‘Both Can’t Be Right’
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) issued the following statement on a consumer “poll” on mail-service pharmacies released today by the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA). The survey, which asserts consumer dissatisfaction with mail-service pharmacies, comes on the heels of yesterday’s report from J.D. Power and Associates that found widespread satisfaction with mail-service pharmacies:
“One day after J.D. Power and Associates released its national survey, the independent drug story lobby has attempted to undermine it with a release of its own.
“Unfortunately for NCPA, this forces policymakers to choose which source is accurate: America’s foremost consumer research firm or a lobbying organization committed to higher pharmacy costs. Both can’t be right.
“In weighing the facts, policymakers may also want to consider other independent, peer reviewed data showing that mail-service pharmacies dispense prescriptions with more than 20 times the accuracy of traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies.1 Furthermore, government studies show that mail-service pharmacies typically dispense prescriptions at lower prices than traditional pharmacies.2,3
“This year, Congress has a historic opportunity to generate billions in score-able savings by removing costly regulations that restrict home delivery in Medicare. These regulations have resulted in seniors enrolled in Medicare prescription drug plans using mail-service pharmacies 75 percent less than retirees in employer-sponsored plans.
“Savings from broader use of mail-service pharmacies could be used to offset the AMP payment increases being so aggressively pursued by NCPA and others.”
PCMA represents the nation’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which improve affordability and quality of care through the use of electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), generic alternatives, mail-service pharmacies, and other innovative tools for 200-plus million Americans.
1 Teagarden, R., et. al., “Dispensing Error Rate in a Highly Automated Mail-Service Pharmacy Practice,” Pharmacotherapy, volume 25, November 11, 2005.
2 U.S. Federal Trade Commission, “Pharmacy Benefit Managers: Ownership of Mail-Order Pharmacies,” August 2005.
3 U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Federal Employee Health Benefits: Effects of Using Pharmacy Benefit Managers on Health Plans, Enrollees, and Pharmacies,” January 2003.
Contacts:
Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
Charles Coté,
202-207-3605
