Saturday, February 18, 2006
Immoral pharmacists
I am posting this story here. I would really like to email to all of the pharmacists I have worked with the past 6 years. I have been told over and over that Republican are "for business" and Democrats are "against business".
President Bush has attacked "prescription drug pharmacists", accusing them of overcharging Medicaid through "inflated markups, inflated prices," for drugs. "People talked about how the decision to reform Medicaid was immoral," Bush said Feb. 8. "Well, it's not immoral to make sure that prescription drug pharmacists don't overcharge the system." "The nation's community pharmacists are offended by your comments," said James R. Rankin, RPh, NCPA president, in a letter to the president. "This statement is disingenuous and untrue. In fact, nearly all Medicaid prescriptions have a cap placed on them by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and by the state Medicaid programs designed specifically to make it impossible to overcharge the Medicaid system." The president's remarks came to a business group in New Hampshire, following his signing of the deficit reduction/budget reconciliation act that will slash Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement by $6.3 billion over five years. Two days earlier, the White House had released the federal budget for the next fiscal year, which includes a proposal to lop an additional $1.3 billion from Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement all from generic drugs. "It appears that the Bush administration considers pharmacy to be an easy target," said Bruce Roberts, RPh, NCPA executive vice president and CEO. "The cost associated with the dispensing of medications by pharmacists," Roberts continued, "represents a small fraction of the overall cost and holds the greatest potential for reducing the enormous economic and human cost of medication-related problems, and yet it is this component that is being targeted by the Bush White House." Rankin and Roberts extended invitations to the president to visit an independent pharmacy to see what actually goes on at the front lines of health care. Mike Leavitt, his secretary of health and human services, has visited both independent and chain pharmacies, and has praised pharmacists for their "heroic" efforts to make the Medicare Part D work.
A very healthy pharmacy will make a net profit of 5% of their sales. The average net profits for an independent pharmacy without the owner's compensation was 3.6% in 2004. If you add in the owner's compensation, the number rises to 7.8% according to the 2005 National Community Pharmacy Association- Pfizer Digbenefitn contrast, the pharmacy benfit managers, the companies that manage your pharmacy benefits such as Medco and Caremark, are reporting record profits. I can't tell exactly what their profits are net or gross since they are not regulated. They are estimated to be make ~40% gross profit yearly. Drug manufacturers are currently making about 18% profit yearly (it is not clear whether that is net or gross). So, who is immoral? We are just trying to keep our doors open as more and more people are required to fill medication through mail order.
The only business that this Republican administration is for is large corporations. The cost for pharmacy could be crippling so I hope all my fellow pharmacist think before they vote this year.
President Bush has attacked "prescription drug pharmacists", accusing them of overcharging Medicaid through "inflated markups, inflated prices," for drugs. "People talked about how the decision to reform Medicaid was immoral," Bush said Feb. 8. "Well, it's not immoral to make sure that prescription drug pharmacists don't overcharge the system." "The nation's community pharmacists are offended by your comments," said James R. Rankin, RPh, NCPA president, in a letter to the president. "This statement is disingenuous and untrue. In fact, nearly all Medicaid prescriptions have a cap placed on them by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and by the state Medicaid programs designed specifically to make it impossible to overcharge the Medicaid system." The president's remarks came to a business group in New Hampshire, following his signing of the deficit reduction/budget reconciliation act that will slash Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement by $6.3 billion over five years. Two days earlier, the White House had released the federal budget for the next fiscal year, which includes a proposal to lop an additional $1.3 billion from Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement all from generic drugs. "It appears that the Bush administration considers pharmacy to be an easy target," said Bruce Roberts, RPh, NCPA executive vice president and CEO. "The cost associated with the dispensing of medications by pharmacists," Roberts continued, "represents a small fraction of the overall cost and holds the greatest potential for reducing the enormous economic and human cost of medication-related problems, and yet it is this component that is being targeted by the Bush White House." Rankin and Roberts extended invitations to the president to visit an independent pharmacy to see what actually goes on at the front lines of health care. Mike Leavitt, his secretary of health and human services, has visited both independent and chain pharmacies, and has praised pharmacists for their "heroic" efforts to make the Medicare Part D work.
A very healthy pharmacy will make a net profit of 5% of their sales. The average net profits for an independent pharmacy without the owner's compensation was 3.6% in 2004. If you add in the owner's compensation, the number rises to 7.8% according to the 2005 National Community Pharmacy Association- Pfizer Digbenefitn contrast, the pharmacy benfit managers, the companies that manage your pharmacy benefits such as Medco and Caremark, are reporting record profits. I can't tell exactly what their profits are net or gross since they are not regulated. They are estimated to be make ~40% gross profit yearly. Drug manufacturers are currently making about 18% profit yearly (it is not clear whether that is net or gross). So, who is immoral? We are just trying to keep our doors open as more and more people are required to fill medication through mail order.
The only business that this Republican administration is for is large corporations. The cost for pharmacy could be crippling so I hope all my fellow pharmacist think before they vote this year.
# posted by Dawn @ 7:50 AM 
