Health

You Might Be A Caregiver If: Medicare Part D Costs #Walgreens #ad

(This is the second of my sponsored posts for Walgreens Part D. Thanks to Walgreens for allowing thriftymommastips.com to partner with them for this series. This post was compensated. My first post about saving money with Walgreens Part D is here. My opinion is all my own.)
Caregiving is hard work. That’s reality. No way around it. It can be draining – emotionally, psychologically and physically. Walgreens Medicare Part D cost means it doesn’t have to be draining financially also. Which is good because this is what my prescription story looks like many weeks. I work 24/7 almost every day of the week. It’s exhausting and then some. Up until very recently I was caring for my Mom, caring for my kids, my family and myself. One of my children has special needs and that makes life challenging also. I have my own disability to contend with. Crohn’s Disease is a digestive disorder that rears its nasty head when least expected and leaves you with chronic pain in the abdomen and joints. Frazzled? Why yes, I am. Organized? Well, yes one day I will get around to straightening out my planner and setting up reminders for all those appointments and papers and forms and – well, who am I kidding? 
Take your average family, then add to that, the need to constantly advocate at school, skip off work to run your child to their therapy, reschedule other specialist’s appointments and seek out the best specialist for her particular diagnosis. Then, there are the mornings when you might miss a few hours taking your Mom to the doctor and making sure she is okay at her retirement home. Because you have to slot in all that extra caregiving and health care activity during the day, you work later at night. So late that most nights you fall into bed drained and exhausted. This goes on daily until Friday at about 5 p.m. when you look up from your computer and realize your daughter needs her supper medicine and wait, what’s that? It’s got 2 tabs left in the bottle. And it’s a three day weekend.

My Mom and family. Many seniors need help negotiating health care and prescription costs. Medicare Part D costs are made easier to comprehend when you engage a Walgreens pharmacist for help
You Might Be a Caregiver If:
1. You’ve ever been so bleary eyed exhausted that you almost took your daughter’s medicine instead of yours.
2. You woke up and reached for the Visine before your iPhone.
3. You misplaced your Child’s report card return form and Individual Education Plan in the same week that you lost your mother’s chequebook.
4. You accidentally wrote a cheque off the wrong person’s account because you are power of attorney and a business and a personal account too. (That’s too many accounts.)
5. You woke up and completely blanked on what day it was.
That’s caregiving in a nutshell. And frankly my prescription story gets repeated here at least monthly.
Caregiving is rewarding, at times, and challenging at others, but it should never be so difficult financially that you have to choose prescriptions versus groceries. That’s where Walgreens can help. 
According to the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, in 2012 there were 31.5 million Americans enrolled in Medicare Part D. The finding of a new Walgreens survey showed that more than one-third of Medicare Part D beneficiaries (37 %) had daily concerns about their prescription costs. One in five say they have had to make sacrifices such as delaying a prescription, or skipping doses entirely to help manage medicine costs. In fact 1 in 4 reported not filling the prescription in the first place out of fear of costs. Medicare Part D costs are completely understandable with a bit of help from Walgreens.
Using a preferred network pharmacy, if one is offered by the Part D plan, can potentially save beneficiaries hundreds of dollars a year on prescription costs. Yet only 21 % of respondents switched to a pharmacy within their plan’s preferred network as a way to save and one fourth are unaware whether their plan offers a preferred pharmacy option. Co-pays can in fact vary for Part D prescriptions depending on pharmacy. Ask your Walgreens pharmacist to help you compare Medicare Part D costs.
Walgreens, which is in the network of hundreds of Medicare prescription drug plans and participates in the preferred networks of four national Part D sponsors offers savings of up to 75 % on prescription co-pays over select pharmacies for a number of plans in which it is a preferred pharmacy.
Walgreens Your Worth Savings initiative aims to educate Medicare beneficiaries about cost savings opportunities and how to get the most from their health plan with three easy steps.
Visit Walgreens.com to find out how to compare medicare part d plans. Ask for a plan review. Ask for a cost comparison of your co-pay. 
1. Review Your Medicare Part D plan. 
2. Talk to a Walgreens pharmacist about cost concerns and ways you might be able to save.
3. Compare co-pay and other costs against your current plan and pharmacy. 
Isn’t life as a caregiver hard enough? Thank goodness some companies help.

Mom of two beautiful active girls, traveller, fitness junkie, social media consultant, and keeper of the sanity.

4 Comments

  • Unknown

    Caregiving is definitely tough. My mom did so for my grandmother and while she loved doing it, it was very very difficult at times too. I like you lighthearted and relatable list, it’s nice to be able to laugh even when times are tough. I’m glad there are companies like Walgreens doing what they can to help.

    Tesa @ 2 Wired 2 Tired

  • LisaLisa

    It is very hard work for those who are caregivers. Sometimes they forget to take care of themselves when they are so involved in taking care of others. It is wonderful to see companies like Walgreen’s helping to make a difference! Great post!

  • Just Us Girls

    It’s not an easy job, but helping others especially the elderly is definitely something that takes patience. I did in home care after I graduated from my course for about a year and I grew really close with the woman I took care of. It’s definitely not for everyone, but I found it rewarding as you’re not only taking care of someone, but getting to know them too.