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Bucks Blog: Many Struggling With Prescription Drug Costs

September 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Pills line the shelves of a pharmacy in Los Angeles.ReutersPills line the shelves of a pharmacy in Los Angeles.

While health insurance premiums may be increasing more modestly than they were a year or two ago, consumers who take multiple drugs but lack prescription drug coverage are nearing a “crisis point” because they can’t afford to pay for them, a new report finds.

Consumer Reports’ annual prescription drug poll finds that more Americans who lack a drug benefit are failing to fill prescriptions because of cost. Almost half of Americans (45 percent) under 65 who lack drug coverage failed to fill a prescription because of cost, the report found — up from 27 percent last year.

Those without drug coverage also reported being more likely to cut back on other costs, including groceries, to pay for medications.

Nearly half (46 percent) of American adults take prescription drugs; the average is 4.1 prescriptions. A fourth of those ages 18 to 39 regularly take two prescription drugs, the report noted, suggesting that a reliance on multiple drugs is no longer confined to older Americans.

The poll was conducted in May and June by the Consumer Reports National Research Center using a telephone survey of a total of 1,158 interviews with adults 18 years of age and older. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Consumer Reports suggests saving on drug costs by using $4 generic versions available at many chain drug stores, switching to generics if you haven’t already and even splitting pills “where appropriate.”

Have you skipped a prescription in the last year due to costs?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/many-struggling-with-prescription-drug-costs/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Walgreen Faces Loss of Millions of Pharmacy Customers

December 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Express Scripts and Walgreen have been battling over payment issues for months. Walgreen said Wednesday that it has been unsuccessful at getting most of its customers who have their drug coverage managed by Express Scripts to switch to another pharmacy benefit manager, or P.B.M.

Barring a last-minute agreement, the relationship will end Jan. 1. Customers covered by an Express Scripts prescription plan will then have to switch to another pharmacy or pay higher costs for their drugs if they stay at Walgreen.

“While we remain open to any fair and competitive offer from Express Scripts, we firmly believe that accepting their proposal was not in the best interests of our shareholders,” said Walgreen’s chief executive, Gregory D. Wasson, in a statement. The company said its negotiations with health plans and employers have resulted in retaining just 11.4 percent, or about 10 million, of the 90 million prescriptions managed by Express Scripts that were filled by Walgreen in the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31.

Walgreen, based in Deerfield, Ill., is the nation’s largest pharmacy chain with more than 8,200 locations in the United States. Its retail stores operate under the Walgreens and Duane Reade names.

Walgreen said it expected a negative impact of 21 cents a share in fiscal 2012 from the loss of Express Scripts customers. The company would not release a specific estimate of the lost revenue, but analysts expect more than $4 billion could be at risk, given the retention figures released Wednesday. Walgreen generated $5.3 billion, or 7 percent of its $72 billion in fiscal 2011 revenue, from customers with drug coverage managed by Express Scripts.

Walgreen shares, which fell sharply early on Wednesday, were down about 1.5 percent in midday trading to about $33.

The contract dispute has already had a slight impact on Walgreen earnings.

On Wednesday, Walgreen said higher costs across the company contributed to a 4.5 percent decline in profits to $554 million in the company’s first quarter, ended Nov. 30. Net income rose a penny to 63 cents a share, from 62 cents, in the year-ago quarter, trailing most analysts’ estimates of 67 cents.

Walgreen said its decision not to be a part of Express Scripts pharmacy network cost 1 cent a share in comparable pharmacy sales and 1 cent a share in related expenses. Walgreen said sales rose 4.7 percent to $18.1 billion in the quarter.

Mr. Wasson would not speculate on any additional potential impact to Walgreen should Express Scripts complete its proposed $29 billion acquisition of Medco Health Solutions, another leading pharmacy benefit manager. That deal has raised antitrust concerns among some lawmakers, and the Federal Trade Commission has requested additional information from the companies before deciding whether to approve the combination.

Walgreen said it expected its total prescription volume for fiscal 2012 to dip 1 to 3 percent. That is in contrast to recent annual growth, amid favorable demographics that include an aging population of baby boomers and a rising number of Americans with chronic conditions that require taking medicines every day. Walgreen’s prescription volume rose more than 5 percent in its fiscal 2011 to 819 million prescriptions.

Walgreen has made a major push to get health plans and employers to end relationships with Express Scripts and contract directly with Walgreen. The drugstore chain said more than 100 health plans, employers and other clients have either changed benefit managers or taken steps to maintain access to Walgreens pharmacies in 2012. But some major clients, including the health insurance giant Wellpoint and the United States military’s Tricare plan, stuck with Express Scripts.

Mr. Wasson said Walgreen continued to negotiate with employers and health plans and said the company would gradually win back business over the course of next year as employer and health plan contracts with Express Scripts expired.

“These results, and what we’re seeing in the marketplace, confirm our confidence as next year’s P.B.M. selling season begins,” said Mr. Wasson in a statement. “We’re already working with many health plans and P.B.M.’s who value the role Walgreens and community pharmacies play in lowering overall health care and prescription costs.”

Meanwhile, Walgreen rivals like CVS Caremark and Wal-Mart have been marketing aggressively, including running radio ads, to woo its customers. A CVS spokeswoman said the pharmacy chain expected to pick up 20 million prescriptions managed by Express Scripts in 2012 that were previously filled by Walgreen.

