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Drugs Can Be Cheaper, at the Right Store: Cox Seeks Price Comparison Web Site

Posted on: Saturday, 15 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Katie Merx, Detroit Free Press

Apr. 15--Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox wants to make it easier for consumers to comparison shop for the best price on prescription medicines.

He proposes the state create a Web site that would let Michiganders compare drug prices at all of the pharmacies in all of the communities across the state. Working with Rep. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, who is a medical doctor, Cox is asking the state Legislature to pass a bill that would make it happen. House Bill 4559 has passed the House and is now being considered by the Senate Committee on Health Policy.

The idea is to give people -- especially those who don't have prescription drug coverage -- the tools to easily save money on their increasingly expensive medicines.

"It can't do any harm," said retired computer executive William Carey, 76, of Farmington Hills. "Any form of competition will even the market out. It might lower prices."

That's what's happening in Florida, which launched a drug-cost comparison Web site last year, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said during a visit to metro Detroit last week.

And it seems to be the way things are headed in several other states -- including Maryland and Arizona -- that have launched drug-price Web sites.

Without the benefit of an insurance company negotiating for them, many people end up paying many times more for their drugs than they have to, Cox said.

Sure, people can shop around on their own. But it's time-consuming and frustrating for consumers to call every pharmacy in town to price medicines. So, many people don't do it, and it's costing them a bundle.

For example, in Sterling Heights, on Jan. 17, the price for an Albuterol asthma inhaler ranged from $13.99 at the Meijer store on Van Dyke to $49 at the Holiday Pharmacy on Schoenherr, according to an undercover drug-price survey the Attorney General's Office conducted in January and February.

Prices varied just as much if not more in nine other communities across the state. The survey reports that in January:

-- In Saginaw, Nasonex sold for $12.99 at the Rite Aid on East Genesee and $106.25 at Healthway Pharmacy on North Saginaw.

-- In Royal Oak, Prevacid prices ranged from $125 at Troy Pharmacy on Coolidge to $238.90 at Wabeek Medical Pharmacy on 13 Mile.

-- In Detroit, Plavix prices ranged from $118 at Reid's Prescription Pharmacy on Harper to $177.09 at St. John Jefferson Pharmacy on East Jefferson.

The survey found that pharmacies might charge high prices for the community for some drugs, while charging low or average prices for others.

"If you drive down Gratiot, Woodward or Telegraph, you can look at the prices at gas stations and comparison shop," Cox said. "You open your weekend paper and you can compare pizza prices. With prescription drugs, consumers just don't have any way to comparison shop."

And the state already has the data it needs to post drug-price comparisons for consumers. It receives the prices from pharmacies as part of the reimbursement process for Medicaid and Medicare, Cox said.

The Michigan Department of Community Health already posts the average wholesale price for the 25 most commonly prescribed drugs at www.michigan.gov/mdch. The average wholesale price is the price uninsured consumers should be able to pay for their prescriptions, said department spokesman T.J. Bucholz.

"We would like to work with the attorney general and the Legislature to improve" the Web site "and add to it, if they are able to put some more resources toward it," Bucholz said.

But Cox said the state could easily duplicate Maryland's price comparison Web site by telling the state's health-information data vendor to create and maintain a Web site just like the one that company does for Maryland.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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