pricing and eligibility for patient drug assistance programs. These programs are offered directly through the drug manufacturers; your oncologist can help you with the application process. One CHM member battling cancer is saving $40,000 per month on chemo drugs through one of these helpful programs.
The Bible supports the use of medicines to aid in our healing process: Jeremiah 8:22, Proverbs 17:22, and Ezekiel 47:12 are just a few examples. We want to partner with you to help you find the medicine that you need at a fair price, and we’re grateful to offer the CHMRx card and other resources as part of the solution.
(Editor's note: Routine maintenance medications are not eligible for sharing. Please see Guideline T for additional information.)
