Extensive gaps in price information seriously hamper the effectiveness of state drug price comparison web sites, according to a research brief, State Prescription Drug Price web Sites: How Useful to Consumers? released Feb. 13 by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).
As of late 2007, 10 states had web sites providing prescription drug prices available at retail pharmacies--Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. All but one of the states use Medicaid pharmacy claims data, which often contain usual and customary price information. The usual and customary price is not the actual price paid by Medicaid for prescription drugs but generally represents a pharmacy’s retail price to a cash-paying customer, absent any discount. The clear drawback to using Medicaid claims data is that price information will be available only in cases where a pharmacy submitted a Medicaid claim containing a usual and customary price for a particular drug, according to the study. Read the research brief.
