[Sidney Lanier]

Constantly hearing all the hype about Wal-Mart Pharmacy having the lowest prices on generic drugs, I went out of my way to get a generic prescription filled at a local Wal-Mart Pharmacy in NY (my first prescription in 2008, filled in June). When I picked up the prescription, I was a little stunned to be charged more than $141! I knew I had not yet met my deductible on my (nightmare of a) Part D Prescription Drug Plan, but somehow I did not expect a generic to cost this much.

Barely a week later we were traveling in Arizona and we stopped in at a Fry's Supermarket (a grocery chain owned by Kroger's, a large company but tiny in contrast to Wal-Mart). While my wife shopped for a few items, I chatted with the pharmacy assistant at the in-store pharmacy, and out of curiosity I asked how much this prescription would cost there. Ready for this? $64.49! Less than half the price I had paid at Wal-Mart Pharmacy! I asked for an 'official' printout of this information on a pharmacy form, which they happily gave me. A friend we were traveling with advised me to call the pharmacy manager at the actual store where I had purchased the prescription.

As soon as we returned to NY I did so. I spoke with a very pleasant man--the pharmacy manager--who listened thoughtfully and asked me to fax the printout from Fry's, which I did. He later called me back and told me that he had phoned Fry's and was told that I was covered under some kind of Fry's plan. I told him this could not possibly have been the case, that I was a tourist in Phoenix, that we were merely in the store to shop for a few items, and that we had never been in a Fry's store before. At that point he suggested that I speak with the pharmacy district manager, that he would refer the matter to him, and that I should expect to receive a phone call from him, which came within a day or two.

The district manager, equally pleasant, told me that Fry's Pharmacy has a heavily discounted price for this one medication and not for any other! I don't believe that he called Fry's to come up with this strange suggestion, but I could be wrong. I told him that I could not dispute this, as this was the only generic whose price I had checked on, but it seemed so unlikely that they sell hundreds (thousands?) of different generic prescription meds and I just happened to inquire about the one with the special price? I told him that I believed that Wal-Mart Pharmacy should price-match the Fry's price since it was the lowest I found. After checking with his regional manager, he told me that they would not honor this request, since I did not find the lower price at a pharmacy within the region, even though he assured me that the price I had paid at Wal-Mart Pharmacy would be exactly the same at every single Wal-Mart Pharmacy in the country.

I explained to him about TOTV and how it worked and that I intended to share this experience with my fellow TV residents. I am troubled by this from the point of view that Wal-Mart Pharmacy has generated a picture of itself as selling generic drugs at the absolute lowest prices. This has been proven not to be so, and if this is true for this one, it could be true for countless others. The bottom line, IMHO, as suggested to me by the pharmacy manager and my Part D plan clerk, is to be a proactive consumer and find out exactly how much a prescription is going to cost before buying it. I might add, BTW, that though this makes sense, this is not easy to do, as when I sought out the price of this med at other pharmacies, they told me that they cannot tell me a price (other than a cash price as if I walked in the door without any coverage) without actually filling the prescription and filing it online with my insurance company to know how much to charge me.

I know for sure that I will not return to Wal-Mart Pharmacy based on this experience....

[JohnN]

I can't say I'm a big fan of Wal-Mart's pharmacy (in my "other" home town) just because it seems really busy and impersonal, however I've had really good luck with their $4 generic program.

My mail-order pharmacy that's part of my insurance (Medco) wants to charge me double what Wal-Mart will for the same drug. Not a lot of money, but Medco pushes that they are THE most cost effective.

Anyway, Sidney, sorry for your particular issue and one does have to check their list and prices, but my price experience with Wal-Mart was fair.

I agree there sure seems to be a lot of disparity in medical prices for everything these days.

[Sidney Lanier]

The $4 generics program is terrific; I believe that all of the major pharmacies offer it or something similar and/or comparable. My experience had to do with a generic that is not on the $4 list, and possibly also with a name brand pharmaceutical (one for which there is no generic available)....

[The Great Fumar]

WE HAVE FOUND THAT K-MART HAS THE BEST PLAN FOR GENERICS ......EVEN BETTER THAN THE VA..........

CHECK FOR YOURSELF AND ASK FOR A LIST.........

EL CHEAPO FUMAR

[GatorFan]

I use from Publix. Some have even been free.

[Peggy D]

$141.00 for a generic drug? Ouch!!!

Not there yet for Medicare and its drug plan, but hearing that scares me.

[Sidney Lanier]

Our Medicare plan plus Medicare Supplement Plan F (ours is Mutual of Omaha) are fantastic! We pay premiums for both, of course, but we have not had to pay anything out of pocket from the time we've had both plans in effect.

On the other hand, when Congress and the president were creating the Part D Prescription Plan, which requires a third premium for health coverage in addition to the above two, even though we had an excellent prescription drug plan that was part of our health coverage (an employment benefit before we were Medicare eligible), I was already railing against it, as it was clear what a nightmare it was going to be. Part D basically rewards the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and does not support us enrollees.

Do you know, for example, that the drug companies are allowed to charge whatever they want with no restrictions on their pricing, in contrast, say, to Canada where the companies are required by the government to negotiate lower prices based on bulk purchases? No wonder our government had to make it illegal--yes, actually illegal!--to fill our prescriptions in Canadian pharmacies?

