All Posts Tagged With: "free prescription drug samples"
Medicare Beneficiaries and Free Prescription Drug Samples: A National Survey
Journal of General Internal Medicine
ABSTRACT
Background: New policies regulating physician/pharmaceutical company relationships propose to eliminate access to free prescription drug samples. Little is known about the prevalence of patient activity in requesting or receiving free prescription drug samples, or the characteristics of patients who access drug samples.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of free sample access and to examine demographic, clinical, and insurance characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries who access free samples.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Participants: A national sample of 13,847 Medicare beneficiaries participating in the fall 2004 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey.
Do your research with free prescription drug samples
Mom’s Budget blog
You probably think it is great if your doctor gives you free drug samples, instead of you having to go and fill a prescription and paying for the same thing. However there are some things you should consider before using the freebies.
First, make sure you get the literature on it if it doesn’t come with the sample, it was probably separated so be sure to ask your doctor for it.
Second, always ask if there could be a possibility that any other prescriptions you currently take could react negatively with it. Because most pharmacists will alert you to any conflicts, your doctor might not have realized it. The last thing you want to do is pop a freebie drug sample, and find out after the fact that its renders your birth control pills less effective.