by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Mar 26, 2010 | Medicare Drug Plans
The new healthcare reform law offers significant prescription drug discounts for Medicare Drug Plan enrollees who fall into the coverage gap, also known as the “doughnut hole.” In 2011, you’ll get a 50% discount on brand name drugs, and by 2020, 75% of your drug bill will be covered through the gap.
But what about now?
The most immediate relief you’ll get is $250 to help you pay for your drugs through the doughnut hole in 2010. If you’re facing the full $3,610 abyss of the hole, $250 is not a lot of money. However, there are very practical ways to afford your prescription drugs. What ever you do, don’t skip taking your medications. See our Safe Strategies For Drug Savings.
You may also want to look at consumer ratings of the drug plans on our sister website www.MedicareDrugPlans.com.
Overall, down the road, the new law will give our seniors much greater peace of mind about prescription drug costs, and that’s great news.
Tagged with: Canadian pharmacies, doughnut hole, Medicare
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Mar 22, 2010 | Skipping medications
Last month we reported on the national crisis of high prescription drug prices, showing that at the beginning of the recession 40% of Americans were struggling to afford their prescription drug prices (Harvard School of Public Health). Sadly, new data further highlights this national emergency and shows that the problem is getting worse. Focusing on Americans with insurance, a report by Wolter Kluwer Pharma Solutions found that 14.4% of new prescriptions were not filled in 2009, an increase of 5.5% over 2008. The study attributed the increase to rising co-payments. In fact, 24% more prescriptions were simply abandoned in 2009 than 2008. Prescription abandonment is when a patient does not pick up his or her prescription at the pharmacy. The problem is more acute with brand name drugs than generics.
To stop the increasing tide of Americans skipping their medications due to cost, it is more urgent than ever that increase access to safe and affordable medication. In the short term, healthcare reform will provide limited drug price relief but will not significantly help struggling Americans any time soon. However, low-cost online pharmacies and personal drug importation can play an important role in making sure Americans are taking the medicines they need right now. Canadian and other international online pharmacies, for example, offer drug savings of about 70% on brand name drugs. Legalizing personal drug importation and educating consumers about how to safely order prescription drugs from such pharmacies is the right prescription.
Tagged with: Drug Price S.O.S., Harvard School of Public Health, health reform, Healthcare Reform, prescription abandonment, wolter kluwer
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Mar 4, 2010 | Online Pharmacy Verification Services
Jump to Comparison Table: Online Pharmacy Verification Services
It is important that you understand the differences among the groups that rate and verify online pharmacies. It’s not only essential to know what credentials each verifies, but the mission and focus of each group. To help, we put together the comparison table below, focusing on topics that should be of interest to the 120,000,000 Americans who struggle to afford their prescription drug bill and are searching online for savings (see Drug Prices SOS for more on this national emergency).
Perhaps the biggest difference that you’ll notice among the groups is that PharmacyChecker.com is the only one to include pharmacies from the U.S. as well as from Canada and select other countries. The Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) only accepts Canadian-based pharmacies. The Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program, run by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), and LegitScript, a private verification service, exclude affordable Canadian pharmacies and others outside the US and exclusively approve U.S. pharmacies.
(more…)
Tagged with: CIPA, LegitScript.com, NABP, Online Pharmacy Verification Services, pharmacychecker, VIPPS
by Tod Cooperman, MD, President, PharmacyChecker.com, and Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com | Mar 3, 2010 | Big Pharma, Online Pharmacy Verification Services
A firm called Legit Script (LegitScript.com) claims to be protecting people by labeling legitimate Canadian and other non-U.S. pharmacies as “Unapproved” or “Rogue.” This serves the big pharmaceutical interests but not the American consumer. More than that, its founder, John Horton, appears to have exploited his former government position to establish LegitScript.com for his own gain. (more…)
Tagged with: Legit Script, LegitScript, Office of National Drug Control Policy, ONDCP, Online Pharmacies, phrma, VIPPS
by Tod Cooperman, MD, President, PharmacyChecker.com, and Gabriel Levitt, Vice President, PharmacyChecker.com | Feb 9, 2010 | Big Pharma
[2019 UPDATE: Read our letter to Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), calling them out on what we believe is their continuing smear campaign against PharmacyChecker.]
Fronting for the pharmaceutical industry, The Partnership for Safe Medicines, which has a website at www.SafeMedicines.org, is an avowed foe of personal drug importation. A popular tactic of this group is mixing legitimate concerns over drug counterfeiting with unwarranted warnings about the safety of buying drugs from pharmacies in Canada and other countries. Here’s what we know about The Partnership, starting with who runs it.
(more…)Tagged with: Bryan Liang, Counterfeit Drugs, Partnership for Safe Medicines, personal drug importation, phrma, safemedicines, SafeMedicines.org, Scot Laganga
by Gabriel Levitt, President, PharmacyChecker.com and Prescription Justice | Feb 9, 2010 | Skipping medications
To launch our new blog, we thought we’d get to the heart of the matter. Prescription drug prices are out of reach for almost half the country. Brand name drugs are, on average, 50% higher in the United States than other countries. In fact, when comparing prescription drug prices online, the savings outside the U.S. are over 70%. That is the main reason Americans have turned to online pharmacies and personal drug importation. (more…)
Tagged with: Drug Importation, Drug Price S.O.S., Drug Prices, Harvard School of Public Health