And do you know that once you enroll in a Part D prescription drug plan, which is now required by Medicare, you are locked in for the year no matter what (unless you move to an area not serviced by your particular plan), and you cannot make a change until the following open enrollment period (November 15-December 31)?

And do you also know that while you are stuck with that company for the year, the insurance companies are given carte blanche to make whatever changes they wish to, including dropping from their formulary covered drugs that you specifically chose that company for? In fact, the only thing they cannot change is the annual premium (at least for that year; the following year they can do whatever they want in terms of premium)!

Unbelievable....

[Shirleevee]

The Walmart and Kmart websites have lists of the generic drugs they discount, in PDF format.


Shirleevee

[njgranny]

My husband and I are NOT required to carry Part D because the prescription plan that I have under my secondary insurance plan is as good or better than the Medicare plans. We received letters from our secondary insurance that states this and which we had to send to Medicare.

Our local ShopRite store has a $9.99 for a 3-month prescription for certain generics which is cheaper than our regular insurance. So, when it applies, they give us that price.

[Sidney Lanier]

That is the only drawback to our Mutual of Omaha Plan F Medicare Supplement: It does not include prescription drug coverage. If I've learned nothing else from this Wal-Mart Pharmacy experience, it's the need to be a knowledgeable consumer and approach any prescription drug purchase with a healthy dose of caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware"). I live my life based on, among other things, the expression "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me"....

[efrahin]

It will be a good thing to share the information about the Prescription Drugs on part D of Medicare.
We have coverage under AARP-Prescription Drug program managed by Prescription Solutions. As fas as you get generics there is no charge. However my wife needs two prescriptions that have no generic equivalent. They have what they call: Tier One, Two and Three, and a list of the drugs under each Tier. The cost is $210 $90 and $75 for a 90 days supply. And guess what, her two drugs are on Tier One meaning we have to pay $1680.00 yearly for just these 2 drugs. The cost of the plan is $68.00 monthly for each.

[chacam]

Sidney, which company do you have your pard D with ? I wil be 65 in a few months and will be looking for Pard D coverage.

Thanks

[Sidney Lanier]

chacam and efrahin: The first year my wife and I had Part D coverage, we were with a company that was so uniformly awful in its coverage and attitude that I vowed to leave them at the end of the year. Can't remember the name of it; we had taken it because it came recommended by the agent who handles our Mutual of Omaha Part F Medicare Supplement Plan (that is excellent). They were so despicable (too long to go into details on a public post...) that before the open enrollment period I began researching other plans. BTW, the monthly premium on that plan was about $46, going up to about $55 this year.

I researched like crazy, including making a trip to our local Office for the Aging here in New York State. Turned out that by that time I knew more than the volunteer I met with, who explained that people were coming in to her with shopping bags full of literature and advertising that they'd received in the mail and they had no idea what to do with it. Most did not have Internet access which is virtually obligatory today to deal with this stuff. All she could do was 'bandaid.' I ended up telling her that if I were around more (we travel a lot with my wife a travel agent AND we're snowbirds and so are in TV much of the year), I'd come and volunteer too. This is part of why I refer to Plan D as a boondoggle for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and a horror for the very people it's supposed to help!

There is a tool on the Medicare.gov site that allows you to examine all the plans that are available in your area and to enter your prescriptions, and it then gives the out-of-pocket costs for each plan. In the end I did this for my wife and myself, and it turned out that a plan that was more favorable for me wasn't for her, and vice versa. So we have two different plans. Mine is called HealthSpring, with a deductible of $275 to meet, after which they will cover 75% of their negotiated costs for meds. So far I have no problem with the plan itself; I was just shocked that the cost of the generic I use was so high at Wal-Mart Pharmacy. That was my first prescription of the year (June); I had another recently for pain med following surgery two weeks ago. Interesting that the small independent pharmacy that I used filled it without my drug plan (didn't have the card with me when I went there straight from the surgery center) for about $24 and was told to bring the card back and they would rebill it to the insurance company. When I did they refunded me $19, meaning that the total cost of that generic drug was $5. Because of the $275 deductible, my plan has a pretty reasonable premium: $17/monthly (going up to $20/monthly because of switching to Florida residency).

To be frank, I have no idea what I will do for next year. So far I have no problem with my plan, but with a new ZIP code at TV rather than ours in NYS, there may be other offerings that are better for me. It's very individual. I use three eyedrops that are available only as non-generic and they are very expensive in any of the Part D plans; I am fortunate that my doctors ply me with samples of these drugs, because if not, I'd be spending a fortune for them and would probably end up in the 'donut hole.' Now, do you know about the donut hole? There's a point after which you've spent so much on prescription drugs that you suddenly have no coverage at all for several thousand dollars, and if you exceed that, after that point you then get covered under a catastrophic guideline.

Isn't Part D marvelous? Sorry to be a little sarcastic.... What a nightmare!!! If having been there and done that I can be of any specific help, please feel free to PM me.

[efrahin]

Sidney: I am glad not to be alone, I did not understood anything about all this nonsense. When I went to the Social Security in my town and ask for help they told me: "We dont understand it either" then I asked my doctor, whose wife is the office person and she suggested AARP-United Healthcare. Everything in the plan works all right except the plan D. What they are doing with the old people (euphemism for senior citizens) is criminal.

[chacam]

Recommended to me was Health Net Orange. Monthly premiun of $12.10. For all non name (generic) drugs there is a co-pay of $1.00. For name brands, there is an annual deductable,less than $300. Still a lot to learn before I make a final decision.