Prescription Benefits of Health Insurance in Lexington

The maximum costs of your health insurance in Lexington are probably towards prescription drugs. As people age, they tend to spend more on over the counter (OTC) drugs than they do in doctor fees or hospitalization costs, etc. Haven't there been times when you preferred to pop a pill rather than call up your physician, make an appointment, then go visit them just for a headache or a slight chill? You might be surprised to know that is what most people prefer to do and that's why the cost of prescription drugs began increasing at a furious double digit pace every year. People were buying more and more drugs OTC and that's why drug companies began increasing the prices of standard issue medicines.

However, all this stopped when insurance companies realized what was happening. Gradually, health insurance companies in Lexington and elsewhere began changing the way in which they were covering the costs of drugs. Now, you will see that some highly priced medicines are not covered in your policy. You might even notice that the number of refills have been reduced in your coverage and that the amount you shell out as co-pay has been substantially increased.

Now, the company that provides for your health insurance in Lexington may give you a formulary that determines your prescription benefits. In this formulary, the company will make a list of all the medicines and drugs that are covered in your policy and which the company will pay for. The medicines and drugs that the company is willing to pay for are known as 'preferred' drugs and the others are known as 'non preferred' drugs. If you see that you using some of the non preferred drugs, then you might like to take a policy which covers both, the preferred as well as the non preferred drugs. Most of the preferred drugs will be generic names and most of the non preferred drugs might be the brand names.

In case the insurance company is not willing to cover non preferred drugs, and you do have to buy a non preferred medicine then you will be required to pay a higher price as well as an increased co-pay in order to buy them. Sometimes, your company may offer a tiered formulary. In each tier there is a list of drugs and as you go up the tier, the co-pay increases. There is no fixed rule, but usually, the generic medicines are priced that the lowest or the cheapest tier. The middle level tiers include the brand name of drugs and at the highest co-pay and the most expensive level, you will the non preferred drugs of your health insurance policy in Lexington.