Do the "contraindication two-step."

No, it's not a dance, but it is a routine that you will want to learn, because it can potentially save your life--and save you money at the same time. Step One is understanding a very important fact about the prescription medications that you take. When your doctor examines you, diagnoses a medical condition that needs treatment and writes a prescription for a specific medication, it is absolutely critical that the doctor be aware of all the other prescription medications that you are already taking. (That's why doctors always ask you to bring along to your appointment a list of such current medications.) The reason is that some prescription medications are contra-indicated in combination with certain others--meaning that they are actually dangerous when taken together with those certain other specific prescription medications! For example, if your doctor decides to give you a prescription for medication A, but sees that you are currently taking medication B and knows that A is contra-indicated with B, he will instead give you a prescription for medication C. Otherwise, the interaction of A and B in your body could be serious and even dangerous. So you can see how important it is for your doctor to be fully aware of all the medications you are currently taking. The same is true of where you are having your prescriptions filled. Pharmacists are trained to check carefully for contra-indications, but if you are using more than one pharmacy be sure that all have a complete list of the prescription medications you are taking. Step Two of our "dance two-step" is also very helpful. Before every visit to your pharmacy -- whether to have a prescription filled or to purchase any over-the-counter health care product, visit the website MyRxCoupons.com to see if there is a free money-saving coupon that you can print from your computer to take to the pharmacy (with the prescription if applicable) and enjoy a lower cost. It's the smart way that millions of Americans are savings hundreds, even thousands, of dollars a year on their families' health care costs.