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DrugBenefit Home Page DBC Card - Better Than "Best" Medicare Card - No Brag, Just Fact Tom Curb, R.Ph. The May 18 edition of the Washington Post printed a commentary by Lisa Barrett Mann bemoaning the complexities of the Medicare Discount Card program. Believing that by her "being a health care reporter for more than a decade, she (Lisa) thought choosing her mom’s Medicare Card would be an easy trick. However, it turned into a real stumper." Instead of an estimated "hour or so", Lisa spent nine hours trying to track down accurate information about the Medicare cards on the phone and on the Web. The upshot? (After nine hours) she wasn’t much closer to knowing which is the best Medicare card for her mother than when she started. However, Lisa learned the following "important" lessons: • Just because the Medicare.gov Web site says a drug isn't covered under a specific discount-card plan doesn't mean it really isn't. • Just because Medicare.gov says a drug is covered doesn't mean it necessarily is. • The prices Medicare.gov cites for medications under a given discount plan don't necessarily correspond to the prices the plan gives out over the phone. • The prices that a card's sponsors give out over the phone can differ, depending on whom you talk with. • Whether Medicare.gov says a pharmacy participates in a given plan doesn't seem to bear any relation to the info the plans, or even the pharmacies themselves, have. • Calling 800-MEDICARE isn't much help. I (Lisa) tried the number seven times on a single day last week, starting at 9:40 a.m. and finishing at 11:20 p.m. I never got through to a human. (Lisa said her mom currently pays $453.96 per month for the nine medications listed below after receiving a "senior discount" at her local pharmacy. In her survey, Lisa determined that the "best" Medicare card discounted prices for all nine drugs with a total cost of $414.47 for a 30-day supply (about one month) - a savings of almost $40 a month - or almost 10 percent better than through her local store’s senior citizen discount.) In contrast to Lisa’s frustrating experience with the Medicare-endorsed cards, an evaluation of the DBC card’s prices at www.drugbenefit.com took me about ten minutes. (Its yearly enrollment costs only $15, and it offers discounts on all drugs). Here’s how the DBC card compared with Lisa’s "best" Medicare-endorsed discount card: (1) If Lisa’s mom chose to exclusively use DBC’s local U.S. pharmacy network, she could get more than a three-month’s supply of most** of her medications for about $794 – giving "mom" more than a three-month supply for less than twice as much money as she would pay for a one-month supply using the "best" Medicare-endorsed card – an additional DBC-plan savings of more than $150 per month. (2) But, if Lisa’s mom chose to supplement her U.S. retail network Rx’s with purchases of eligible Canadian drugs, she could access the Expedite-Rx technological interface to ensure the patient-protective elements of a coordinated prescription benefit while getting more than a three-month supply of most** of her medications for about $536 – giving "mom" more than three-months’ supply of medicine for about $120 more than she would pay for a one-month supply using the "best" Medicare-endorsed discount card – an additional DBC-plan savings of more than $235 per month. Mom’s DBC card prices would have been: Drug/strength/3 month+ supply DBC - U.S. network Canadian pharmacy albuterol Inhaler (3 canisters) $19 (use U.S. network) Serevent (3 canisters-no strength given) $245 to $270 $163 prednisone 5mg (100 units) $6 (use U.S. network) Allegra 180mg (90 units) $204 $100 (144 of 120mg)* Isopto Carbachol 3% (3x15cc) $111 $45 methazolamide 50mg (200 units) $52 (use U.S. network) Ambien 5mg (30 units) ** $68 (use U.S. network) Lanoxin .125mg (100 units) $33 $26 hydrochlorothiazide 12.5mg*** (100units) $31 (use U.S. network)
Using DBC-US network exclusively (a 3 month+ supply) would be $794. Using DBC-US network plus Canada (a 3 month+ supply) would be $510+26 p&h = $536 (Note: The postage element of Canadian p&h is $15 per package, so by consolidating Rx’s in an order minimizes postage.) *Take 1½ tablets to equal the 180mg dose; however, 120mg every 24 hours should suffice for seniors, whose metabolism and/or excretion of drugs is generally lower than for younger patients. **Reflects a 30 day supply of Ambien ***100 units of Hydrochlorothiazide 25mg can be obtained for about $6.50. Splitting these could give a 200 day supply of this drug for little more than $1 per month’s supply.
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