Last week’s front page Journal article regarding pharmacy drug pricing was based on an experience I had on May 10, 2015 at our local drug store. Unfortunately the article left out many relevant facts.
I went to pick up a prescription for 20 pills and was informed that my insurance company would only allow nine pills to be sold with a co-pay of $68. I expressed disbelief at the elevated cost when the pharmacist told me I could pay the pharmacy’s cash price of $20.00 and get the entire 20 pills. I was further amazed when the pharmacist added that if my insurance company had allowed me to purchase the 20 pills the co-pay would have been around $400.
After 2 weeks of in- person, telephone and online investigation I discovered that drug prices were all over the board depending on whether: a) one paid the pharmacy directly instead of using one’s co-pay, and b) where the drugs were bought. In this case the cash price for the prescription varied from $112.00 at Safeway, to $89.99 at Walgreens, to $3.20 at Costco. All these stores were in Anacortes or Burlington.
I even called the State and talked to a “pharmacy investigator” who confirmed there was no oversight mechanism for the establishment of drug prices in Washington. They were sorry, but there was nothing they could do.
None of this was mentioned in the Journal’s article.
As far as customers not reaching their deductible limit by paying the pharmacies directly, experts indicate most deductibles are reached when a person is admitted to a hospital, not through the purchase of drugs. In fact prescription drugs only make up 10 percent of health care costs according to Aetna Insurance.
So, make sure you always ask for a comparative cash price before running a prescription through ones co-pay, sometimes you may be pleasantly surprised, as I was. To their credit the sign in the pharmacy alerting customers to ask for the cash price first was installed after I brought these issues to the attention of the President of Friday Harbor Drug’s parent company.
Marc Forlenza
San Juan Island
