|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Tuesday, May 14, 2002We have so many pills for so many ills that by the time a person reaches the age of Medicare benefits they are likely to be on a long list of medications, not all of them necessary. If a patient has to foot the bill for these, that gives him an incentive to work with his physician to try to minimize his drugs. If someone else foots the bill, then there is no incentive to cut back on the drugs or to chose a less expensive, equally effective alternative. I’ve seen this at work in my own practice with insurance plans that require only a five dollar co-pay for prescriptions. A patient will come to me for a sinus infection. I recommend amoxicillin: it costs less than ten dollars, and it’s effective, but you have to take it three times a day. The patient will ask for Zithromax, which costs about $45, but only has to be taken once a day. I explain that the amoxicillin is just as effective, and in some cases more so, and costs a lot less. The reply I get is, “I only pay five dollars no matter what you give me.” For Medicare to cover prescription medications and still remain solvent, they will have to put some limits on what they cover. Perhaps they could just cover generic drugs, or make a rule that they won’t cover anything that is directly marketed to consumers. posted by Sydney on 5/14/2002 07:55:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
