Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes (or less!)

How To Cut Medicare Drug Costs Without Sacrificing Care

• Stacey Hyde

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The price you pay at the pharmacy isn’t just about the drug—it’s about the plan, the pharmacy network, and the rules hidden in the fine print. We break down a simple, repeatable method to shop Medicare Part D so you protect access to your doctors and treatment while cutting real costs. With Medicare’s new $2,000 out-of-pocket cap, the math changes: premiums and pharmacy choice now drive your savings more than fear of runaway brand-name bills.

We walk through Medicare.gov step by step—creating your account, reviewing your medication history, and adding every pharmacy you actually use, from your local favorite to the chain near your vacation home. You’ll learn how to identify preferred pharmacies, interpret plan deductibles that often bypass generics, and compare total annual cost, not just the monthly premium. Along the way, we share client stories that show how zero-premium plans can deliver $0 copays on key generics and how pairing Part D with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs can slash prices on certain fills without sacrificing convenience.

If you rely on insulin or name-brand medications, you’ll hear how to prioritize plans that price your specific drugs best, why star ratings matter for service and fewer headaches, and the easiest way to enroll online. We also cover pro moves like setting premiums to auto-deduct from Social Security to avoid missed payments and ensuring your new card is on file before January 1 so refills don’t stall. It’s a clear, calm guide for you and the loved ones you help—because the right plan isn’t the cheapest on paper, it’s the one that fits your real life.

If this helped, follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a quick review to help others find practical Medicare guidance.

