According to one survey, 31.2% of people said that they have bought medication online. If you’re thinking about different options for medicines, you’re not alone.
But how do you purchase medicines online while also making sure that you’re safe? Thankfully, there are a few strategies you can use to ensure your safety.
Keep reading for the best drug shopping strategy you should use when shopping online.
Check Legality
The first thing you should do is to make sure that it’s legal to buy from that place. Most of them are legal as long as you and the pharmacy follow certain rules.
The legality also might depend on where you are located, where your pharmacy is located, and whether or not you need a prescription for the medication.
So before you start shopping, make sure you read up on some of the rules first.
Look for Contact Options
When you are searching for good websites, make sure you check to see if there is an option to contact them. You want a pharmacy that is going to be there if anything goes wrong.
You should look at their contact page and make sure that they have more than an email address listed. If they don’t, then you should keep searching for another pharmacy.
A good, safe online pharmacy will have a physical location that patients can visit if they’re in the area. They will also disclose the address online.
There should also be a phone number that you can call in case you have any questions about your prescription or want to talk to an actual pharmacist before filling your order.
See if they have credentials of the employees as well. Do they have actually pharmacists on there? If they don’t, you may want to find a new pharmacy.
Compare Prices
You should also do your homework before filling a prescription at a pharmacy and start comparing medicine prices.
With online pharmacies, you risk paying a lot of shipping and delivery fees, even if the medication appears cheap at first.
It’s always a good decision to compare prices at different pharmacies, and there are even different tools out there to help you do that. You can also figure out if you can find different pharmacies that offer free delivery.
Know Which Pharmacy to Choose
If you are interested in buying from an online pharmacy, you’ll need to know which pharmacies are safe to use.
A safe online pharmacy will require a valid prescription and also take the time to validate it.
They will also have licensure by a state agency or a state board of pharmacy. They should have this verification on their website, but if they don’t, you can also check with the state board of pharmacy yourself.
They should also have a pharmacist who is licensed in the United States. This pharmacist should be easy to contact and readily available to answer your questions.
They should also be based in the United States (if that’s where you live) and also provide a physical address to a pharmacy you can visit in person.
You should also make sure that these pharmacies have a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites Seal. This is also known as the VIPPS Seal, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy gives it out.
This seal means that this Internet pharmacy is verified and that they meet all the licensure requirements. With this seal on their website, you can be sure that it is most likely a safe pharmacy to use.
Never Offer Too Much Personal Information
When you’re working with different pharmacies, make sure that you never put information that is too personal into their pharmacies.
No pharmacy should ever ask for your social security number. Some pharmacies will try and use it to verify your identification, but you should stay away from them.
Your insurance company and primary care doctor can have this information, but you shouldn’t give it to an online pharmacy. A pharmacy should only require your prescription and be able to have all of the personal information that they would need.
The pharmacy just needs to know that the prescription is legit and from an actual doctor.
When you check out, the only information the pharmacy should be asking for is your credit card information and your shipping address. Don’t put in any banking information, security questions, or a driver’s license number.
The pharmacy could end up stealing your information to end up stealing your identity.
Check for Generic Options
When in doubt, you should check for generic options to see if you can save a little bit of money. These generic options have the exact same ingredients as the name-brand drugs, but since they don’t have the name-brand, they are generally much cheaper.
However, there aren’t always generic drugs available for popular medications. They should be regulated and approved by the government, otherwise, you may not be buying a drug that is very safe.
You can do a quick Internet search and find reliable sources to see if it’s okay whether or not to buy that generic version. You should also try and contact a pharmacist to ask them what their recommendation is.
Learn More About How to Purchase Medicines Online
These are only a few things to know about how to purchase medicines online, but there are many other strategies to use.
With medications becoming more and more expensive, there will be more online pharmacies that pop up.
If you’re interested in more medical-related topics, check out our website to find even more great content!
