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SaveOnSP

The Writers Guild-Industry Health Plan has recently signed up with a new company, SaveOnSP, to provide specialty drugs to all our Participants. SaveOnSP guarantees that the recipients of covered prescriptions will pay $0. The only requirement is you must register with SaveOnSP – a one-time process that takes approximately 15 minutes. Any Participant who does not register with SaveOnSP will pay the full retail price.

Even if you are already in a co-pay assistance program, you still have to enroll with SaveOnSP in order to avoid extra fees. Simply call SaveOnSP at: 800-683-1074. They will assist you in signing up and there will be nothing further for you to do. Thereafter, your co-pay will be $0. However, if you are prescribed a new covered specialty medication it will require you to enroll in SaveOnSP for that drug.

Until you register with SaveOnSP, you will not be able to receive your covered specialty prescription. If you go to a drug store to pick up your covered prescription, or if you call Express Scripts, you will be referred to SaveOnSP. The good news? It will take approximately 15 minutes to register with SaveOnSP, and after this one-time conversation your co-pay for this covered specialty prescription will be $0. No additional conversations or paperwork will be necessary. However, new medications will require you to contact SaveOnSP for enrollment.

If, for some reason, you decide that you do not want to register with the SaveOnSP program, you will have significant co-pays. For some prescriptions, the cost will be thousands of dollars as opposed to the $0 co-pay at the end of your 15-minute SaveOnSP registration call.

SaveOnSP should save Participants who require a covered specialty drug any cost for their drugs, and will help keep the Health Plan fiscally fit and able to keep these expensive drugs available to Participants. It’s a win-win for everyone.

ONE WRITER’S EXPERIENCE WITH SAVEON SP

I was a little nervous when the Health Plan told me I had to use a service called SaveOnSP to get my specialty prescription. It went much better than I expected. My experience signing up with SaveOnSP took exactly 19 minutes – and I asked a lot of questions. When the conversation was finished, my specialty drug would no longer require a co-pay. That’s right $0 for a drug that would cost $3,500 an injection if I had to pay for it myself.

I spoke with a man who identified himself as “John” from SaveOnSP when he rang me on my cell phone. He explained the background of SaveOnSP, that it was a company that negotiated lower prices for covered (for which you can read expensive) specialty drugs on a Health Plan’s formulary. In exchange for allowing SaveOnSP to perform this service, they guaranteed that the Health Plan’s Participants would have a $0 co-pay.

I’m a little suspicious of sounds too good to be true proposals, so I pushed at a lot of the places where I thought the explanation was soft. Here’s what I learned:

  1. All of the Writers Guild-Industry Health Plan Participants who use these (expensive) covered drugs have to go through SaveOnSP or pay full retail for their prescription(s). While that sounds bad, keep in mind that a single sign-up conversation reduces the cost to $0.
  2. If you are already on a co-pay assistance program of some kind, you still have to sign up with SaveOnSP if you are taking a covered drug, but it’s a simple process, and a once-only event.
  3. SaveOnSP should call you to set up service if your drug is added to their list of covered prescriptions, but if they don’t get hold of you for some reason, the first time you go to a pharmacy or call Express Scripts for a refill, you will be informed about the program and required to sign up if you don’t want to pay retail prices.
  4. If SaveOnSP hasn’t called you, or if you want to get this going right away, you can reach out to them. Their number is: 800-683-1074.
  5. One thing John explained to me is really important to remember: You must TURN OFF EXPRESS SCRIPTS AUTOPAY if you have been paying for your prescription that way previously. Why? Because if you have autopay selected, Express Scripts will bill you for the drug and then SaveOnSP will reimburse you for the full amount, but in the meantime, you may be out of pocket for thousands of dollars. It’s simple enough to do this, simply ask Express Scripts to turn off autopay; it’s a 15 second conversation.
  6. At the end of the conversation, John asked me if I had any more questions. “When does this start?” I asked. “Now,” he replied, “You’re all signed up.” “I don’t have to do anything else? No annual sign ups? No, ‘oh, one more thing calls?’” John was clear, “You have completed your sign up. From now on, your co-pay on this drug is $0. The only way you will have to talk to us again is if your doctor prescribes you another drug that is covered by this program.”

I thanked John, hung up, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. I was nervous when I first heard about their program. I knew I couldn’t afford to be without my drug – even for a little while. The process is simple, straightforward. When the phone call from SaveOnSP comes, answer it. If you’re at the pharmacy and they tell you to call SaveOnSP and sign up, call them. You ‘ll be glad you did.

Changes with the way a prescription that is important to your well-being is delivered can be anxious-making. It’s okay to ask questions. SaveOnSP (800-683-1074) was very helpful, and if you have any reservations or concerns, the Health Plan will be happy to answer your questions. Just call them at: 818-846-1051, and ask for the Claims Department.

The bottom line? SaveOnSP is a good thing, and if your specialty medication is added to the program, you should sign up.