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To the editor: The recent closing of the Borders bookstore has me
wondering what the citizens of Logan County would think if they lost
the services of their local pharmacists. The possibility is real.
The similarities in what shut down Borders and the economic
pressures facing retail pharmacies are quite striking, except for
one thing: Books are a commodity; drugs purchased at a pharmacy and
the services provided by a pharmacist are not.
Those warehouse-like mail-order operations are huge profit
centers for these companies. Oh sure, they will "allow" local
pharmacies to fill your immediate needs like antibiotics and
diarrhea medicine. The problem is, neither an independent pharmacy
nor any chain pharmacy could stay in business with those few
prescriptions. If the mail-order pharmacy trends continue unchecked,
the days of having a trusted pharmacist to ask if this medication is
right for you will come to an end.
What does this do to the local economy? Large companies that
depend on local commerce for their very survival seem to have no
problem sending millions of their dollars out of state each year for
mail-order pharmacy services. City, county and state governments do
the same thing, with your tax dollars being shipped out of state.
This makes about as much sense as the unemployed factory worker
hoping to get a local manufacturing job spending his unemployment
check at Walmart on a kitchen table made in China.
It would be one thing if the drugs purchased via PBM-owned mail
order actually reduced or even contained an employer's drug cost,
but they don't. Virtually every CEO I have spoken to has not seen
their company drug bill decrease -- ever -- in spite of the fact
that more drugs have gone generic in the last five years than ever.
[to top of second column in this letter] |
As a pharmacy, we have seen our sales decrease in the past five
years due to increased generics available for the same amount and
type of prescriptions filled. The problem is, the PBMs are retaining
those savings at the employer's expense to fatten the bottom line.
It's simple: They pay the pharmacy $17, then turn around and bill
the employer as much as $217 and keep the difference.
So what can you do to save money and support the local economy?
First, be sure you have a relationship with your local pharmacist.
He knows the most about you and your medication. Second, ask him if
the drug (with no generic available) you are spending your $40
mail-order copay on for a three-month supply has a similar drug
available in a generic. Then fill it at his store.
It may cost you three $10 copays to do it, but you are still
saving $10, and you are creating local jobs.
Don't forget, that mail-order house didn't try to help you. The
local pharmacist took the time. If you send that generic off to be
filled by mail, your local pharmacist might not be there next year.
Today it is Borders; who will it be tomorrow?
Bruce Stacy
Lincoln
[Posted
August 24, 2011]
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