Recently, Riley County teamed up with the National Association of Counties (NACo) to provide citizens who are without prescription insurance, a means to save money on their prescription expenses. The Riley County Counselor’s office was instrumental in getting this program off the ground. Their Legal Assistant, Angel Dillon, monitors the program for the County, and she gave an update at Thursday’s County Commission meeting. According to Dillon, to meet this public need, the County Counselor’s office placed displays of prescription cards in various locations to include the Public Library, Health Department, Flint Hills Community Clinic, Parks and Rec., the cities of Riley, Randolph and Ogden. A new location has recently been added to the list; Head Start of USD 383 is now a point of contact for cards with their supply consisting mainly of drug cards printed in Spanish at their request.

The most recent report from NACo (January 2010), states that 58 cards were utilized in Riley County averaging each user a savings of 26.71% or $16.51 on their prescription purchase. These figures reflect an overall increase in savings, but the users of the card remain constant from the November 2009’s report.

On the national front, according to figures published by NACo, the program continues to grow rapidly. 1,298 counties are participating in the program. To give you an idea of just how much that is, there are 3,066 counties in the nation, so this figure represents just over a third are using the program.

Since the end of January, there has been 21.6 million prescriptions filled under the card, representing a 24.2% overall average savings or $257.8 million dollars.

The Riley County Drug Discount Card is available free of charge to anyone. If you have insurance, but don’t have prescription drug coverage, this card could save money. The card can be picked up at the locations listed above.