Purchasing from Your Physician Could Cost Big Bucks

A new article published in the New York Times is shining light on another extra expense you may be subjected to.

Purchasing your medications directly from your physician means you could pay almost 10 times as much. The article uses Zantac as a clear example.  If the patient takes the prescription to their local pharmacy they will pay on average 35 cents per pill. If the same patient purchases the drug from their physician the cost skyrockets to $3.24 a pill. This cost is forwarded onto insurance companies.

Barry Meier and Katie Thomas report that “experts say that doctors, middlemen and drug distributors are adding hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the costs borne by taxpayers, insurance companies and employers through the practice of physician dispensing.”

Much more information can be found in the original article and we encourage you to stay informed.

Have you been given the option to purchase medications from your doctor’s office? Did you notice a mark-up?

 

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Generic Drugs Will Be Available Sooner

A new article from Smart Money reports that the Supreme Court has ruled that drug patents will undergo a new patent process. This will require patents to be made available sooner so that generic versions of brand name drugs can be brought to market sooner.

As reported in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday April 17 “generic-drug companies, can file certain legal counterclaims against brand-drug companies in an effort to get their cheaper copycat medicines on the market.”

It is estimated that generic drugs cost only 10% of their brand name counterparts so making them available to consumers quicker will immensely help with those struggling to afford their medications as well as lower insurance and Medicare costs.

Do you have any medicines where a generic is not available? What is the most you currently pay for a medication?

Cost of Brand Name Drugs Rises, As Generic Remains Same

In a new report by AARP, it was found that “even with substantial decreases in the prices of generic drugs, the average annual cost of drug therapy continued to rise.” The latest article detailing these findings reports that cost of brand name drugs is continuing to rise despite the general inflation rate of -0.3 percent.

Over 500 medications were evaluated and the majority of them are most used by Medicare beneficiaries. AARP reports that from 2004 through 2009 the retail cost of brand name prescription drugs rose by 25.6 percent, while the generic versions of the same medicine only rose 13.3 percent.

Have you seen an increase in your prescription costs? Have you considered moving to the generic alternative?

Check out AARP’s latest Rx Price Watch Report

How Health Literate Are You?

A recent blog post by Chris Flemming is drawing attention to how little most Americans understand about their health conditions. The federal government is behind a new push to rectify the problem. The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department has launched three new initiatives to make gaining access to this information easier for the general public. The Affordable Care Act, National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, and the Plain Writing Act of 2010 are all designed to do just that.

Flemming points out that if a patient does not understand their condition, prescription, or care instructions they can fall victim to unnecessary hospital or emergency room visits, as well as inadequate  “overall health status.”

To find out more about these initiatives please see Howard Koh’s original article.

How often do  you lave the doctor’s office without fully understanding what the outcome was? Do you find it is easy to get the answers you need?