How to save on Trelegy Ellipta

If you have asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), you may have been prescribed Trelegy Ellipta (fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol) to help treat your symptoms. This prescription inhaler combines three drugs—one steroid and two bronchodilators—to improve breathing and lung function for 24 hours.

If you don’t have insurance or your plan doesn’t cover Trelegy, you could end up spending a lot of money on this inhaler. Currently, there is no generic form of Trelegy, and prescription costs are typically higher for brand-name drugs. If you’re looking for ways to save money on Trelegy, we have a few tips for cutting back on the cost.

How much does Trelegy cost?

Without health insurance, the typical cash price of Trelegy is about $870 for a 30-day supply contained in a single inhaler. With commercial insurance, Trelegy may be covered by your plan for little or no cost, but it’s plan-dependent. You’ll need to check your benefits to see if Trelegy is covered or whether you need to have a specific diagnosis to receive coverage.

Medicare and Medicaid plans cover Trelegy for asthma or COPD treatment, says Christie Kunde, Pharm.D., of Informed Rx, although prior authorization is usually required. Prior authorization is a process insurance companies use to determine your eligibility for coverage when filling a prescription or receiving a health service. Different states have different requirements for prior authorization, depending on whether or not Trelegy is on their list of preferred medications—drugs the state asks providers to try to prescribe first or instead of other drugs to reduce spending. 

Although Medicaid and Medicare cover Trelegy in most cases, the copay varies by state and plan. According to the manufacturer of Trelegy, GSK, most Medicaid patients will pay between $4 and $9 for a supply of Trelegy, but Medicare copays are harder to predict. GSK states that about 78% of Medicare patients pay less than $50 per month for Trelegy, but the rest pay as much as $182 per month. 

Why is Trelegy so expensive?

According to Christina M. Madison, Pharm.D., founder and CEO of The Public Health Pharmacist, the cash price of Trelegy is high because it’s only available as a brand-name drug and is still under patent protection by GSK.  

Generic drugs are less expensive than brand-name drugs, but when there’s no generic form available, the price of brand-name drugs is often expensive. Dr. Kunde added that the price of Trelegy is also likely influenced by the fact that it’s a combination inhaler with three medications in one.

Can I get Trelegy for free?

You may be able to get Trelegy for free if you have commercial insurance and meet the requirements for GSK’s manufacturer coupon. However, Dr. Kunde noted that this savings program isn’t available for people enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid plans; there are other ways for those patients to save (see below). 

How to save money on Trelegy

Whatever type of insurance coverage you have, you may be able to reduce the amount of money you pay for Trelegy. If you don’t have insurance at all, a prescription discount card like the one offered by SingleCare can help lower your out-of-pocket costs. Here are all the ways to save money on Trelegy.

1. SingleCare Trelegy coupons

If you don’t have insurance coverage, SingleCare can help you save on prescription drug costs with its coupon savings card by allowing you to shop your local pharmacies for the lowest-cost medication. You can choose a pharmacy to fill your prescription based on the cost of the drug using your SingleCare coupons, or you can give your discount card information to your regular pharmacy and ask them to apply it to your prescriptions. 

Using SingleCare coupons, you could get a one-month supply of Trelegy (i.e., 30 doses) for as low as $525 compared with the average retail price of $870. Because SingleCare negotiates with pharmacies to reduce prescription drug costs for consumers, prices vary from one pharmacy to the next. Different drug amounts and formulations may also have different pricing, and sometimes, prices change slightly based on consumer demand.

2. Manufacturer coupons

GSK offers a Trelegy Ellipta coupon to eligible commercially insured patients; if you’re eligible to receive this benefit, you may actually be able to get Trelegy for free (or at a lesser cost than with your insurance copay). The discount varies by insurance plan and is good for 12 months, allowing you to get a new inhaler each month for one year before needing to renew the discount or begin paying your copay for Trelegy.  

3. Mail-order pharmacies

Filling your prescription through a mail-order pharmacy is another cost-saving option if your health insurance plan allows for it, according to Dr. Madison. People can receive up to a three-month supply through a mail-order pharmacy. And in some cases, a three-month supply may be cheaper than a one-month supply from a local pharmacy.

4. GSK Patient Assistance Program

People without any insurance coverage or who are unable to afford the cost of Trelegy Ellipta with their Medicare plan can enroll in the GSK Patient Assistance Program for additional support. There are household income eligibility requirements based on your state of residence that need to be met, however, and GSK doesn’t say what type of assistance is available—or for how much. But, enrollment in the assistance program may help you save on prescription drugs from GSK.

5. Tier exceptions

According to Dr. Kunde, if Trelegy is listed as a preferred drug for your Medicare or Medicaid plan, you can ask for a tier exception to potentially reduce your costs. This could allow you to receive a preferred drug at a lower copay (or, in insurance-speak, at a lower “cost-share” with your insurance plan). 

This doesn’t excuse you from going through the prior authorization process, though. You still have to work with your healthcare provider’s office to show that other lower-tier drugs are not an option for you, and then you can apply for a tier exception to use Trelegy at a lower-tier cost. 

Is there a cheaper alternative to Trelegy?

There are cheaper alternatives to Trelegy, but you would have to work with your healthcare provider to find the right substitutions. Because Trelegy contains three drugs—an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA), and a long-acting beta2-adrenergic agonist (LABA)—you might be able to use two or three separate inhalers to achieve the same combination of drugs, according to Dr. Kunde.

Your healthcare provider is the best person to help you find alternatives to Trelegy that are safe for you. They may also be able to recommend other ways to save money on your Trelegy prescription.