FLORENCE, Ky. — It’s a hot topic that also impacts your wallet.
Every election cycle, voters hear from candidates calling to lower prescription drug prices, but the CEO of a Kentucky-based online pharmacy says it’s more complicated than it seems.
“It’s a lofty promise, and as we mentioned before, it’s not a quick fix, and I think it’s easy to promise that, but the trends don’t show the same thing,” said Joey Peters, CEO of Healthwarehouse.com.
The promise he’s referring to is the call to lower the price of your prescriptions. The high prices are a problem for not only Kentuckians, but many across the nation.
Peters’s online pharmacy is considered a cash-only pharmacy that does not accept insurance.
“A study conducted by USC shows that about one in four those cases that consumers would have paid less by just paying cash for their prescription,” Peters said.
The study from the University of Southern California found that pharmacy customers would be better off paying cash 23% of the time and would save an average of $7.69 by using cash for those transactions, rather than insurance.
Spectrum News 1 compared prices on some medications, and this is what we found. For an Albuterol inhaler, here is the price breakdown at different locations:
- Independent pharmacy: $45
- Chain store pharmacy: $49.99
- Grocery store pharmacy: $71.99
- Online pharmacy: $13-$35, depending on dosage
Here's the price break down for the blood pressure drug Lisinopril for a 20 milligram 30-day supply:
- Independent pharmacy: $9
- Chain pharmacy: $20.99
- Grocery store pharmacy: $5.99
- Online pharmacy: $8.70
Christina Schreiner Spille is a pharmacist at a non-profit called Faith Community Pharmacy. She explains that by going the route of cash only or online pharmacy, the patient can save a few dollars.
“The cash-paying pharmacy works a little different, you still need a valid prescription prescribed by your physician, but instead of billing any insurance or third-party plan, it’s just a transparent, just pre-negotiated price upfront, so there’s no insurance or any third parties that are involved with it. So it’s just between the pharmacy and the patient,” Schreiner Spille said.
For instance, in our example of Lisinopril, we only saw a $0.30 difference between an independent pharmacy and an online pharmacy, the savings increased if a patient orders in bulk. For 180 tablets, the price came to $14.40, making it a 74% in savings.
“By cutting out different insurance plans or just by paying cash at a cash-paying pharmacy, there is potential for savings depending, of course, on the medication that is being purchased,” Schreiner Spille said.
Across the state, in Eastern Kentucky, Joel Thornbury is a third-generation independent Nova Pharmacy owner. He says, bottom line, if you walk into his store, the patient is talking to the the owner who’s able to tailor customer service compared to walking into a chain store dealing with a corporation.
“You know, again, I want to make sure you’re well cared for, and I'm not saying these other organizations don’t, that my other colleagues don’t, but, again, they have a hierarchy where they have less control or flexibility on their prescription pricing than someone like me who has to pay the bill. The buck stops with me. With those organizations, it’s all corporate and all that is set on a pricing schedule,” Thornbury said.
Ultimately, the solution to all this won’t be overnight, but Peters says it can be driven by patient trends.
“What the consumers need to do is they need to empower themselves, they need to make decisions based on costs and transparency, and they need to start looking towards pharmacies that offer that honest and transparency,” Peters said.
The study also found that patients in their research paid $135 million in overpayment.