Formulary

When dealing with insurance, you are bound to come across the term formulary. This refers to the prescription drugs approved for use for that particular benefit plan.

I recommend: To see what a formulary list looks like, visit Noridian Mutual Insurance Company for a PDF list.

Copay

This is the term that is probably heard most frequently at a pharmacy. Customers want to know what their copay is. A copay, which is short for copayment, is what the insured person is expected to pay for his or her prescription medication.

I recommend: There is a more technical definition of copay at Investopedia.

Drug groups

Patients may ask what drug group a certain medication belongs to; what they want to know is what category, based on the body's reaction to the drug, is the drug itself in. Two examples of drug groups are diuretics and bronchiodialators.

I recommend: For more details on what constitutes a drug group, visit Merck & Co.

Generic substitution

If you see a prescription on which the doctor has indicated a generic substitution is acceptable, you may wonder what that means. A generic version of a drug has the same chemical makeup and performs the same, but it costs less.

I recommend: To read more on generic substitution or learn about the controversy that surrounds it, visit Epilepsy.com.

Over-the-counter

Any drug that is considered over-the-counter, or OTC, is available without a prescription and is normally not covered under pharmacy benefit plans.

I recommend: If you would like to see all of the drugs that make up the over-the-counter category, you can find a list at PDRHealth.

Tier

A prescription tier is a categorization of drugs, with each tier representing a certain cost. Some tiers, such as Preferred, contain drugs that have a higher cost than drugs in the tier Generic.

I recommend: There is a free listing of medications that belong to various drug tiers at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.