Medicare-approved drug discount cards and prescription drug prices.

PURPOSE: Prescription drug prices with and without the use of Medicare-approved drug discount card programs (MADDCs) to purchase medications were studied.

METHODS: The Medicare.gov Web site was used to determine if the 200 most frequently prescribed drugs in the United States in 2003 were covered by a MADDC. The lowest and highest MADDC prices at local and mail-order pharmacies and the corresponding non-MADDC prices at the same community pharmacies or an Internet pharmacy, respectively, were determined. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to determine if there was a difference between non-MADDC medication prices and MADDC prices.

RESULTS: Of the top 200 medications prescribed in 2003, 192 (96%) and 189 (94.5%) were covered by at least one MADDC in a local pharmacy or mail-order pharmacy, respectively. Overall, MADDCs saved money compared with purchasing medications without a MADDC (p < 0.001). However, a MADDC resulted in a higher price than the retail non-MADDC price for 61 (31.8%) of the prescription medications at local pharmacies, and using a MADDC at a mail-order pharmacy resulted in a higher price than the Internet pharmacy non-MADDC price for 143 (75.7%) of the drugs.

CONCLUSION: MADDC prices for common prescription medications were generally lower than prices when MADDCs were not used. The highest mail-order MADDC prices were often higher than Internet non-MADDC prices.