Ways to Save on Care-Related Expenses

Negotiating medical bills is often a pressing and ongoing concern for caregivers. But what about the rest of the expenses that come along with caregiving? Below we share our best tips for saving on caregiver-associated costs.

With careful planning and diligence, there are multiple ways to save money on medical and personal care expenses. Here are a few tips that can be easily incorporated into your caregiving process.

Save on Prescriptions

For many people with chronic health conditions, medications are one of the largest expenses. Even when you have insurance coverage, medications can be prohibitively expensive. The prescribed medication might not be covered for your diagnosis or the copay might be more than you can afford.

Since medications might make up a large percentage of your spending, shopping around and understanding your options is key.

• Use multiple pharmacies to compare discounts and prices — there can be huge savings from pharmacy to pharmacy. A few places I’d suggest looking into are Good RX, Costco Pharmacy, and RxSaver
• Get prescription discount cards so that you can see what additional discounts or promotions you might be eligible for. This is especially helpful if you plan to get your medications filled at a traditional pharmacy that might not have an existing discount program. A few good ones are ScriptSave by WellRx, America's Pharmacy, and Choice Drug Card. 

A few other ways you can look into saving on prescriptions:

• If your medication is expensive, ask your physician or pharmacist if they can swap your prescription for a generic or lower-cost alternative. Since everybody’s insurance coverage and financial means are so different, your doctor might not initially factor cost into their recommendations and prescriptions. But if you ask them, there might be an affordable alternative that is just as effective.
• Request samples from your prescribing physician. This won’t be a long term solution, but they are often able to give you some samples of the medication, which can help offset the initial cost as you figure out the plan to pay for it.
• Look into prescription relief programs that you may be eligible for. Many pharmaceutical companies offer relief programs for patients who can’t otherwise afford the medication. I’d suggest Googling relief programs for your specific medication, but here is a resource that lists a lot of the available options.

Take Advantage of Senior Discounts

Caregiving costs are not limited to medical costs, so make sure you’re looking for ways to save in the rest of your life, too. If you or your care recipient are senior citizens, be sure to take advantage of all of the senior discounts available on retail goods and services. You can save a lot on household expenses this way. There are tons of companies that offer senior discounts, but here are a few of the best:

• 15% off at Kohl’s every Wednesday
• 20% off at RiteAid the first Wednesday of every month
• 10% off on Amtrak Tickets

Here are a couple lists that lay out dozens of senior discounts:

• Senior Living
• The Senior List
• Senior Discounts

Medical Equipment Lending Programs

There are many organizations and nonprofits that offer medical equipment lending programs. Through these programs, you can borrow durable medical equipment for use at no cost. Most of these organizations will be local to your area, so we can’t provide an exhaustive list here. But if you Google “[city] + medical equipment lending program” you should come up with the best programs local to you.

Free Hearing Aids

Apply for free Hearing Aids, if your care-recipient needs them. Contact your local Lions Club and ask about their Affordable Hearing Aids Project. This could save you thousands if your care-recipient needs hearing aids. You need to apply through your local Lions Club, but here’s an information sheet from the national organization detailing eligibility.

Savings on Phone and Internet Services

If your family has an income at or below 135% of the poverty line, you might qualify for discounted phone and internet services through LifeLine, a federal government program. You can apply directly on their website, and if you’re eligible this will be an easy way to get some good savings.

Volunteer Senior Sitter Organizations

It’s important to find “you” time as a caregiver, but it can be very difficult to make it happen. If you need help with your caregiving duties but can’t afford to hire a caregiver, look into local volunteer senior sitter organizations. There are a lot of volunteers who would be eager to help relieve you from time to time!

‍

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels