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DrugBenefit Home Page The Medicare-Approved Discount Card – Why Bother With It? Tom Curb, R.Ph.
The government is endorsing another Medicare Discount Drug Card program like one the administration proposed a few years back. (That first card was quashed by the courts because it offered no real savings to recipients.) Beneficiaries can purchase this "new" Medicare cash card for a one-time fee of up to $30, and it is "good" for a little more than one year. Unlike this Medicare-approved card, my discount card only costs me $15. The government has selected a lot of companies to issue the Medicare Discount cards, and different card plans offer different discounts on different drugs – but the Medicare plans can change the discounts and the discounted drugs any time. Medicare requires "its" plans to "cover" only one drug in each of 209 categories. Unlike the Medicare-approved cards, my card offers me across-the-board discounts on all drugs. Depending on who you want to believe, the various Medicare-approved discount cards will offer "prescription discounts" of "up to 10 to 15%; 10 percent to 25 percent; 15 percent or more; or an average 10%-20%". Unlike the Medicare-approved cards, just within the local U.S. pharmacy network, my card documents across-the-board savings averaging more than 30% - with savings on generics averaging more than 60%!* (And, if I want to save some serious money - like an average of about 50% more – on my directly imported brand-name drugs, my card’s processor will electronically coordinate my Canadian and local US pharmacy prescription data to provide special safety features that can protect my health.) And there are other differences… Different Medicare-approved cards are accepted by different pharmacies – and some local pharmacies refuse some of the cards. Unlike many Medicare-approved cards, my discount card is "portable", and it is welcomed at almost 40,000 U.S. pharmacies and in all continental states, as well as Hawaii, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. With the Medicare-approved cards, you have to check dozens of plans to find your "best price". Unlike the Medicare-approved cards, with my plan I can go to one screen and check for a cost-effective generic and/or a less expensive Canadian drug (which none of the Medicare-approved plans can coordinate with my U.S. prescriptions). You must be enrolled in Medicare to purchase one of the Medicare-approved discount cards. Unlike the Medicare-approved cards, anyone – regardless of age - can purchase one of my plan Sponsor’s discount cards. And, unlike many of the Medicare-approved companies, my card’s company has been in business for more than 13 years. Again, I have to ask myself… "Why should I even bother with the Medicare-Approved Discount Card?" It costs more than my card, saves less than my card, offers fewer options than my card, and is less flexible than my card. No wonder the government has to spend millions of taxpayer dollars promoting its Medicare-approved drug card!
*U.S. network savings for fourth quarter 2003 and first quarter 2004 prescription data. |
