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SingleCare has changed a lot since I did my last review over 2 years ago so it’s time for a fresh look at the prescription discount card company. Many of the changes have been significant improvements which goes to show Singlecare is legit and executes on their objective to provide exceptional patient-centered service. If you want to find out how SingleCare compares to GoodRx you can check out that article.
Whether you are here because you heard about SingleCare from a friend who save a bunch of money on their medication, saw a Facebook ad, or possibly received a SingleCare pharmacy discount card in the mail or picked one up from a display at your doctor’s office, you are probably interested in finding out what SingleCare is all about or find out if SingleCare is a scam. (Pssttt…it’s not)
Lucky for you I did a lot of research and reached out to representatives of the company to get some in depth information so keep reading.
I’m sure you are aware that the cost of prescription medications continues to rise. Whether you are one of the 54 million uninsured americans that pay with cash or have a high deductible insurance plan, more of your hard earned money is required to pay for your medications every year. The good news is there are some ways to fight this trend and avoid getting ripped off.
I frequently have patients ask me if there is a way to get their medications cheaper. The short answer is almost always, YES and I’m going to tell you all about it, but first some sage insider advice.
NEVER PAY THE FULL CASH PRICE FOR YOUR MEDICATIONS! Seriously, don’t do it….EVER!
Since January 2017 when TFP was founded 1238 TFP visitors have saved on average 55% off their medications using SingleCare keeping over $150,000 of cash still in their pockets!
One of the ways you can save is to use a prescription discount card like the Singlecare pharmacy savings card. Download the free SingleCare app now and see how much you can save on your medications.
Make sure you read “How prescription discount cards work”
If you still have questions then keep reading and I’ll explain to you why I think Single
Care stands above the competition.
What is SingleCare?
SingleCare is a Better Business Bureau and NABP accredited prescription discount card administrator dedicated to helping people save money on their prescription medications.
SingelCare offers a FREE prescription discount card that can be used by EVERYONE, without exceptions, to save up to 80% on all FDA approved medications, including some OTC items (if you have a prescription for them). You can even use your Singlecare discount to save on medication for your pets!
Don’t expect to save 80% on all of your medications, that is just a marketing ploy used by every discount card company to get you to use their card. The important number is the AVERAGE savings, which for SingleCare, is the highest in the industry at around 50%. I’ll go into that a little bit more farther down the page.
What makes SingleCare different and why do I think SingleCare is the best prescription discount card?
Over the past 3 years of following SingleCare, the company continues to add patient-focused features at breakneck pace and this is my number one reason I recommend this card to my patients. They aren’t just a stagnant company spending millions on TV commercials as marketing like their competition, they are constantly improving the ease of use of their app and website, monitoring and negotiating lower and lower prices, and expanding the network of participating pharmacies.
Unlike other prescription discount cards SingleCare is NOT affiliated with a PBM (pharmacy benefits manager). You know, the big corporate businesses that rake in billions of dollars of profit each year and are starting to get put under the microscope by federal legislators for being complicit in contributing to the astronomical high cost of prescription medications.
SingleCare negotiates directly with pharmacies to provide you with the best savings, cutting out the added cost typically tacked on by the PBM middlemen.
This offers several advantages:
- Strictly controlled pricing
- They include Walmart’s $4 discounted generics list
- 100% Accurate pricing on the app and website
- Ability to perform data analytics to ensure they are negotiating reduced prices on drugs their card is being used for most. Think more demand = better negotiating power to lower prices.
- Reduced fees to the pharmacy = lower prices to you
- Enables special offers through direct partnerships like the ones they have with CVS and Walmart.
SingleCare actively monitors their negotiated pricing and medications their card is used to buy monthly. They have a goal of beating their competitors pricing >80% of the time. Yes, you read that right! They are ACTIVELY working to reduce prescriptions prices for YOU! This is how they average 50% savings on prescriptions using their cards as I indicated above.
There is only one other discount card I know of that is provided by a company that is not affiliated with a PBM. In my experience these are the best discount cards offering the best, most reliable pricing to their customers since they cut out the middleman PBM’s.
When using your free SingleCare prescription savings card you are not subject to prior authorizations, quantity limitations, and formulary exclusions that are commonly associated with prescription insurance plans. You can never be denied! It’s the most hassle free way to purchase prescription medications at more reasonable prices.
SingleCare’s pharmacy network consists of over 35,000 pharmacies nationwide including all of the major chains like Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, Kroger, and others which fill over 94% of all prescription annually. This is smaller than some other discount cards but these pharmacies cover the biggest majority of Americans.
How does using SingleCare prescription discount card work?
Using SingleCare to save on your medications is easy. Go to the SingleCare website or download the app to get started. Behind the scenes SingleCare negotiates discounted prices with participating pharmacies and receives a small fee from those pharmacies every time someone uses a SingleCare card to fill a prescription.
How can it be free? How do discount cards like SingleCare make money?
