County residents can now apply
for RX cards

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Beginning today, residents of McKinley County can start applying for free prescription drug discount cards that could save the user up to 50 percent on thousands of drugs.

County spokesman Doug Decker said the cards are made possible by a decision by the county commission a couple of months ago to participate in a program sponsored by the National Association of Counties. The program didn’t cost the county any funds nor does it cost county residents anything to join.

To join, go to one of three places where brochures are available that allows you to fill out an application. Those three places are the county courthouse, the New Mexico Department of Human Services and Walgreen’s. Once the application is filled out and sent, the person will receive something that looks like a credit card that they can take to any of the 59,000 participating retail pharmacies in the United States.

By doing this, the person can receive up to a 20 percent discount on selected drug purchases. Decker said that can go as high as 50 percent if the person elects to mail in the prescription instead of going to the pharmacy.

The prescription discount card offers significant savings for the uninsured and underinsured residents of the county and program officials said that even those with insurance can save money by using it for drugs that are not covered by their health plan.

Decker said that the only cost to the county would be to get more brochures printed up if more people come by for them than were expected but even this cost is minimal.

When the matter came up before the county commission a couple of months ago, commissioners said the program is already in place in several New Mexico counties and seems to be working very well in each with little or no complaints.

The card program is administered by Caremark RX, Inc. and persons who want to know more about it can go to: www,caremark.com/naco for assistance.