Former ODB chief Helen Stevenson, excerpts steps from her recently released white paper on managing prescription drug costs in a column in today’s Globe and Mail. The usual is there: ‘make better decisions about what drugs to fund’, ‘don’t cover newer, more expensive medicines that have no demonstrated superiority over older, less expensive medicine’ and possibly the same old yarn trotted out again and again, ‘promoting the use of generic drugs.’  I would argue there’s not one plan left in Canada where you have the option for coverage of the expensive brand where an inexpensive generic exists.
The step that stuns me is this one:  ’encourage employees to comparison shop for cheaper drugs.’   Since my first job in pharma marketing patients were and still are in almost all marketing cases the 4th on the list of 4 P’s:  Physicians, Payers, Pharmacists, Patients.
So it is with some surprise that I read the suggestion that employees should step up and be more responsible for prescription drug costs.  How?  By running around town from one pharmacy to another looking for the cheapest outlet for prescription drug dispensing.    At last a suggestion for patient involvement, but not at all in a reasonable or practical sense.    This should be the job of plan administrators – negotiate with a banner of their choosing and know for a fact that your employees are getting the “cheapest drug.” But please, don’t give me the responsibility of finding cheaper drugs – half the time I don’t even understand what I’m taking.