SingleCare makes money by collecting a marketing fee that the pharmacy pays in exchange for driving business to the pharmacy and increasing the number of prescriptions sold that may become abandoned due to absurdly high cash pricing. Make sure to read how prescription discount cards work to learn more if you are interested in the details.
For medication savings using the SingleCare prescription discount card:
- Search for the medication by entering the drug name and your zip code either on the website or within the app
- Adjust the quantity and dosage to match your prescription information (This is very important to get accurate pricing)
- Compare prices and select the pharmacy you want to fill your prescription at
- Click the “Get Free Coupon” button
- Create a FREE account or sign in if you already have one
- Select how you want your coupon delivered: Text, Email, download, or print. If you are on a mobile device the coupon will automatically display as well as provide the above options.
- Take your new prescription or transfer your existing prescription to the desired pharmacy and present the staff with the SingleCare coupon
- Ensure the technician or pharmacist enters the codes from the coupon into their computer system to receive the discounted price.
- Fill your prescription, SAVE, and do a little dance if you like.
Unique Features of SingleCare:
Medication Basket Feature:
Within the SingleCare pricing tool you can add all of your medications at once to a shopping cart like feature which then searches for the cheapest pharmacy to fill the entire group of medications at. Whether you have a whole family’s worth of meds or you just take several yourself this feature is a great time and money saver.
The medication basket feature saves considerable time over the old way, and the way almost every other prescription discount card pricing tool uses, which is to have to search each medication separately.
Not only is the old method archaic and time consuming, you may find that you have to go to several different pharmacies to get the best price on each separate medication.
Pharmacist insider advice: Using multiple pharmacies is dangerous since potential drug interactions may not be caught and addressed, since the pharmacist won’t know about medications filled at other pharmacies using prescription discount cards or cash.
Price history tracking feature
When searching for a drug you can see a graph of the price history for the medication. The graph displays the average cash price and the average Singlecare discounted price. Keep in mind this is the average price not the BEST price available through Singlecare.
This feature is only available on the website currently. It can help you determine whether your insurance company or local pharmacy is ripping you off by charging you a price that is higher than the Singlecare discounted price.
The website: SingleCare.com
SingleCare.com is fresh and inviting. The site is easy to navigate and the search function is front and center when the page first loads making it quick and easy to get started. You can access it on all devices including PC, Mac, tablets, and smartphones. At the bottom of the homepage are the links to the apps on both Google Play and Apple App Store.
Hidden among the many links at the bottom of the homepage is a blog that has tremendous articles on maintaining health, the state of healthcare in America, and may other interesting topics. They also have a live chat and a concierge customer service 800 number to call for assistance.
Features I like:
The awesome discounted pricing
SingleCare’s discounted prescription pricing is often lower than your prescription insurance copay so always compare pricing using the app or medication pricing tool to save the most money.
The pricing quoted is accurate unlike some of the other discount cards that are run by PBMs. Since Singlecare negotiates the prices directly with each pharmacy in their network there aren’t any middlemen to mark anything up or change prices on a whim.
Additionally, SingleCare has special promotions with CVS and Walmart that offer you extra savings. Currently, you can get an additional $5 off your medication at CVS if it’s the first time you have ever used SingleCare to get discounted pricing.
You do have to use the special codes that are specific to CVS and Walmart to get these deals so if you received a card in the mail it’s better to download the SingelCare app so you know you are always getting the best deal no matter what pharmacy you are at.
Speaking of the SingleCare App
The app is a great mobile solution to have accurate, discounted prescription pricing at your fingertips no matter where you are. You can use it to price out medications before even leaving the doctors office.
Within the app you can search medications and even save your frequently used medications to a favorites list and check the prices before filling them each time.
The app is integrated to launch your mapping app of choice to help you navigate to the pharmacy you want to fill your prescriptions at. This is a handy feature but could be improved upon which I’ll talk about more below.
SingleCare is always responding to customer and partner feedback and finding ways to innovate and improve their service and user interface on both the website and mobile app.
What SingleCare needs to work on:
Fixing and adding features to the pricing tool
This is my biggest complaint and I think it should be the highest priority change for SingleCare to make ASAP. The good news is according to my contacts at SingleCare, they are working on resolving all of the issues I address below and you should see these resolved soon.
The medication pricing tool on the website and app automatically prices a commonly prescribed strength and quantity of the medication submitted without an obvious way to change these parameters to match your prescription. It’s cumbersome to find certain medications and you can’t customize the quantities either.
What if your doctor wrote a prescription for 4 azithromycin 250mg tablets because they already gave you the loading dose in the ER? Currently, you can’t price that quantity out since it’s not one of their prefilled amounts. You will still receive a discount using the Singlecare card but you won’t know the exact price until the pharmacy processes your prescription.
