Some of the nation's largest health insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, Kaiser Permanente, and the Veterans Affairs Department, are encouraging their patients to split pills in order to cut costs. Pill splitting is where you purchase pills at twice your recommended dosage and then split them in half in order to make your supply last twice as long. For example, a 500mg pill rarely costs twice as much as a 250mg pill - so purchasing the 500mg pills and then splitting them in half will save you money in the long run because you are purchasing the same number of pills and making them last twice as long.
Obviously, drug companies are not happy with this practice, because it cuts into their profits. But there are legitimate medical concerns with pill-splitting. Splitting your pill exactly in half is not easy - and it's even more difficult for people with cognitive impairment, visual impairment, or arthritis. If someone splits their pill inaccurately, it could lead to overdoses or under-doses of medication.
Still, there are a number of medications where it's okay if the pill isn't split exactly in half. For example, studies show that there is no difference in the cholesterol level or liver function of patients who split the cholesterol lowering medication Zocor and patients who take the same dosage in single pills.
Comments
Comments are closed for this post.
