Someone I know was tooting the horn of this opportunity to save $$$ on drug costs. From simple things like a statin for high blood pressure to meds for depression to meds for disease.
Just curious…anyone here use? Pros/Cons?
I just haven’t heard about it before.
I read about this, and think it can be a real game changer for people with terrible (or no) rx plans. I plugged in the meds that my family needs (nothing out there or unusual) and the prices were the same as at our local pharmacy (but we happen to have great rx coverage with our insurance).
Edited to add: I just checked one more (Acyclovir) and the price differential is significant from what we currently pay.
The WSJ had an article on this recently, considering the savings to Medicare. The issue I see is getting seniors to use Mail Order over their local retail pharmacy. (Yes, I get that USPS doesn’t have the best track record but then many retail places have limited supplies and sometimes can’t even fill a 30-day script in full.)
Don’t hold me to percentages but drug prices are in control of about three middle-men companies (around 70 percent control) that dictate drug pricing through insurance contracts with companies including Medicare. Medicare is just a huge insurance program. Depending on your insurance (not drug price) your cost will wildly vary. Any drug given cheaply through Medicare costs that much more through another avenue (no such thing as a free lunch).
It’s one of the reasons that companies like Good RX can give you a better price (just another contract price) than your own insurance company. You can check out Good RX (as an example but know they sell your data–it’s not HiPAA protected).
There are other avenues to cut costs–many pharmacies have “specialty pharmacies” which give discount pricing for high price drugs. Not advertised but usually known to oncologists whose patients have really high priced prescriptions for example. The drug companies have programs that will offer discounts to patients in need of their medication.
I’m not discounting Mark Cuban’s pharmacy but I think it’s very short sighted as to the mess the present system is in. I think it highlights some of the problems of the present system (a good thing) but won’t fix anything long term.
I have to deal with CVS Specialty pharmacy every three months, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. And remains so every three months. It’s like reinventing the wheel each time.
No surprise that prescription drugs are yet another market in the US that has trended away from competition into oligopoly.
I recommend GoodRX all the time to my patients. There was a med that was like $150 but with it was $25.00.
I think that’s what my wife uses - she was mentioning how much cheaper it is than the local drugstore/pharmacy (and we have very solid insurance plan). Anybody taking a lot of regular medications might want to check it out.
If you want to check GoodRx prices out look at the website. The prices vary by the drugstore also.
We use the mail order pharmacy already (but I guess I’m not a typical senior in terms of tech literacy). However, much bigger savings would come if Congress ever allows Medicare to negotiate directly with pharma companies (as is done in every other developed country). Not holding my breath.
For many years our prescription coverage required mail order for most regular / long term meds. It was a pain at first, but as the doctors got on board and websites improved not as bad. I think my Dad and his wife do mail order too, but via paper forms not computer.
One positive development that CostPlusDrugs (CPDC) has brought is that more people are realizing they should be price comparing/shopping across different companies. CPDC in general has similar pricing to its competitors like GoodRx, DiRx, et al.
CPDC only deals with generic drugs right now and is cash pay only (does not accept insurance). Many many pharmacies (especially mom and pops) already give steep discounts if one is paying in cash (not using insurance), and with free delivery (CPDC charges for delivery on top of the drug cost you see).
Because CPDC only deals with generic drugs, in the big picture, system wide healthcare cost savings will be limited. Even though generics account for around 90% of Rx volume, they only account for about 18% of the costs. Said differently, 10% of prescriptions account for around 80% of the total drug cost. And, prescription drugs are only about 14% of total healthcare spend in our incredibly complicated system.
With that said, as others have mentioned above, Medicare would save billions if they used CPDC or any of its competitors…hopefully we see that happen at some point.
Interview today. Pretty interesting.