Market Watch
Kimberly Blanton
Nov. 2, 2018
When a pharmacy sells a prescription drug to a customer, the health insurer reimburses the pharmacy at a negotiated rate that covers its cost for the drug, its dispensing fees, and any additional markup.
It’s often the case that a patient’s copayment exceeds the pharmacy’s reimbursement, resulting in an overcharge in the copayment. More than one in four copayments were overcharges according to a March analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association of some 4,000 outpatient drugs and 9 million insurance claims by people of all ages.
At Squared Away, a blog published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, we asked Mohamed A. Jalloh in Napa, Calif., to guide consumers on how to reduce their costs. He is a pharmacist, assistant professor at the Touro University California College of Pharmacy, and a spokesman for the American Pharmacists Association.
More...
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-retirees-can-save-big-on-drug-costs-by-paying-cash-for-prescriptions-2018-11-02?mod=newsviewer_click
