Arthritis can be incredibly expensive to manage with some forms of the condition more expensive than others. There are still strategies you can use to lower your costs, even if you have a type of arthritis that is costly to treat. Find out how to save money on arthritis treatments.
Medications
Be aware of medication costs. Talk to your doctor about the medications they prescribe. Is there a generic version? Is the generic cheaper? What medication does your insurance cover at a higher percentage, and is that drug a good option for you? Can your provider enroll you in a drug copay program to lower your out-of-pocket costs? Some pharmacies can also enroll people in these types of programs.
At times, a brand-name medication may be cheaper than a generic due to insurance coverage, copay assistance, or other factors. Always price check both the generic and the brand name drug. Another factor that can influence pricing, even in generics is combination drugs. We found a combination generic of tramadol and acetaminophen was $106 before insurance at CVS. Tramadol alone was a $4 cash price before insurance and a bottle of generic acetaminophen is a few dollars.
For certain oral and topical medications, generics, and in some cases over-the-counter versions may be cheaper. Topical medications like diclofenac are now sold over the counter in the US at a considerably reduced cost. Purchasing over the counter from a reliable international supplier may be another option to keep costs down. Many medications that require a prescription in the US are over the counter in places like Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.
At one point the prescription version of Voltaren topical gel was over $100 before insurance in the US. Meanwhile, the exact same brand name drug was $20 cash at drug stores all over the world, except in the US. If you will be using a medication long-term it is worth the extra time to find the most cost-effective solution.
Medical Care Costs
Do you really need to visit your doctor for your condition more than once a year? Some do, some don’t, but many providers will create reasons to have you back every few months with little benefit to the patient. These pointless visits pad provider profits. If they want you back frequently make them explain why. If they can’t make a compelling case, ask for a longer recheck interval. If your medication or condition requires periodic lab work you may want to consider the cost.
In-house clinic labs typically charge much higher fees than 3rd party walk-in labs. Some of the large walk-in lab companies like Quest and Lab Corp charge considerably less for the same lab test and may be covered by insurance at a higher rate. Some insurance plans pay 100% of lab work at Quest with no deductible. Depending on how much your provider charges for lab tests, it may be cheaper to request those tests without your doctor and pay for them in cash. Both Labcorp and Quest offer some lab tests without a doctor’s order.
If your doctor is requesting repeated scans for an existing problem, you may want to question the necessity of this. Unless there has been a drastic change in your condition or a new concern, extra imaging may not be worth the added cost.
Joint replacements are a significant source of income for hospitals and related rehab care, but 1 in 3 are unnecessary. As more joint replacements are done at younger ages, follow-up surgeries to replace worn-out artificial joints have surged. There are serious questions about doing joint replacements in younger people since most artificial joints only last 20 years, requiring someone to potentially undergo multiple joint replacement surgeries in their lifetime. Each successive joint replacement has more potential for complications and risk of failure.
Supplements
Supplements and vitamins can treat some forms of arthritis or help lower the amount of prescription medication you need. Turmeric and boswellia provide a proven benefit to some arthritis sufferers. Others find fish oil or glucosamine to provide some relief. Even if a supplement doesn’t completely solve symptoms, it may reduce the amount of prescription medication someone needs.
As many prescription drugs for arthritis come with problematic side effects, lowering the amount needed to manage your condition can have major benefits. The Arthritis Foundation has a long list of supplements that may help and have research to confirm their efficacy.
CBD Oil
CBD oil products are touted as a cure-all for everything. They do have some known benefits for arthritis sufferers. Studies showed CBD products provide anti-inflammatory and pain relief properties. For most people, these supplements can be used with existing medications to improve pain and mobility levels. For some with osteoarthritis, they may be able to replace prescription medications with a CBD supplement or topical treatment.
Higher-dose topicals seem to have the best results. We interviewed one patient who was able to replace topical diclofenac with topical CBD and saw better pain and inflammation management with CBD. They no longer have to deal with the significant side effects caused by diclofenac. Doctors may be reluctant to suggest patients use CBD due to it not being an FDA-managed drug, or due to cultural reluctance in the medical community.
You should at a minimum do your own due diligence to assure it won’t cause a drug interaction or make a medical condition you have worse. This is one of our favorite brands of CBD oil and topical treatments. It is widely available at health food stores and online. We also like Charlotte’s Web 750 mg CBD cream.
