Save On Drugs In The Mail
Medco Online
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 is a diminishing return somewhere in there so we will simply
state that it is 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 is 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 am saving $400 a year. That is not a shareholder
savings — that is real out of pocket money.
Hopefully, you are 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, Clicks and All
You can save substantial money here if you are 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.
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