There are a lot of questions people have about how to most effectively use this site. We will do our best to answer the most common ones here. As other common questions arise they will be added to this page.
Why Do You Have A Disclaimer And Why Should I Read It?
How Can I Use These Ideas After You Provide Them?
How can I avoid possible SCAMS and RIP-OFFS?
How
do I return to the last page I was on?
Who are you freaks, where did you come from, and how do you profit from this?
Where does operating costs come from?
How are you qualified to spread knowledge about saving money?
Where is the important information about how to save money now?
Why have a special testimonial section?
What's the SlashDrugCosts.org Newsletter about?
Where
can I present a strongly opposing view to these ideas on this website?
What
is required for me to use the knowledge about slashing drug costs found here?
How is the information about saving money organized on this website?
How do I use forums, topics, posts, replies, personal messaging, etc.?
Why Do You Have A Disclaimer And Why Should I Read It?
The Disclaimer page carefully explains about how the information you find on this site can be safely used. If you follow its guidelines, it can help protect you from potential problems. It protects us if you unwisely ignore our guidelines. You use any of the information on this website at your own risk. Click anywhere on this sentence to read our Disclaimer.
How
Can I Use These Ideas After You Provide Them?
It is not our intent to provide medical advice of any kind. Our objective is to provide you with reasonable alternatives that you can discuss with your doctor (or medical provider).
We encourage you to print out (or write down) all information both in your topic and related to your topic. You should also list any references so they may be validated. This will help you and your doctor to be able to work as partners to create informed and feasible choices for your treatment.
Do not demand medication changes based upon ideas that may have been presented to you. Quite a number of drugs are prescribed by doctors for “off-label” uses. These are uses that may be effective but have not been approved by the FDA. If one of the posts gives you a “therapeutically equivalent” drug as a possible alternative, it might not be a drug that is used for the same “off-label” purpose. Only your doctor would know.
Remember that you must be completely honest with your doctor about the impact of the cost of your treatment. A great many doctors either do not realize their patients don’t take their medications because of cost or they believe that it is the patient’s fault for not following the defined treatment. They ignore the fact that if a patient cannot afford their medications then they will not take them.
Many doctors may be unwilling to work with you at first. Drug companies continually advertise to patients and pummel doctors with knowledge about Prescription Assistance Programs (PAPs). They say that that anyone who cannot afford their medications can get them for little cost or for free. This is not true for most Americans. People who do not fit poverty guidelines (and a large number who do) are not eligible for these programs. It is sometimes necessary to make it VERY clear to your doctor that if you cannot obtain your medications then you cannot comply with his treatment guidelines.
We strongly believe that people should not be required to be poverty stricken in order to obtain their regular medications. We believe any empathetic health care provider should believe the same.
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How can I avoid possible SCAMS and RIP-OFFS?
Unfortunately there are easily over a thousand groups/companies out there that provide assistance to people desperate to get the medications they need.
The vast majority are legitimate. Unfortunately quite a number of them are not.
There are various ways to be scammed or ripped off. The most common seems to be over-charging you for services provided on the internet for free. (NOTE: All of the services at Slash Drug Costs will ALWAYS be free.)
Programs like PPArx.org, NeedyMeds.com, and togetherrxaccess.com are some of the more popular free services that are fairly easy to use and effective if your income fits certain federal poverty guideline standards.
We are unique in that we are completely free and available to everyone, no matter how much money they make. It is our belief that a person should not required to be poverty stricken in order to afford their medications.
The scam/rip-off companies also can do something much worse than simply charging a fee for inadequate services. In the guise of getting enough information to help you... they get enough information to sell your identity to someone willing to get credit cards in your name, take out loans, or even drain your bank account.
Sometimes these efforts are not done through posts on Slash Drug Costs but by using "Private Messaging" or email between
our members. We do not monitor such communications. If you have a concern about something that has been sent you please contact the
WebmasterSlashDrugCosts@Gmail.com
with a copy of what was sent and by whom. We will investigate it and get back to you quickly.
Remember
that no one is allowed to earn money here by providing you the services you
need. Such people will be removed as members and banned from this site to
the extent we are able.
These companies will often even display "In case of fraud" buttons on their
websites. These buttons can take you to sites that are even worse. They require you to fill out long forms so that supposedly you can report the fraud and so that monies recovered can be sent back to you. This is called phishing and provides even greater information for identity thieves.
There is a solution.
Use sites with high reputations, or that are well known, or that (like our site) do not require ANY personal information. Your identity is completely safe with us because we do not ask any identifying information and we do not share any personal information you might accidentally provide. (In fact our moderators will usually wipe any personal information you might accidentally provide within minutes of you posting it.)
