Standard Mischief

Firmly entrenched as the most evil corporation in America, and leveraging on their enormous buying power, Wal-Mart plans to sell almost 300 generic drugs at the price point of $4 per prescription for up to a 30-day supply. That price will apply even when the patient’s co-pay is larger than that, and it will also apply to people without insurance.

The Wa-Po is reporting that the pricing plan starts first in Tampa, Florida, and will move to most of the rest of the country by 2007.

Unfortunately, the Wa-Po fails in it’s news-bringing mission because they don’t link to the formulary, which was undoubtedly included in the press kit. However, I’m pleased to tell you that they have included a flash video of the Wal-mart spokesperson in their news article. There’s even a unrelated commercial spot that you have to watch first. Update: It might be here without the ad. (either it’s taking forever to load, or it’s not playing nice with my OS)

Without a formulary, it’s impossible to see if Wal-mart is doing the real deal, or just blowing hot air. It’s also difficult to get you doctor to prescribe medications on the list if the list is a big mystery. Still, this could be a major coup in the “walmart=evil” PR battlefront.

I’ve always said that the problem with the way we do medicine in this country is that it does absolutely nothing to encourage providers to compete on prices. Just think about it, if your copay is $15 for prescriptions you are not likely to price shop around for the best deal, you just get it filled where it’s most convenient. When I called around to get the price on off-label Plan-B using generic birth control pills, one clerk was confused, and actually asked to be sure I wanted the cash price, and not my co-pay. Obviously no one price shops for prescriptions. Let’s hope this changes that .

BTW, I mostly like Wal-Mart, but I’m unhappy with them when they use their corporate personhood to get themselves kickbacks on their tax rates, or they get local zoning boards to abuse Eminent Domain laws in order to locate their stores instead of paying a fair market price.

Update: I found the formulary on www.walmartfacts.com, at the bottom, as a PDF. At first glance, it seems pretty complete, but then again, I am not a doctor. I see several strengths of the same drugs, so it?s probably best if you print the list and discuss your options with your health care provider. I could see an advantage to getting a thirty day supply and using a pill splitter to save money. Not every pill can be split, so ask or check a PDR first. Some of the prescription drugs, like Ranitdine, or Ibuprofen are available OTC at a lower strength, and might be cheaper that way. There?s also no type of birth control pill. Although they list several strengths of say Doxycycline Hyclate, they don?t really state how many pills or capsules one gets for a 30 day supply. Doxycycline is commonly given twice a day, so you would need 60 pills for a 30 day supply, except that antibiotics are rarely prescribed for more that say 14 days, so I?m unclear to what you would get for your $4.

Update 2: It looks like Target is already matching prices, but of course only right now in the Tampa area near the first discounting Wal-Marts. Wow, this free market stuff really works.

Update 3: @5:15pm I fixed the link to www.walmartfacts.com, also a closer reading of the press release netted the phrase “$4 per prescription for up to a 30-day supply” While they do have a formulary listed, they don?t clearly indicate the quantity available at the $4 price level.