Medco Health Saves Money On Drugs Through The Mail
Written: Oct 20 '02 (Updated Oct 20 '02)
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Some words go together like bread and butter. One group of words writers continue to overuse is "health cost spiral." A Google News search found media outlets had used that phrase 55 times in the last three weeks. As with any message, repetition – frequency – lends credibility to the concept. Any marketer will tell you that their primary job is to stay on message, even when they are personally sick of the message.
But health care costs are increasing relative to their growth in prior years. One way to combat rising prices is to make use of mail-order prescriptions if available through your health insurance. MedcoHealth, formerly Merck-Medco, is one of the largest players in this burgeoning trend. The company claims to insure 65 million Americans and employs twelve pharmaceutical fulfillment centers. Those centers act as clearinghouses for millions of prescriptions and allow the company to supply medication in larger lots and with a generic when possible. The company’s 2000 Annual Report claimed to dispense more than 4 million prescriptions, and that number can only have grown since then. Employers must tread carefully when dealing with healthcare issues, but can freely encourage the convenience and usual cost savings associated in filling prescriptions on the web.
Your Insurer and Your Drugstore
In a stunning business development deal, Medco partnered with CVS to supply store-based and web solutions for customers. Visitors to the MedcoHealth site can not only fill prescriptions, but purchase health and sundry items. The deal didn’t crush drugstore.com, but it sure didn’t help. Medco, meanwhile, continues to drive costs down through the site. A company report states that every 1 percent increase in generic drug usage saves the company $200 million. There’s a diminishing return somewhere in there so we’ll simply state that it’s a lot of money – on the order of millions each week in savings.
The site is also robust enough to store all of your prescriptions regardless of where they are filled and provide links to helpful information about those prescriptions and interactions. Logging into the system provides you with a list of prescriptions filled for each family member. You can check fulfillment dates, when the prescription is available to be refilled and order supplies or request refills. That’s right – Medco will actually contact your doctor for you and request permission if a refill has expired. Your doctor may, of course, request that you have an office visit, but this is a huge time-saving benefit for those on long term medications. Think of the service as SnapFish or Netflix for drugs.
You can choose to hide various medications from display, which is a nice privacy benefit even though the site is password secured. Comprehensive medical information is also available on the site, allowing members to research illnesses, conditions and news. Members can also choose to subscribe to various topics, creating a “myhealth” section of topics they are interested in. One minor improvement I would like to see is the system automatically providing information in this area simply based on the medications and past purchase habits.
Drugs Through The Mail
MedcoHealth fulfills product as well as any company I have dealt with. Multiple emails are sent at each order stage, and I have yet to see a shipping delay. Prescriptions are sent via the U.S. Postal service in a sturdy Tyvek envelope.
But all the shipping and logistics prowess known to modern capitalism is less important than the cost savings. Your savings will vary based on your health plan, but I have a $15 prescription copay. Medco reduces that to $10 for orders placed on the web and sends a three month supply each time. That means that I save $35 every quarter on each long-term med, and with three of them, I’m saving $400 a year. That is not a shareholder savings – that’s real out of pocket money.
Hopefully, you’re not on the same level of medication, but even using the site for one ongoing prescription can save you significant money.
Meanwhile, you can save on non-prescriptions by using the CVS store-within-a-store at MedcoHealth. Everything you might expect at a large chain drugstore, from candy to cosmetics and film is available here. Ordering a prescription and other items also saves members money because shipping is free when items are ordered together. That’s a heck of a savings on items you might ordinarily buy.
The Bottom Line
You can save substantial money here if you’re one of the 25% of Americans covered by Medco health. You may even be able to save if you do not have an ongoing prescription by asking your physician to send the prescription in to Medco (or do it yourself) and obtain samples directly from the doc.
Five Things To Remember From This Review
1. Medco covers 25% of Americans. Check to see if your health insurance uses them.
2. You will most likely save money on regular prescriptions, and may even save on one-time prescriptions.
3. CVS and Medco’s alliance allows members to purchase non-pharmaceutical items and save on shipping.
4. The site also contains a very robust medical information center.
5. Fulfillment is fast and easy.
Joubert’s Fun Link
If modern medicine isn’t your cup of herbal tea, check out NIH’s online exhibit of Native American healthcare:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/if_you_knew/if_you_knew_04.html
© 2002 Joubert
Recommended:
Yes
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