REDUCING COSTS AT THE PHARMACY
Filed Under Medication Costs |
The pharmacy is another crucial factor in your drug expenses. For the most part, the pharmacist no longer weighs and measures individual chemical formulations. Much of the activity in the pharmacy consists of relabeling and dispensing manufactured medication. Medication is thus usually identical at different pharmacies; you should choose the least expensive and the most convenient. Comparison shop. Often discount stores will offer the same medication at significantly lower prices. 1£ a considerable sum of money is involved, you should compare prices by telephone before purchase. If a pharmacy won’t give you price information over the phone, don’t go to it.
Unfortunately, even though your physician writes a prescription by “generic” name rather than brand name, the pharmacist is not required to give you the cheapest of the equivalent alternatives. Often, the pharmacy will stock only one manufacturer’s formulation of each drug. Thus, even though your physician has been careful to allow the pharmacist to substitute a less expensive preparation, the pharmacist may not do so because only a more expensive alternative is in stock. There is no way to detect this problem except to get direct price quotes from different pharmacies.
The majority of pharmacies charge a percentage markup. Their pricing is determined by the wholesale price, multiplied by a fixed profit figure. A sliding scale may be used, but profit is largest on the largest sales. Other pharmacies work on a specific charge per prescription. These pharmacies take the wholesale price and add a constant fee. With a small drug bill, you will be better with the percentage mark-up formulas. If you are buying a significant quantity of expensive medication, application of the one-time fixed charge may be less costly. Knowledge of these problems and aggressive comparison shopping is essential for the consumer to control costs.