|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
 |
Drug Discount Cards Give the Elderly Small Savings
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 — Federal investigators said today that drug discount cards of the type proposed by President Bush had not significantly cut costs for elderly consumers buying brand-name medicines in metropolitan areas, where savings averaged less than 10 percent of retail prices. The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, collected information on the prices available to elderly Medicare beneficiaries with drug discount cards and the prices charged to those who simply walked into retail pharmacies without such cards. For people using discount cards, it said, the average price for 12 of the most widely used brand-name drugs was $62.94, which is 8.2 percent less than the average of $68.58 charged at retail pharmacies in Chicago, Seattle and Washington. In July, President Bush announced a plan to offer drug discount cards to elderly Americans as an interim step while Congress debated Medicare coverage of prescription drugs. The administration said that card users could "get discounts of about 10 percent to 25 percent off retail prices." William A. Pierce, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said today that officials still wanted to go ahead with the president's plan. "We believe that some discounts are better than no discount," Mr. Pierce said. "We also believe that Medicare would have greater market power than the existing voluntary drug card programs and therefore could get larger discounts from manufacturers." The new findings, though not a surprise, will be useful in the debate over Medicare drug benefits because the government does not have reliable, detailed data comparing the prices actually paid by elderly people for specific drugs. The administration is revising its plan because a federal judge ruled that the president apparently lacked legal authority for the original version. The accounting office collected 493 price quotations, showing charges for 17 drugs (12 brand-name products and 5 generic drugs) bought from 29 sources (5 discount card programs, 19 drugstores and 5 Internet pharmacies). In some cases, the accounting office found that people using discount cards paid more for a drug than consumers without cards. The average price for Prilosec, a top-selling drug for heartburn and ulcers, was $115.79 for people using discount cards, but at some pharmacies it was available for as little as $110.69. Norvasc, a blood pressure medication, cost an average of $39.88 for elderly people using discount cards marketed by private companies. But without such cards, elderly people could obtain the drug for less than $37 at some retail pharmacies. At one of the Seattle drugstores checked by the General Accounting Office, elderly people were able to buy the 12 popular brand-name drugs for an average of $61.17 for each prescription, about 3 percent less than they would have paid with discount cards. The discount cards produced more substantial savings, averaging 12.8 percent, at five drugstores in rural Georgia. People using the cards also got significant savings, in percentage terms, on generic drugs, which are chemically equivalent to brand- name medications. But generic drug prices were lower to begin with, so elderly people saved only a few dollars on each prescription by using the cards. The study said the cards reduced the average price for a generic drug by 36.8 percent, to $5.69, from the $9 charged to people without cards. Large buyers of prescription drugs, including hospitals, health maintenance organizations and employer-sponsored health plans, often get sizable discounts on brand-name drugs because they can deliver large amounts of business and can pressure doctors to prescribe one drug rather than another sold by a competing company. Medicare generally does not pay for prescription drugs used outside the hospital, and the government says that 27 percent of the 40 million Medicare beneficiaries have no insurance for such costs. Administration officials said this group had the most to gain from using the cards. But under Mr. Bush's proposal, it is not clear whether the managers of drug discount programs or Medicare officials could influence doctors' prescribing habits. Moreover, health policy experts said, even if the issuers of discount cards did persuade doctors to switch drugs, the companies would not have to share the savings with patients. The accounting office study was requested by six Democratic House members: John D. Dingell of Michigan, Henry A. Waxman and Pete Stark of California, Charles B. Rangel of New York, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Mike Ross of Arkansas. In a letter to Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, they urged the administration to require drug companies to provide meaningful discounts and said "drug discount cards do not provide prices that are significantly lower than those already available to seniors." |