We monitor this site very closely to extract any member or post whose intent is to earn money from our guests or to steal from them.
This is a safe environment and we will do our absolute best to keep it that way.
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How do I return to the last page I was on?
Remember, anytime you wish to return to the last page you were on; simply click the LEFT ARROW at the top left corner of your screen.
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Who are you freaks, where did you come from, and how do you profit from this?
The Slash Drug Costs Incorporated is a brand new organization that has just started in the fall of 2006. Founders are people who know each other via the internet and wish to pool knowledge about saving money.
Whatever methods you learn on the Slash Drug Costs Incorporated forums about saving money, rest assured there is absolutely no way that we can profit from it.
The people behind the Slash Drug Costs Organization is not completely altruistic though. We hope that after you learn valuable information from us you will take a few seconds of your time to post other methods of saving money. Possibly some of these methods could reduce our own prescription costs.
Where does operating costs come from?
All costs are being paid to out of pocket by the founders. We knew from the beginning that if
the Slash Drug Costs Incorporated accepted outside sponsorship,
donations, grants, fees or advertising that there could be limitations placed upon the methods presented to cut your medication costs. So we allow no outside funding.
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How are you qualified to spread knowledge about saving money?
The founders of the Slash Drug Costs Incorporated have decades of experience working with wide varieties of methods to reduce prescription costs. Information has come from inside the industry, from being advocates, and from being consumers ourselves. Knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry is not enough. Outside factors such as government programs and private insurance play substantial roles.
We're recently decided that combining the knowledge of consumers, advocates, government employees, people in the drug industry, and others could provide a much wider base of knowledge to help people reduce their prescription costs.
It is not our qualifications that will make this site successful, it will be your contributions of your own experiences.
Where is the important information about how to save money now?
The "Saving Money" button is the most important area of the web site. It is here that we do the most to pool our unique experiences and knowledge to help one another save money on drug costs.
Some of these ideas are for people who must make daily choices between using their money for the most basic living expenses or using their money for the prescriptions necessary to keep them alive.
Some people with fairly high incomes have great needs also. There are lifesaving drugs
which cost over $100,000.00 a year.
In this section we do not judge people as far as why they are trying to save money on their prescription costs . We are simply providing ideas to help people in different situations to do so.
Why have a
special testimonial section?
It is often easier to believe how easy it is to save money once you have heard how average people have turned the tables on drug prices.
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Where
can I present a strongly opposing view to these ideas on this website?
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HERE TO RETURN TO THE TOP OF THIS PAGE>
What
is required for me to use the knowledge about slashing drug costs found here? We
try to make it as easy as possible to locate the information most useful for you
as quickly and easily as possible. All
of the price slashing information here is available for anyone to read without
“logging” in or identifying yourself. If
you wish to add to the knowledge then look at the bottom left of each forum or topic
and there are two buttons <NewTopic> and <PostReply>. Click on either of those buttons and write down your ideas.
We do not want any information that is copyrighted or proprietary in any way. <CLICK
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How
is the information about saving money organized on this website? The
information is separated into about a dozen categories of methods to slash drug
prices. Each category can have
several subdivisions, each called a Subject (or forum).
These Subjects are the places where people can find and share information.
Within each Subject are a number of topics whose title gives the general
concept about what price saving ideas are being shared there.
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How
do I use Subjects, forums, topics, posts, replies, personal messaging, etc.? At
the top left of each information screen is a "Click Here>" spot
that will take you to the master list of Subjects. At
the top center area of any information screen is a hyperlink to “FAQ” (stands for
Frequently Asked Questions). There
is much more information available there than most people want to read.
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At
the top center area of any information screen is a hyperlink to “Profile”.
You can tell as much or as little about yourself there.
The pictures at the left of posts are called Avatars.
You can add something meaningful to you (limit 150x150 and 39k in size).
Usually .gif image formats are used.
Signatures are simply little sayings people want included at the bottom
of each of their posts… something about themselves or their thoughts about
life… or something really stupid.
What's the
Slash Drug Costs Incorporated Newsletter about?
This is a way to get regular updates and compilations with new ideas that have been shared. We don't even ask your name. Your email address will be kept private to us and there will be no spam Or ads.
There is a category of political forums at the bottom of
our saving money/sharing ideas section. All discussion opposing fighting
high drug prices should be there. The other forums are not meant to
convert people to a way of thinking, they are simply there to help people save
money.
Please read our guidelines at http://www.slashdrugcosts.org/forum/FreeUse.htm
Remember you do not need to supply your name, nickname, or
handle if you post.