Jeff says:

February 27th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

Did you check out http://www.minnesotarxconnect.com? They price compare prescriptions around your zip or county and offer ways to offer trustworthy Canadian mail orders (although you didn’t think Canada would help much since it’s generic). I’ve noticed that it doesn’t seem to have prices for Sam’s Club and Costco but you can at least see what the major Walgreens, CVS, Target, Cub prices are. It appears to be run by the state.

Rachel says:

February 27th, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Is this the same Thrifty White?
http://www.thriftywhite.com/index.cfm
The website says their corporate address is in Maple Grove and they have tons of locations all across the state.

KJ says:

February 27th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

I can’t believe people still have HMOs. It is not always the employers fault as this could be buried in a pre-exhisting coditions clause, or subject to prior authorization or something like that. I agree the employer should fully understand what they bought, but who has time to run a business and read a contract that is primairily in “fine print” to begin with. You want to do some real investigating, investigate mail order vs. retail by PBMs. The PBM can often set their own prices and their price may be 400% more that the same med at retail!!!!!

John Ewoldt says:

February 27th, 2009 at 2:19 pm

Rachel, good question about all the other Thrifty White locations. The one in Fargo purchased Borg Drug in Ashby, Minn. In doing so, they agreed to offer the low-margin prices set by Borg’s saintly pharmacist Jim Witt. I wrote about him on June 23, 2005. Long story short, only the Fargo location mentioned will offer the low price, not other Thrifty White locations.

Mario says:

February 27th, 2009 at 3:33 pm

It is important to note that the drug lists put together by your local non-profit HMOs are a direct result of the obscene cost of medical care. HMOs are forced to make difficult decisions: as the cost of medical care goes up, do they limit coverage, exclude certain services, or raise premiums? Many people are being laid off of their jobs and are electing Cobra coverage where they are obligated to pay the entire premium (and sometimes more). Naturally, everyone would like everything covered (I know it would make life easier for me), but that would raise the premium rates to such heights that no one would be able to afford insurance. As a result, people would forgo care until their situation became dire and emergency services were needed. Because most people can’t afford a $2000 emergency room visit without a job, the Hospital has to right off the charges. With our gee-golly “genius” Governor’s budget proposal, there will be less state money to cover these losses, thus the cuts have to be made in staffing and other services, further raising unemployment and compounding the problem; hopefully not to the point where Hospitals are forced to close, but that is certainly a possibility.

There may be other reasons your HMO denied your drug. It is possible that the long-term safety and efficacy of your drug has not been established in large-scale controlled clinical trials for the segment of the population to which you belong (medically speaking). If there are harmful long-term effects that are present but have yet to be discovered, this creates more suffering on your part, and wasted medical services and finances on the part of the industry. In addition, it creates unnecessary market demand for the drug, driving up the price unnecessarily for whom the safety and efficacy is established.

These times are tough, no question. It will be interesting to see the list of names that Medtronic releases. If you are concerned about the cost of health care and related ethical issues, this issue is a great example of the problems this industry faces. Not that I am accusing Medtronic of this, but it is shameful and irresponsible to artificially drive the demand of your product by buying off physicians. Medtronic may have perfectly good an honest reasons for paying these doctors; I want to know what they are. All human systems are flawed because we are not omniscient to the effects of our decisions; we tend to have a very limited view of the consequences of our actions. What happened to a little personal responsibility (and I’m not even republican). This is getting ridiculous. Thank you Minneapolis, and good night.

cathy gunderson says:

March 17th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

i have a stange turn of events to report about Health Partners. i use a particular drug that does not have a generic. when i was filling the prescription at Target, the cost was the max that my insurance charges, $32. when i switched to Walgreen’s to get the $25 free gift card offered by Walgreen’s to switch a prescription, they said HP only charged $16 (what i would usually pay for a generic). Hmmmmm. i’m waiting to get a letter from HP telling me i owe them $16!
John - by the way, is there a downside to switching a prescription from drugstore to drugstore in order to get the free gift cards they offer?

Ron Richardson says:

March 26th, 2009 at 10:27 am

My health insurer UNITED HEALTHCARE MEDCO filled a 90 day supply of a prescription a couple times for a copay of $ 62.50,
Then on the 3rd refill confirmed by their phone order system , MEDCO changed the presciption # and mailed a 30 day supply with the same copay.
After numerous phone calls for the last 6 months, MEDCO/ UNITED HEALTH CARE offered different numerous
excuses .
I mailed an appeal to them ( UHC) and visited with my Dr.
My Dr. just laughed and said Im wasting my time.
Dr. said most Drs wont waste their time & energy dealing with an organization that has but one motive , make lots of $.
Guess that explains why UHCs CEO got a 100 million dollars in stock options in Dec of 2008.
Guess the CEO is being rewarded for changing the rules to serve his own interests.
Hope somebody in Washington DC takes on UNITED HEALTHCARE sooner than later.
Think somebody at MEDCO/ UHC should go to jail for causing my cost to triple for a 90 day supply.