Here’s that Rx refill you didn’t order

  Is your pharmacy refilling your prescription without your knowledge or approval, and billing your insurance company for the cost?

 

Is your pharmacy refilling your prescription without your knowledge or approval, and billing your insurance company for the cost?

If so, it’s the latest example of waste we shouldn’t tolerate in our health care system.

As David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times has reported, The U.S. Justice Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and state pharmacy regulators in California and New Jersey are investigatingwhether actions by CVS Caremark amount to fraud.

Now, it appears this practice may be more widespread. In Lazarus’ latest Los Angeles Times column on the issue, he reports that patients are complaining the same practice is taking place at Target, Rite Aid and Walgreens pharmacies.

As Laura Etherton, health care policy analyst at CoPIRG’s national federation says in that article, “refilling prescriptions when consumers don’t need them is money down the drain.”

We all know health care costs more than it should. The high cost of prescription drugs drive many consumers to shop around to find the best deal, leading to fierce competition between pharmacies. 

Given that, from the pharmacy’s perspective, enrolling consumers in automatic-refill programs is a smart way to build repeat business. And to be fair, these programs can be good for consumers too, especially for patients on critical maintenance drugs who are apt to miss doses between refills. Helping patients adhere to prescribed medication can help keep them healthy and out of the hospital.

But the win-win falls apart if pharmacies are enrolling customers in these automatic-refill programs without their approval. Doing so couldneedlessly drive up claims costs for Medicare and private insurance, and could end up driving up premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

If your pharmacy has refilled your prescription without your approval, you can contact Colorado’s Board of Pharmacy to file a complaint at http://www.dora.state.co.us/pharmacy.

 

 

Authors

Danny Katz

Executive Director, CoPIRG

Danny has been the director of CoPIRG for over a decade. Danny co-authored a groundbreaking report on the state’s transit, walking and biking needs and is a co-author of the annual “State of Recycling” report. He also helped write a 2016 Denver initiative to create a public matching campaign finance program and led the early effort to eliminate predatory payday loans in Colorado. Danny serves on the Colorado Department of Transportation's (CDOT) Efficiency and Accountability Committee, CDOT's Transit and Rail Advisory Committee, RTD's Reimagine Advisory Committee, the Denver Moves Everyone Think Tank, and the I-70 Collaborative Effort. Danny lobbies federal, state and local elected officials on transportation electrification, multimodal transportation, zero waste, consumer protection and public health issues. He appears frequently in local media outlets and is active in a number of coalitions. He resides in Denver with his family, where he enjoys biking and skiing, the neighborhood food scene and raising chickens.