Knowledge is power for consumers who shop for lowest medications cost and price comparison engines like HealthPricer.com are the tools to make informed decision.
These days more and more people are discovering benefits of using the internet for getting information on a wide range of medical and health topics. All kinds of medical organizations, including many government organizations, use the power of internet to provide the general public with all kinds of health and medical information to both general public and medical professionals, including treatments, drugs, and their side effects. There are many forums, blogs where people can share their experience and all possible information about the ways to deal with health problems, treatments, drugs, their side effects, etc.
Online pharmacies are becoming more and more popular among people who are looking for medical advice and affordable medication. With the growth of the online pharmacy industry it has never been easier to obtain prescription and OTC medicines. Online pharmacy may provide online consultation and service all from the comfort of your own home or office computer, especially if you are living busy life, in remote area or looking for information and advice about so called “embarrassment conditions” like erectile dysfunction, hair loss or obesity. At the online pharmacy, you can fill new prescriptions or transfer existing prescriptions from your current pharmacy. Other benefits of using online pharmacies are convenience of ordering online, discretion and lower prices.
With soaring drug prices, people are doing whatever it takes to obtain the medications they need. More and more people are becoming smarter consumers by looking to buying needed medications from online pharmacies, mostly Canadian, due to significant savings available on prescription drugs. These days everyone is looking for a bargain, and price comparison shopping have provided significant savings on prescription costs for many people. Many online pharmacies claim to be up to 30-60% cheaper than those in the US and therefore many people choose to use an online pharmacy outside the US.
To check these claims you should visit some of the websites like www.HealthPricer.com. There you can find and compare prices for drugs from more than 50 network participants, check information about trusted licensed online pharmacies (mostly Canadian) and compare their ratings. Most of the listed drugs are 100% FDA approved. Comparing drug prices using HealthPricer website requires very little effort and is totally free of charge for all comparisons. Try to use it and you will see that price difference can be huge, especially on expensive drugs.
You should treat an online pharmacy like you would any other online business, make sure they have an address and phone number should you have a problem need to get in touch and only pay through secure payment methods. When choosing an online pharmacy you should check to see that they meet the stringent safety standards of your home country. Like traditional brick and mortar stores, online pharmacies are regulated by the states or province where they reside. This means online pharmacies must have independent certification that guarantees them to be an online pharmacy in good standing with their state/provincial and national boards.
The U.S Pharmacopeia (USP), in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state Board of Pharmacy regulators, establishes quality control standards for all medications dispensed by pharmacies throughout the United States. With the intention of preventing consumers from receiving poor quality and/or harmful medications from Internet pharmacies, the USP offers two suggestions: 1) make sure that online pharmacy you are considering requires a valid prescription from your doctor before it will dispense medication. 2) check if online pharmacy is a licensed pharmacy in your state or that it is licensed to deliver medications to residents of your state.
In 1904, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP, www.nabp.net) was established for the purpose of assisting state licensing boards with the development, implementation, and enforcement of consistent standards for pharmacies. The NABP is comprised of the pharmacy boards from:
* 50 U.S. states
* District of Columbia
* 3 U.S. territories
* 9 Canadian provinces
* 4 Australian states
In 1999 the NABP started a voluntary certification program known as the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites or VIPPS. To be certified by VIPPS, online pharmacies must comply with the licensing and inspection requirements of their state and also each state to which they dispense medications, meet established pharmacy practice criteria, and must have undergone a site visit by a certification team. A VIPPS pharmacy site is recognizable by the VIPPS hyperlinked seal which is displayed on its website. By clicking on the seal you will be taken to the NABP VIPPS site where there exists verified information about the pharmacy. A search for a VIPPS Internet pharmacy can be done at the VIPPS site at www.vipps.info or www.nabp.net too.
In the US the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) police the industry although the very nature of the internet makes this a difficult task. You can get more information by reading FDA’s “Buying Prescription Medicine Online: A Consumer Safety Guide” at http://www.fda.gov/buyonlineguide/.
You can also check if online pharmacy has certifications from one of following organizations: National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA, www.nacpanet.org), PharmacyChecker (www.pharmacychecker.com) and Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA, www.ciparx.ca) for Canadian pharmacies.
Importing prescription medication into the U.S., even for personal use, is technically illegal, except for drugs that are not available or approved in the U.S. but have nonetheless helped people with serious conditions.
In practice, however, Americans who import medicine for private use by either taking it across the border or having it mailed to them are not typically prevented from doing so. More specifically, the FDA recognizes that the task of monitoring all drug imports is more than it can handle and offers guidelines for its government officials to use “discretion” in allowing imports. In accordance with these guidelines and those relating to purchasing drugs online, imports are usually allowed if the shipment 1) is for personal use only, 2) does not exceed a 90-day supply, and 3) does not include controlled substances. For detailed information on this policy see the FDA Coverage of Personal Importations policy at http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/rpm_new2/ch9pers.html.
While an online pharmacy is not a replacement for your health professional for consultation and advice, they are undoubtedly a useful addition to the medical treatment armory at your service available 24 hours a day 365 days of the year. Save time and money on your prescriptions by using this price comparison engine like HealthPricer. It will do most of digging for you to find discounted drugs from reliable online pharmacies.
