by Leslie Merklin-Barber BSN,RN,CDE
11. November 2011 06:54
Everybody is talking about the economy today. The question on most people’s mind is how can I save money and how does my spending affect the bottom line? If you have Medicare and are getting your glucose strips from CCS Medical, you are already helping save Medicare money. Mail order glucose strips are paid by Medicare at $31 per box, while glucose strips you get from your local pharmacy (i.e. Walgreens, Rite Aid, or Sav-On) are paid at $38 per box. This is a difference of $7 per box. This means that pharmacies are making on average $84 more each year on a patient that fills a prescription for 1 box a month.
Now I know $84 a year doesn’t sound like a lot of money but let’s put this into perspective:
- 66% of all patients with diabetes are covered by Medicare at about 14 to 16 million.
- If you take out just 1 million people with diabetes that are getting their glucose strips from the local pharmacy, that is $84,000,000 going out of the Medicare coffers each year.
Don’t you think that with this type of savings would take Medicare dollars farther?
Do you know people with diabetes that are not using mail order for their prescription needs?
Let them know how they can have a more positive effect on Medicare’s bottom line by getting their strips through mail order.
How will you pay for your prescriptions in the future if Medicare disappears? You decide.