The pharmacist likely has a contract with the PBM that bars them from discussing cash prices with people who are covered by insurance. If the PBM finds out the

The pharmacist likely has a contract with the PBM that bars them from discussing cash prices with people who are covered by insurance. If the PBM finds out the pharmacy is circumventing them, they can void their contract which will likely put the pharmacy out of business. It's likely that the pharmacy also got screwed by this transaction as the amounts that PBMs clawback are significant for most generic drugs. At our medical clinic, doctors review first line and second line drugs whenever they are prescribing. Along with this they discuss the cash prices based off of goodrx.com, but we're looking into commercial drug databases as well for more detailed pricing. (if you're looking for an open source project to start, create a drug interaction database as all of them are commercial and ludicrously expensive) About a quarter of prescriptions are cheaper if you pay in cash rather than use insurance. If I were in your shoes, I would have taken the prescription to another pharmacy and asked for their cash price.