Discount drug card not welcome by all

The city of Opelika will launch a prescription drug discount card on Saturday through the National League of Cities that could save non-insured residents up to 20 percent on their medication, but not everyone thinks it’s a good thing.
The cards, which will have the city of Opelika emblem, are administered by CVS/Caremark, the combination of the CVS drugstore/pharmacy chain and Caremark, a pharmacy benefit manager (a third party administrator of prescription drug programs). The two merged in 2007.
The cards offer discounts on prescription drugs, but the walk-off-the-street cost of prescriptions at some pharmacies could be lower without the use of the card. The pricing for the discount is based on usual and customary retail prices.
“The assumption being made is that all pharmacies other than CVS are over charging,” said Roger Burnett, owner of Thomas Pharmacy Inc., in Opelika. “We feel like our prices are probably as good as they are going to tell us to charge anyway.”
Customers have the option to pay the pharmacy price or the discount price the card provides.
Another fear is that the cards could transmit customer information to CVS — that they could, in turn, use that information to solicit customers, said Bill Eley, director of legislative affairs for the American Pharmacy Cooperative Inc., which represents 1,300 independent pharmacies in 21 states, including Alabama.
“They can get information when they run that prescription through,” he said.
That will not happen, Christine Cramer, director of public relations for CVS/Caremark, said.
“CVS Caremark does not use the information that is collected during the claims processing process to solicit or advertise to NLC program participants,” Cramer said.
Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller said the city will not do anything to harm residents or local pharmacies.
“We are not going to do anything or be a party to anything that might harm our local drug stores and the relationship they have with their customers,” Fuller said in an e-mail.
Jan Gunter, community relations for Opelika, was in contact with Marc Shapiro, program manager for enterprise programs for NLC. She said that Shapiro made it clear that the cards were a partnership between the NLC and CVS/Caremark, but Shapiro affirmed to Gunter that CVS/Caremark would not use the information for the company’s own gain.
“In fact, CVS Caremark provides on their Web site a list of ‘participating pharmacies’ in our area ... By seeing that all of Opelika’s pharmacies were listed on the web site, I had no reason to suspect that this was anything other than a cooperative effort between CVS/Caremark, the NLC and our local pharmacies,” she said in an e-mail between herself and Fuller, which was subsequently forwarded to the Opelika-Auburn News.
Shapiro said CVS/Caremark adheres to all federal and state laws concerning customer privacy.
“Personal identifiable information of residents using the discount card is never used to solicit or advertise or given or sold to manufacturers or direct marketers,” he said. “There is no enrollment form required for the program and in most cases, no contact information for participants is collected.”
He said pharmacies agreed to join the card network, and that in most NLC cities enrolled in the program, the majority of local and independent pharmacies participate in the network. He said to date, from their experiences, there have been no complaints from local pharmacies.
“By participating in the network, local independent pharmacies can compete on a level playing field with the chain pharmacies, giving residents a greater choice,” he said. “There is no incentive, nor are participants encouraged to use CVS pharmacies.”
Local owner of Bubba’s Medicine Shop, Bubba Young, said any assistance for the uninsured is a good thing.
“We hope it helps them out,” he said.