March 16th, 2009

Writes Ron Bartizek, business editor of the Times-Leader:

Is Gov. Ed Rendell’s latest health care initiative useful for anything more than gaining face time for our ubiquitous state leader? The answer may depend on your perspective.

The Rx Price Finder Web site ( www.parxpricefinder.com) ostensibly will help prescription buyers find the best deal on more than 300 of the most widely used medications. I took the site for a spin after it was unveiled on Tuesday. It was easy to figure out and quickly identified stores by distance from my home, a useful feature.

But the results weren’t encouraging in a search for the best price on warfarin, the generic form of brand-name drug Coumadin. Dozens of stores popped up selling a 30-pill supply, with the lowest price of $9.

Only two stores were listed when I changed the search criteria to 90 pills. Aside from being priced at $27.20 and $51.99, both were more than 16 miles from my house.

But I’ve been buying a 90-day order at Wegmans for $11.99, and the supermarket cum pharmacy recently dropped the price to $10 on that drug and about 400 others.

Not only is that cheaper than every store on the Web site, it’s well below my co-pay.

Still, Tom Snedden, director of the PACE program that provides prescription assistance to low-income older Pennsylvanians, says plenty of people can save with the Rx Price Finder. He acknowledges that most people have insurance, but plans often require high co-pays or a percentage of the cost on expensive, specific drugs. Potentially even more damaging, insurers create their own “formularies,” lists of covered drugs that may exclude unusual or low-demand medicines, leaving even the insured to pay the full cost.

The most benefit goes to people who lack insurance but need drugs to maintain their health.

Read the rest of Bartizek’s evaluation of the Rx finder at the Times-Leader.