Free Rx discount cards available

Terrebonne Parish residents have a new weapon in the battle against high prescription drug prices.

Last month, the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government launched a free prescription discount card program sponsored by the National Association of Counties (NACo) and administered by Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark.

The NACo drug discount card helps consumers save money on prescription medications when their prescriptions are not covered by insurance. It also covers people who have no insurance.

The card cannot be used in conjunction with an existing prescription drug program.

Any parish resident can receive a card. There is no enrollment form, membership fee, income pre-qualification or restrictions on frequency of use.

“You just take the card and it’s active. Once you pick it up, it’s yours,” said Darrel Waire, director of the parish Housing and Human Services Department.

While savings on each prescription varies, cardholders and their family members save an average of 20 percent on their prescription medications, according to CVS Caremark.

The free cards, which have been placed in holders for easy retrieval, are available at six locations parishwide:

• Government Tower, 8026 Main St., Houma, at Customer Service (1st Floor), Council Office (6th Floor) and Administration (7th Floor)

• Department of Housing and Human Services, 809 Barrow St., Houma

• Catholic Social Services, 1220 Aycock St., Houma

• Terrebonne Council on Aging Operations Center, 995 West Tunnel Blvd., Houma

• Shady Acres Center, 6512 West Main St., Houma

• Schriever Senior Center, 204 Hwy. 311, Schriever

The card is accepted by 55 retail pharmacies in the Tri-parish area. More than 59,000 pharmacies nationwide honor the card, including most chain pharmacies and many independents.

According to CVS Caremark, the program has a safety feature that alerts pharmacists when one drug may conflict with another medication the cardholder is taking, if the prescriptions were obtained with the NACo discount card.

The card will even cover certain pet medications, but cardholders are urged to check with pharmacies to see which medications are covered.

“The best thing about this program is that it is of no cost to the parish or the tax-paying citizens,” Waire said.

Terrebonne is one of 11 parishes that have joined the NACo prescription discount card program.

The parish learned about the program when several council members attended the annual NACo conference in Kansas City in July.

Rollout of the discount cards was supposed to begin earlier than its Nov. 17 debut, but the distribution was delayed by hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The parish received an initial shipment of about 20,000 discount cards, but so far only about 6,000 have been distributed to the various locations, according to Waire.

He hopes to have a tally of how many residents have obtained the cards by the end of this month.

“The Council on Aging will be giving out the most cards because of their reach to our elderly community,” Waire said. “But we encourage everyone to get one.”