Envision Financial Planning. 5100 Poplar Avenue, Suite 2428, Memphis, TN 38137. (901) 422-7526. This communication is strictly intended for individuals residing in the United States. Advisory Services offered through Envision Financial Planning, a Registered Investment Adviser.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, I'm Stacy Haydn. I'm back with another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less. And today I want to talk about something that I think is very, very important and often overlooked. And if you're not on Medicare, don't tune out. Please listen because there are so many people who are on Medicare but are kind of scared of the internet or scared to set this up. So, and what I'm talking about is shopping your Medicare prescription drug plan. So, yes, if you're on traditional Medicare, you'll have a Medicare supplement. It's rare that you're going to want to change that unless, of course, you're very healthy and you've been getting big premium increases, then yes, you may want to shop that. Beware of Medicare Advantage, however, the pricing looks good, but they gatekeep a lot of your access to doctors, treatments, that sort of thing. So we strongly recommend traditional Medicare and a supplement. So assuming that is you or your mom or your grandma or your granddad or your favorite aunt or neighbor, even that it is important each year to shop your prescription drug plan because a couple of years ago, Medicare made a change. They capped the out-of-pocket drug cost at$2,000 per person. Before that, um, it could get really, really expensive. So now that cap has kind of changed your calculus when you're looking at your overall cost. You in most cases want to minimize your monthly premiums because those are not capped, those are still set by the insurance company, but your out-of-pocket drug costs are now capped at$2,000, which becomes very important if you are taking uh name brand medications. So the key thing to look out for is you want to go to Medicare.gov and you want to set up an account. You'll need your Medicare prescription drug card, your email, that sort of information, and you'll set up your account. Once you're in there, if you've already been on Medicare for a couple years, once you've set up your account, it'll show you all the prescription drugs and pay attention if you've got a shingles vaccine, that'll be in there because that's covered by the prescription drug plan. And you'll want to go through there and delete any medications you're not currently taking and add any that you recently got filled. Then you'll want to put in the pharmacy that you use. If you use two, I would encourage you to put them in because one may be a lot more cost effective than another. So, true story, I had one of my favorite clients in um a week or so ago, and I was asking her about her prescription drug plan. And she said, You know, Stacy, that plan you put me on a couple years ago, it's really almost too good to be true. I don't pay anything in premiums, and every time I go to pick up my prescription at Krumber, I don't pay anything. And I said, Well, what are you taking? And she said, I'm taking a blood pressure medication and a cholesterol medication. And so that's because the Medicare system wants her to take those because if she takes the cholesterol, she takes the blood pressure, she's much less likely to have a stroke, a heart attack, or something like that. So, and they're generic drugs, so there is no cost. So for her, she loves her prescription drug plan. She's like, it's great, it works super. She just didn't like getting the mail. So, you know, there you can log in and get them emailed to you, and then you can just delete the explanation of benefits. So it is important to go in there and put those in there. And then if you and I also had this happen with another client where we were able to get his eloquence in his case very inexpensively through his drug plan, but he took another medication that was generic, but it was expensive on his drug plan. But we looked that one up on Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs, and it was very inexpensive there. So now he just has his doctor send that prescription directly to Cost Plus Drugs, and he gets that one through mail order and he gets his eloquence at the pharmacy. So that is a key thing to keep in mind. If you do take a name brand drug, oftentimes you're wanting to pick the plan that is gonna offer the best pricing on that drug. And it's really gonna depend. And even if you love it like my little client did, she loved hers. We're still, when open enrollment opens on October 15th, we're still gonna go in there and look to make sure she's still in the best plan. And I know she's not gonna move from Kroger. So if that's the case, that's what you want to put in there, and then it's also helpful to know if you travel a lot or you have a vacation home, that you put in a pharmacy at the beach or in the mountains or wherever your vacation home is, even if you use like a local, like very popular around here is Germantown Pharmacy. So you use Germantown Pharmacy when you're here, but maybe you go down to Destin and you're gonna need to use a um CVS or Walgreens or Walmart or something like that. You want to put that in there just so you know which one is gonna offer you the better pricing. And the way you tell is it'll say preferred pharmacy. So that's really the key. And then the nice thing about this is you go through, it has in there what you have now, and it allow you to compare cost and you can see how it'll work. And the key thing to keep in mind is while many of the plans have deductibles, most of the generic drugs are not subject to that deductible. The deductible only comes into play for the name bread drugs in most cases. So you and if you are an insulin-dependent diabetic, certain drug plans are better for getting your insulin. So it is important to go and shop it. Even if you've loved it the year before, you don't know if they're gonna make some changes that you need to be aware of. And so if that's the case, then you definitely want to know. And it's easier to see on Medicare.gov than it is to go through a booklet with all the drugs listed. So once you get through there and you've it's shown you, it'll show you what's your lowest total cost, meaning premiums plus co-pays and deductibles, what your cost is, and you say, okay, that's the one I want. It will also show you how many stars it had. I would be very nervous about getting a plan that didn't at least have three stars. Even if it is a little bit less expensive, you really want that customer service. And so once you've found the one you want, you click through. And if you're collecting Social Security or Social Security Disability benefits, you can have those premiums deducted directly from your payment, which is a whole lot easier than mailing in a check of$5.32 a month, risking that getting lost in the mail, your coverage getting canceled. So I would strongly encourage you if you are collecting benefits, to let those premiums be deducted from your payments. So once you get to the bottom, you'll hit enroll, it will sign you up. You can say whether you want to get your plan information via email or via paper. You can make that selection and then you're you're good to go. Um, and then toward the end of the year, you should get your um information in the mail, your new uh card. Be sure and give it to your pharmacist. And um, if you can't find it or whatever, you can actually log back on. The phone number will be there. You in many cases, you can go ahead and print a card in order to give it to your pharmacy. But remember, you're making these changes now, they don't go into effect until January 1. So you'll continue to use your existing card until then. So I hope this was helpful. Please help out those special older folks in your life if you've a younger person and you've made it through this far, or if you're one of the folks that this applies to you and you're like, I'm not sure how to do this, share it with that sweet person that's going to help you get it done. If you want a step by step guide, you can find it on our website, or if you don't want to look there, you can email us at info at envisionfptn.com and just let us know you would like the how to shop your Medicare RX plan, and we will email it to you. Thanks so much for tuning in and have a great day.