Did You Know That You Can Lock In The Price Of Drugs?

Post by **tex** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 2:43 pm

I didn't either. But today when I went to refill my scripts, the first thing I did was to ask if the price of Metanx (a prescription blend of the active forms of vitamins B-12, B-9, and B-6) was up again this month. For some unknown reason, its price has been increasing significantly every month, for the last several months. I mentioned that if the price was up significantly again, I planned to just quit using the prescription version, and make up my own mix by buying the individual vitamins (in their active forms). It's rather inconvenient to have to take 4 or 5 capsules or tablets in place of one, but I can buy the stuff I need from Amazon for about a third of the cost of the Metanx, at the current price.

Sure enough, the price was up again, (Nancy, it was the same price that your pharmacist had quoted you) but before I could tell them to hold the Metanx, the pharmacist offered to lock in the price at last month's level.

Apparently he had plenty on hand, that he had bought at a much lower level, and he would rather make less of a windfall than to lose some sales.

So, I figured that was fair enough, and I fell for the deal.

Bargaining for prices seems to be emerging more and more, as time goes by, especially during difficult economic times. Is this country slowly turning into Mexico? Texas seems to be headed that way, at least.

Tex

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 7:49 pm

I wonder if that would work at one of the big chains? Since I moved I'm going to change my drug store but I don't think there is much difference between Walgreens and CVS. There are very few Mom and Pop drug stores here.

Moving sure isn't good for MC and I don't plan on doing it again. After 2 weeks I'm finally starting to get back to "normal", whatever that is.

Sheila W

Christine. · Post by **Christine.** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:00 pm

Good question Sheila. I go to either of the 2 big chains you mentioned. If they are now bargaining I have a feeling that they are getting pressure from the mail order pharmacies like Express Scripts. My 3 regular prescriptions are filled 3 months at a time with significantly less co-pay than the local pharmacies.
Christine

Post by **tex** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:14 pm

Sheila,

I use a small grocery store chain that has a pharmacy built into most (maybe all) of their stores. There are at least 70 stores in the chain, located in Texas and Louisiana. I'm sure that whether or not a pharmacist can do this depends on how much authority the corporate managers allow their store managers.

It's good to see you posting again, and I'm glad that you're starting to get back to "normal".

Tex

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Sat Dec 29, 2012 10:26 am

My experience with
Walgreens is that they will negotiate pricing. If I don't press they keep wanting to increase pricing. Brandy

DebE13 · Post by **DebE13** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:04 pm

Brandy, do you know if that applies to the insurance portion too? I pay the same $5 copay for entorcort but my insurance picks up the $1200+ dollars. It still coming out of my pocket because our insurance premiums keep increasing each year at a ridiculous rate.

Post by **tex** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:32 pm

DebE,

I doubt that a customer can negotiate any costs paid by the insurance companies (the insurance companies already negotiate their costs). The potential for windfall profits on drugs was the main reason why Big Pharma was willing to endorse the so-called "Health Care Reform Bill" in the first place. Since that bill was passed, the cost of quite a few drugs have increased dramatically, and there's no reason why it won't continue, because there's nothing in the bill to limit costs — the primary goal was to force insurance coverage for more people. Unfortunately, someone has to pay for all that, and you know whose shoulders that falls on.

Tex