Kentucky Healthcare Providers Alleviate Prescription Costs By Taking the Problem In-House

The cost of prescription co-pays continues to rise across the country, particularly for non-formulary and formulary drugs. The 2008 Healthcare eSurvey ñ Kentucky found healthcare employees are faced with similar costs to those found in other industries. However, access to in-house pharmacies can alleviate rising prescription costs for these employees.

Most Kentucky healthcare organizations include prescription coverage with their PPO plans. Of those, more than half utilize flat dollar amount co-pays, and 11.7 percent ask plan participants to pay a percentage of the cost. Some healthcare providers, 32.8 percent have both flat dollar and percentage co-pays.

Healthcare employees on flat dollar PPO plans can expect to pay $12.00 on average for generic prescriptions and $27.00 for formulary prescriptions. Non-formulary co-pays are $47.00 on average. In comparison, co-pays at in-house pharmacies are $6.00.

Individuals using two non-formulary drugs a month can pay $1,128 a year. However, the same person would spend $144 a year by using the in-house pharmacy. In this case, it equates to a savings of 87.2 percent or $984.

ìNationally, prices for formulary and non-formulary drugs are on the rise,î said Amy Kaminski, marketing manager of Compdata Surveys. ìHowever, the data has shown generic prescription costs have held around $10.00 for the last three years. This could be caused in part by market pressure from large retailers who have lowered generic prescription prices.î