My long time independent pharmacy just laughed when I showed them the card that was in Sun. paper & said, yes we take it, we just jack our prices up. It's no deal! This pharmacy is by far the cheapest 1 out in my area as I have been to many of them since my medicine was expensive. They managed to cut it by 2/3 of what I had been paying. They know me well. So the cards are a rip off!

This first time poster is a 30 year veteran pharmacist, not just some boob trolling the internet with misinformation. These cards are ***ALL*** scams, as a fact. Not a theory. They collect your information, including your health information, AS A FACT, not a theory, and sell it, AS A FACT. They offer ZERO discount which is why most private pharmacies won't accept them. If you haave trouble with PRICING, your best bet is to talk to the pharmacist. If they can do something for you, they probably will, and most, if not ALL pharmacies will match cash prices. The Chain drug stores accept many of these cards in the hopes of driving traffic. The fact that CVS also owns the PBM helps them. Aside from that, these cards, if not in healthcare, would be flatout illegal because they represent fraud. So how do the perforate in healthcare? Because the heathcare system is essentially corrupt from top to bottom. In this case, the card fraudsters petitions CMS to make provision in the Obamacare act that required that hospitals and healthcare organizations to actively pursue means of reducing costs to prescriptions to indigent cash paying patient (forgetting that there should be no cash patients anymore under Obamacare). To fill this check box for Medicare Compliance, these cards are put in the front windows of all these healthcare organization, promoting the fraud. These cards do NOTHING to promote a discount. They reimburse pharmacies NOTHING. They charge the pharmacies to privilege to process the card, which is how they make there money. These are the low life money grubbers in the healthcare economy who rip off the system at everyones expense, and provide ZERO economic benefit and ZERO healthcare value. They just steal... PERIOD.

Yup...GROAN...it's forever...unless the Supreme Court rules that the government cannot force people to carry medical insurance....saying that it's unconstitutional. If they do that...in the coming year...the Feds will have to drop the penalty. I did contest it when it was imposed as my error was not intentional. I hadn't been informed by my late husband's insurance carrier that I was required to carry Part D. I use no prescriptive drugs so I guess they assumed I didn't need to be concerned about it. WRONG! They did tell me that I had to replace the Supplemental policy and I did so immediately. I should say that all my health benefits died the minute [literally] that my husband died due to an irreversible benefits decision that he'd made long before I met and married him. And my ignorance of his benefits package was not intentional. They would never allow me access to anything. If my husband didn't deal with them nothing got done. In any case...Medicare partly found in my favor...erasing 8 months from the penalty formula...but leaving the remaining 36 months using the excuse that ignorance is no excuse when it comes to the law. So...I now pay 1% times a yearly Federally elected dollar figure times 36 [months] and that amount is added to my monthly premium. It usually amounts to about $15/mo. And it makes me a very unhappy camper considering that my only source of income is SS and I still have a mortgage to pay each month...not to mention all the other little life necessities that come along with daily survival. So...for anyone who's age 65 or about to become age 65...talk to a SS or Medicare representative and enroll in a Medicare approved Part D program ASAP. If you don't...you could end up being penalized like me when you do elect to enroll in a Part D program...or when it's discovered that you're not enrolled in a plan. It's been mandatory since 2006. Learn from my mistake! Or gamble that the Supreme Court will find in our favor...knocking the whole forced insurance program out of the ball park. Anne

Thanks, Kathy! I just had X-ray of my knee & it is wearing out! Shots don't help long & I am now on a metal off-set cane all the time & ice packs & need a transport wheelchair. May have a less invasive procedure done to remove the pieces of bone that have broken off & irritating the membrane. Total knee replacement I am told by friend ( & others who have had both done!) say the knee replacement is MUCH more painful with longer healing & a lot of PT - over a year! than the hip replacement was! I am not a patient person with myself & hate all the outdoor gardening, etc. I have done all these years that I now can't do at all... poor hubby now has to take over most of it & I try NOT to be critical of his methods? So much fun in a kitchen chair on wheels trying to make meals & trying to stay off my leg ... gee! those kitchen cabs., sink, the stove burners, etc. are so much TALLER than I had imagined?!! :) Adelante here has been SO good about getting needed handicapped equipment & now I need a small, narrower transport chair for the house & car as the walkers don't work now with my knee. Wish my condition now, Kathy, was more amenable to your suggestions but think it has gone too far & sadly I had no warnings earlier! I too, like your mother, will soon be 79 & been quite out-door gardening/lawn mowing active all my life & no major joint issues on either side of my family except osteo in hands. Janen: Yes, Dr. has me now on Rx (that strength not available off-shelf now I heard) 600 mg Ibuprofen 2-3 times/prn a day & it helps well for 3-4 hrs.! Was taking Tylenol too & alternating with the other but worry about the long-term affects of each!? Which is best for inflammation & which for pain ... I haven't figured it out yet for sure! Thanks Janen!