Exercise & Physical Therapy
The right kinds of exercise can benefit arthritis pain and mobility issues. Some like heated pool exercise therapy, which typically requires going to a gym or therapy facility. Many others can be done at home. If you have the space and the disposable cash, home heated exercise pools are an option. The Arthritis Foundation has some home exercise plans available. Chair yoga could be a good starting point for home exercise that doesn’t require extreme poses or balance. Or expand your yoga routine, this tool will help you find poses to use that won’t exacerbate specific injured joints.
When you need the guidance of a physical therapist, online physical therapy can replace much of the in-person instruction and supervision. Need to support a joint or a muscle injury? Kinesio taping guides can help you DIY a tape application. Resistance bands can be had here, or if you want to wait longer for your bands to arrive, you can pay less here.
Theracanes are frequently dispensed by chiropractors and physical therapists for persistent muscle knots. Learning how to use one properly can make this a great tool for combating muscle knots related to joint and muscle dysfunction. They can be purchased online for about $20, significantly cheaper than what most clinics charge.
TENS units used to be over $800 if dispensed by a doctor or physical therapist. The same quality device can now be had on Amazon for $35, or at most drug stores. If you don’t need physical therapy guidance but want some direction and encouragement, online exercise classes abound and personal trainers have gone online.
Diet & Nutrition
Diet and nutrition can play an outsized role in the pain and mobility levels of arthritis sufferers. Some people benefit from a Mediterranean diet as suggested by the American Arthritis Foundation. Others find improvement with diet changes from functional medicine guidance. Even if you don’t completely adhere to either diet, making some changes in food choices could improve your health and pain levels.
Some people may have intolerances to certain foods that make their pain worse. Eliminating suspect foods for a period of time to see if they were causing a problem can be a valuable tool for pain management. You may want to eliminate a single suspect food as a trial rather than multiple types of food all at once. If you think a specific food item is causing a problem, elimination diets for a single food type can be informative.
Lactose intolerance can develop later in life, coming as a surprise to many that it may be adding to their pain problems. While lactose intolerance mainly causes GI symptoms, it can cause headaches, fatigue, joint pain, and skin issues.
Daily Life Equipment
Proper seating, shoes, braces, and pretty much everything else you interact with in the physical world can improve or worsen arthritis. Taking some time to review how your desk chair, your bed, your shoes, and the ergonomics of your work and living spaces can reveal ways to improve your pain and mobility levels. One patient found that running shoes with a slight heel made their lower back and hip pain worse but flat shoes and negative-heel shoes improved mobility and pain levels. Another found that more heel relieved their hip pain.
A good quality ergonomic chair can be the difference between a good day and a bad day. As more people work from home, the sub-standard desk chair they have at home has become a major source of pain. High-quality ergonomic desk chairs can cost thousands but are frequently designed in ways that cheaper chairs won’t offer. Brands like Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Knoll can be found as refurbished chairs through resellers, office furniture retailers, and places like eBay typically for about $500. These kinds of high-quality chairs frequently show up locally when offices close. Habitat for Humanity, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace can be a good source of brand-name desk chairs, sometimes for a pittance.
Other sources of pain or wear and tear on joints can include kitchen equipment, flooring choices, the furniture you relax on, and where your tv is located.
Braces and assistive devices can be purchased through medical equipment providers affiliated with doctors’ offices but at an incredible markup. Many of these same assistive devices can be bought for a fraction of the price online or through drug stores. Unless the item requires some sort of specialized fitting, see if you can buy that item elsewhere.
Sleep & Mindfulness
Good sleep and mindfulness practices can help lower pain levels and equip people with the needed energy and focus to keep functioning. Mindfulness routines can be anything from a detailed ongoing course to a guided meditation on YouTube. Tai Chi provides mindfulness with exercise. This slow-moving offshoot of martial arts is the right mix of low-impact exercise and meditation.
Sleep can be more elusive. Make sure your bed is not causing you pain that could subtly disrupt sleep or leave you stiff. Removing sleep disruptions can create a significant improvement in sleep quality. Sometimes that disruption is your sleep partner. This is more common than most people realize. Tactics like white noise machines and apps that guide you to sleep can lead to better sleep. A fitness tracker with sleep-tracking capability can help identify the issue if you continue to have sleep problems.
Arthritis can be life-altering. Taking a more hands-on approach to your health can reap considerable improvements over just taking prescribed medications only. Those changes may also help you avoid the need for joint replacement surgery.