Your NC HealthSmart Personal Health Portal has been enhanced with new features to help you achieve your health and wellness goals.

 

Login today, take the Health Assessment and receive a health action plan. Through the portal, you can also explore condition centers, like back pain or diabetes; learn about lifestyle programs, such as ways to improve your nutrition; keep track of your current medications and allergies, and more.

Effective September 1, there will be changes to all tiers of prescription copays except specialty. To ensure members have affordable prescription options, the Plan continues to offer low cost generic copays. Generic medications are drugs that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are safe and effective alternatives to brand name drugs.

The Plan routinely updates the Preferred Drug List, which is a list of preferred generic and brand name medications to promote clinically appropriate utilization of pharmaceuticals in a cost-effective manner.

You can talk to your provider to see if a generic medication is appropriate for you. To find out if the medication you're taking has a generic equivalent or alternative, go to My Rx Choices or contact Medco Member Services at 1-800-336-5933.

Click here for full article and copay changes.

Generic equivalents for the drug products listed in the attached chart are now available. The generic products are available at the lowest copay tier for a 30-day supply. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires generic drugs to have the same quality, strength, purity and stability as brand name counterparts. You can talk to your provider to see if a generic medication is appropriate for you.

Once a generic is available for a brand name medication, and you choose the brand product, you will be responsible for the generic copay plus the difference in cost between the brand and generic medication.

You can visit the State Health Plan website Pharmacy section on generics to learn more about saving with generic medications.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of September 1, the generic copay will be $12 for a 30-day supply.

Click here for full article and generic medications chart.

Beginning September 1, 2011, Medco.com will launch a newly designed and enhanced "Price a Medication" feature on its website. You will now be able to:

• Search for medication pricing by drug name for yourself or a family member
• View the past 10 searches by patient
• View alerts for important coverage information
• View pricing at specific pharmacies or compare prices between pharmacies. Please note: This function may not be available for all medications.

Go to your State Health Plan Medco.com site to complete your one-time registration or access your Medco.com account. You will need your State Health Plan ID card and a recent prescription number. For questions, contact Medco Customer Service at 1-800-336-5933.