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New York Press Releases
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(NewYork.CityRegions.Com, November 26, 2012 ) New York, NY -- Consumers may be overpaying, as some drug prices turned out to be 30 to 35 times wholesale cost according to a Colorado Public News survey of cash prescription prices across Colorado.
According to the 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey, 22% of uninsured Coloradans are risking their health by skipping prescriptions because they are too expensive.
Some huge price differentials were found by the survey of prices of the five top-grossing drugs at dozens of pharmacies around the state. Generic Plavix, for example, a blood thinner used by stroke and heart patients, is being sold at many of the state’s largest pharmacies for 30 to 35 times wholesale cost.
In contrast, pharmacist and owner at Alamosa Pharmacy, Polo Martinez, said he buys a one month supply of generic Plavix, or clopidogrel, for the wholesale price of $4.35 and then sells it to customers paying cash for $19.35. At Safeway, Walgreens, Target, Albertsons and RiteAid the price for the same drug currently ranges from $150 to $175. Walmart and King Soopers/City Market were closer to $50 per drug.
“I think we’ve gone from the Ice Age to the greed age,” Martinez said. He rattled off other prices that baffle him, including a diet pill that jumped from $1.29 to $50 per prescription in cost to his pharmacy, and a drug used to treat gout that leaped from $6 to $300 a month. “It’s crazy. It’s outrageous. I don’t understand.”
Inquiries about why their generic Plavix prices were at such as a high price, were not responded to by Target officials. Prices “are based on local competition” at Safeway, said spokesman Kristine Staaf. Spokesman Robert Elfinger said that Walgreens has a $20 annual membership card that drops the price of generic Plavix to around $50 per month. Prices are affected by local competition and the higher cost of the convenience of Walgreens’ locations, hours and services, according to Elfinger. Eric Harkreader, RiteAid spokesman, said his company is just trying to compete and would evaluate its price on generic Plavix in the upcoming weeks.
Consumers could cut their cost of medications substantially by shopping around according to Colorado Public News. Asking for price matches, finding coupons online, and asking their doctors for less expensive prescriptions can also help customers save. Many widely used prescription medications are coming off patents as well, and large numbers of patients have not yet started saving hundreds of dollars per month due to switching to generic versions of the drugs.
If they are uninsured or their insurance doesn’t cover drugs people pay the cash price for prescriptions. Insurance companies refuse to reveal varying prescription prices for their clients. But those who are insured can cut their costs with these new strategies.
However, there is a problem with price shopping now. “There are dangerous pharmaceutical drug interactions between some medications, so a person should go to the same pharmacy, so the pharmacist can be aware of possible drug interactions,” said executive director of the Colorado Pharmacists Society, Val Kalnins.
After originally finding that prices for the top-selling anti-cholesterol drug did not drop as expected when the drug went generic Colorado Public News embarked on the survey . As found in a January story, the prices for generic Lipitor varied by over $100 per month at different pharmacies around the entire state.
CPN found, after expanding the survey, that the widest price variation in the other popular drug that had recently gone generic, Plavix. Prices for the other three top selling drugs differed by a lot, $41 to $113, each month. These top three “other top sellers” included Nexium for gastrointestinal acid reflux, Abilify, an antipsychotic that is used for major mental health issues, and Advair, an asthma inhaler.
Other key findings include:
Some chains offer generic drug brands for $4, but that is not all generics. Some of their other prices can actually be very high. People need to check the price of each prescription at all different locations.
What is not important is pharmacy size and location. At $13.87 online or in stores, members-only big-box Costco had the lowest price in the state for generic Plavix. The next best were found in independent pharmacies: Coming in at under $30, Alamosa Pharmacy was at $19.35 and Hays Drug in Paonia was also under $30.
Coupons: A surprising number of coupons for prescriptions online can be found by consumers. The generic Plavix at King Soopers and City Market was cut from $57-$71 to $15.56.
Price matching can be requested by consumers. Costco’s low price is easily found on the Internet, and can be used at stores like Safeway, King Soopers/City Market, Walmart, and Target that promise to price match stores with other stores in the area.
The major chains with the highest prices don’t list them online, and instead make them secret. With consistently low prices, Costco does. Vic Curtis, the company’s senior vice president for pharmacy, said that the low prices used to be normal. Costco publishes their prices because it draws customers to locations that are less convenient than the others. $55 is the basic membership fee to shop at Costco every year. “The focus of the company is to have the best value on whatever we sell,” said Curtis.
The website Goodrx.com collects what few published prices, which includes coupon prices, it can find, claiming it can even beat some insurance policy prices.
It can be risky to order online from unknown sites: Counterfeit drugs, which can damage health, may be sold by fake online pharmacies. “Canadian” pharmacies may send drugs from places with questionable quality instead of from Canada. It was found by The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy that only 3% of 10,000 online pharmacy websites are compliant with the law.
If asked, Doctors and pharmacists will help: Physicians can prescribe a less expensive medication a lot of the time. Physicians and pharmacists also know about special offers, including the Prescription Assistance program as well as the Medication Assistance program said Sarah L. Anderson, University of Colorado pharmacy professor. “The person is left to pay for them on their own,” as MAP is solely for people with low incomes and after two years it stops.
The pharmacy school, and many pharmacists, offer a “brown bag review,” says Anderson, where patients bring all of their prescriptions in for review a lot of times in a classic brown paper bag. The drugs are sorted through after customers dump out all of their pill bottles. “Pharmacists and pharmacy students will check all of the prescriptions the patients are taking,” said Anderson. “They make sure the patients are taking prescriptions correctly, paying the right prices.”
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