“We have significant overlap with Walgreens stores,” said Carolyn Castel, the CVS Caremark spokeswoman, in an interview. “Forty-three percent of our stores are within one mile of a Walgreens store; 78 percent are within three miles; and 85 percent are within five miles. We think many customers are more likely to move to another major chain due to convenience, pharmacies with drive-throughs, 24-hour locations and service reputation versus any other channel.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=45d5e9585c4dde39929e3f4fe7204778

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Bucks Blog: Taking Risks to Cut Drug Costs

September 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Associated Press

Americans are spending less money out of their own pockets each month on prescription drugs, probably because of greater use of lower-cost generics, the third annual drug survey from Consumer Reports finds.

But even so, strapped consumers, many of whom take multiple medications, are cutting costs on pills in ways that are unsafe.

The average monthly out-of-pocket spending for people regularly taking prescription drugs is $59, down from $68 two years ago. This is likely driven by greater use of generics due to “household budget constraints,” the survey found. Major chain pharmacies offer many $4 generic prescriptions, and some popular prescription drugs are losing patent protection and becoming available in generic form.

But in tough times, the savings from generics is still not enough for some patients. This year’s survey found that nearly half of the people taking prescription drugs took some action to save money, compared with 39 percent last year, likely due to the tough economy. Steps included putting off a doctor’s visit or ordering drugs from outside the country.

And, roughly a third failed to take their prescriptions as directed. Steps included skipping filling prescriptions (16 percent over all, and 30 percent among those whose monthly drug bill topped $50); taking an expired medication (13 percent); skipping a scheduled dose without checking with their doctor (12 percent); cutting pills in half (8 percent) and sharing a prescription with someone else to save money (4 percent).

Lower-income people, those without drug benefits and those with monthly drug costs of more than $50, were most likely to take such steps.

“We’re having more people say they’re struggling with drugs costs and cutting corners,” said Dr. John Santa, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. “I think this is an interesting barometer of the economy and the recession, especially for lower- and middle-income people.”

Half of adults take prescription drugs, and the average number of prescriptions they take is 4.5. But 16 percent of them take seven or more, the survey found.

And despite concerns about costs, few patients–just 5 percent–hear about a drug’s cost from their doctors. Two-thirds first learn about cost when picking up their medication at the pharmacy.

The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted the survey by telephone in June, using a nationally representative sample of 1,226 adults who currently take a prescription drug.

Do you take multiple prescriptions? What steps have you taken to cut costs?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=10f52b067a4bceabcc576e0d7ac3134b

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Walgreen Says It Will Split With Express Scripts

June 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

NEW YORK (AP) — Walgreen Co. said Tuesday it will end a $5.3-billion-per-year relationship with Express Scripts Inc., saying Express Scripts was not paying it enough money to fill prescriptions and was trying to dictate terms of their partnership.

The announcement follows a similar contract fight a year ago with CVS Caremark Corp. that was eventually resolved.

The disclosure of the impasse with Express Scripts Inc. overshadowed news that Walgreen’s profit climbed 30 percent in its third fiscal quarter.

Walgreen shares fell $2.66, or 5.9 percent, to $42.52 in morning trading. Express Scripts fell 53 cents to $54.26.

Walgreen, the biggest drugstore chain in the U.S., said contract negotiations with Express Scripts have failed, and it will stop participating in the pharmacy benefits manager’s prescription plans starting Jan. 1.

Pharmacy benefits managers like Express Scripts pay Walgreen to fill prescriptions. Walgreen said the St. Louis company wanted to cut those payments so they were less than the published cost of providing the prescriptions. Walgreen said Express Scripts’ payments were already low, and it said the new rates would have been “unacceptable.”

It said Express Scripts will process about 90 million prescriptions that will be filled at Walgreen stores in fiscal 2011, which will bring Walgreen about $5.3 billion in revenue. That’s about 7 percent of the company’s total annual revenue.

Walgreen said Express Scripts also wanted to unilaterally define contract terms including definitions of name-brand and generic drugs, and transfer of prescription drug plans to different networks. It said those terms would have made its business unpredictable. Walgreen said the combination of low rates and unpredictable results would have been worse than the loss of $5.3 billion in annual revenue.

Express Scripts said it has been preparing for Walgreen’s departure. It said more than 50,000 other pharmacies participate in its network. About 20 percent of all U.S. prescriptions are filled at a Walgreen location, and the company has filled 617 million prescriptions in the first three quarters of the fiscal year.

The struggle comes almost exactly a year after a similar struggle between Walgreen and CVS Caremark. In June 2010, Walgreen said it wanted to transition out of CVS Caremark’s network by the start of 2011. Walgreen wanted Caremark to pay it more for filling prescriptions, and it wanted Caremark to drop policies encouraging members to fill prescriptions at CVS’s stores. CVS Caremark had said it would end the relationship in July.

A breakup with CVS Caremark would have cost Walgreen about $4.5 billion in annual revenue. But within about a week, the companies agreed to a multi-year deal. They did not disclose terms.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen also reported it net income grew to $603 million, or 65 cents per share, during the three months ended May 31. That’s up from $463 million, or 47 cents a share, a year ago when its results were weighed down by costs associated with the health care reform law, its acquisition of the Duane Reade chain, and restructuring costs.

Walgreen said its third-quarter results included a penny per share in restructuring costs. The company had a total of 7,715 stores as of May 31.

FactSet says analysts expected earnings of 62 cents per share.

Revenue climbed to $18.37 billion from $17.2 billion.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c79ced1b7915d0c5e259f4d71afa7c99

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