You can’t even select the generic equivalents to Proair or Ventolin albuterol inhalers. The default, and only available quantity is the 6.7g canister which is the generic for Proventil. The canister size to appropriately price out Proair is 8.5g and Ventolin is 18g. Singlecare dose offer discounts on these generic equivalents but just like above you can’t price them out ahead of time.
The SingleCare mobile app
The medication basket feature is not available on the mobile app. This seems like a big oversight and might just be because the feature is new and hasn’t been implemented yet.
The pricing results page shows you the prices at each pharmacy but doesn’t show you the distance to each pharmacy. It would be nice if they included this information so you could judge if it was worth it to pay a little extra for the convenience of not having to travel across town.
Once you select the pharmacy you want to fill at, the app then shows you the closest locations which I like but this seems like a bass-ackword way of doing things in my opinion. Especially if two pharmacies offer similar prices.
The app used to have a map feature that showed the pricing results on a map to help you determine the location of the best price or best option for you based on the location, but that has been removed. Let them know to bring it back if that is something you think would benefit you.
They have a smaller network of pharmacies than most discount cards, but like I mentioned, I don’t think that will be a major concern since all of the large chains are contracted.
Features no longer available
They got rid of the video physician visits that people could utilize if they were on vacation, not able to get in to their doctors office, or didn’t have a regular doctor at all.
Who can benefit the most from using SingleCare?
The true answer is everyone! If you are insured and are prescribed a medication that isn’t covered by your insurance present your Singlecare card and see if the discounted price is affordable for you.
Even if your medication is covered by your insurance you may still save money by using your SingleCare card instead of your insurance, I see it every day. You can’t use your insurance AND get an additional discount on top of that using Singlecare. It’s one or the other….whichever is the best price for you. It’s best to check the price using the SingleCare app before buying your medications.
Medications that are commonly not covered by insurance are:
- Adderall
- guaifenisen with codeine cough syrup
- phentermine
- ED drugs like viagra (sildenafil) and cialis (tadalafil)
- benzonatate
- OTC medications like loratadine (claritin), cetirizine (Zyrtec), omeprazole (Prilosec), fluticasone (Flonase), and Miralax
- vitamins and supplements like ferrous sulfate, magnesium, B12, B6
- Beer’s list drugs like cyclobenzaprine(Flexeril), methocarbamol (Robaxin), and zolpidem (Ambien).
Individuals with high prescription deductibles, those that want to stretch their HSA or FSA dollars, the uninsured, and seniors in the medicare part D coverage gap will likely benefit the most since they are paying all or a higher portion of the medication costs out of pocket.
People that have high prescription deductibles that are primarily on generic medications and won’t ever meet their deductible before years end will benefit greatly. There is no real reason to use your insurance unless they provide a sizable discount during your deductible phase. Most of the time you are paying the pharmacy’s inflated usual and customary pricing during your deductible phase of your insurance coverage. Using a prescription discount card like Singlecare can save you a substantial amount of money!
If you have a health savings account (HSA) to pay for your medical and prescription expenses. Your situation is very much like the scenario above. Stretch the money you have contributed to the HSA further by using a discount card and getting your medications for as cheaply as you can.
Seniors that fall into the medicare part D coverage gap, AKA the donut hole, pay a higher price for their medications. During this phase generic medications may be cheaper to buy using a discount card.
If you use a discount card to pay for your medication during the coverage gap it doesn’t count toward your out of pocket (TROOP) expenses but if you don’t expect to get out of the coverage gap and into the catastrophic phase then saving all that you can with a prescription savings card is the way to go to reduce your overall money out of pocket until everything resets on January 1st. The good thing is you have to option to use your insurance OR the discount card whenever you want to.
You can use SingleCare for your pets too!
You can save on pet medications that have human equivalents and it’s much cheaper to buy at your pharmacy with Singlecare than from your vet most of the time. Just make sure to ask for a prescription, although some vets don’t like to issue them, they legally have to if you ask for one.
Medications I’ve seen prescribed for pets include:
- Methimazole
- Enalapril
- Cephalexin
- Amoxicillin
- Doxycycline
- Tramadol
- Levothyroxine
- Insulins like Novolin R and N, Humulin R and N, lantus, etc
- Phenobarbital
The bottomline on SingleCare
The bottom line on SingleCare is that I highly recommend individuals download the Singlecare app or price their medications on the website to see if they can save money.
The services offered by SingleCare fill a void left by the traditional healthcare system. The discounted prescription prices are very competitive when compared to other prescription discount cards and are the best I have found in many cases.
The app is very useful and well designed allowing the user to search for discounted prescription medication pricing easily but does have a few flaws as discussed above.
Please take the time to visit SingleCare.com or download the SingleCare app and see how much their free discount membership can save you on your prescription medications. If nothing else, just get a card and have it placed on your file at the pharmacy just in case something isn’t covered by your insurance in the future; it never expires.
Don’t forget to also check out my personal experience with Blink Health and how I saved money on my wife’s allergy medication.