State alliance to boost drug purchasing power

Kansans can order prescriptions from abroad

Between them, Elaine and Gordon Shreves spend about $500 a month on prescription drugs.

“One month, it was over $800,” said Elaine Shreves. “Both my husband and I — he’s 79, I’m 76 — have bad hearts and high blood pressure.”

The Shreveses, who owned and operated Gordon’s Shoe Store for 25 years in downtown Lawrence, say they’re scrimping on meals and heat to pay for their medications.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday said a new program in Kansas may be able to help people like the Shreveses get the medicines they need at a lower cost so they don’t have to cut corners on other essentials.

Under the program, Kansas would join Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin in the I-SaveRx alliance, which purchases less-expensive drugs from Canada and Europe.

Savings cited

Started in October by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the program works through a Canada-based clearinghouse to connect consumers to more than 60 pharmacies and wholesalers in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Sebelius, at a news conference in a north Topeka senior center with Blagojevich, said the program could save Kansans from 25 percent to 50 percent on the cost of about 100 prescription drugs. For example, the savings on Celebrex would be 56 percent; Nexium, 49 percent, and Zocor, 44 percent, according to a program cost analysis.

The two Democratic governors said the savings were needed because in the past year alone common prescription medicines have increased at four times the rate of inflation.

Pharmacy intern Charity Thompson fills a prescription at Medical Arts Pharmacy, 346 Maine. Kansans will be able to buy less expensive prescription drugs from Canada and Europe through a program announced Tuesday by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Senior citizens on fixed incomes generally applauded Sebelius but pharmacists said the governor was leading Kansas down a potentially dangerous and illegal path.

“We really have a crisis on our hands,” Sebelius said. “Tens of thousands of seniors and hard-working Kansas families can’t afford the health care they need.”

Said Blagojevich: “Life-saving medicines should not be luxury products available only to people who can afford them.”

Prescription drug wars

But joining the alliance puts Kansas in the middle of the national battle over increasing drug prices. And critics quickly pounced on the proposal, raising questions about its legality and whether imported drugs are safe.

“Governor Sebelius is opening the door for counterfeit, mislabeled and expired drugs masked as prescriptions for our most vulnerable citizens,” said House Speaker Doug Mays, a Topeka Republican.

To participate in I-SaveRX, a new state program aimed at helping contain the cost of prescription drugs:Get and fill out medical history and enrollment forms,¢ By phone, call toll-free (866) I-SAVE33¢ By computer, visit www.I-SaveRx.net to print an enrollment packet.Ask doctor to review the medical history form with you, and have the doctor provide an original prescription for each medication refill you need.Fax the information, toll-free, to (866) 715-6337, or send it to:I-SaveRxP.O. Box 21086Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada N8N 4S1An I-SaveRx representative will call to confirm your order and process your payment upon receipt. You will receive your medication in about 20 days.

He asked Atty. Gen. Phill Kline, also a Republican, to issue a legal opinion on the drug plan.

Mays said drug importation was illegal under federal law, that the plan would result in the loss of pharmacy jobs in Kansas, and taxpayers would be exposed to lawsuits resulting from wrongful death litigation.

Pharmacists said the mail-order drug purchasing was potentially dangerous.

John Kiefhaber, executive director of the Kansas Pharmacists Assn., warned that I-SaveRx would strain customers’ ties with their pharmacists, reducing their access to information about the effects of their medications.

“There are all kinds of over-the-counter medications, for example, that shouldn’t be mixed with prescription drugs,” Kiefhaber said.

At Medical Arts Pharmacy, 346 Maine, owner Marvin Bredehoft said I-SaveRx’s long-term costs would outweigh its short-term gains.

“All of us want the very best prices we can get for our customers,” Bredehoft said. “But there ought to be a way to do that without cutting off my — the pharmacist’s — interaction with my customers. I want the very best for my customers. They are not going to get that ordering through the mail. For me, this isn’t about profits. It’s about care.”

FDA blamed

At the earlier news conference, Blagojevich and Sebelius said they anticipated criticism of the proposal.

text States fill federal void on drug safety (11-25-04)text Sebelius plan would pack on costs for smokers (11-10-04)text I-SaveRx.nettext Sin tax may fund new health plan (10-30-04)text Medicaid realignment in works (10-28-04)text Report reflects Kansans’ insurance struggles (09-15-04)<i>” border=”0″/> Governor to juggle school, health care issues in 2005 (09-13-04)</a><a href=</i>” border=”0″/> Health care costs climb 11.2 percent (09-10-04)</a><a href=<i>” border=”0″/> Record Medicare premium jump coming (09-04-04)</a><a href=</i>” border=”0″/> Sebelius promises increased health insurance (08-28-04)</a></td> </tr> </table> </div> </div> <p>On the safety issue, the two said the network pharmacies in other countries must comply with Illinois pharmaceutical standards. For example, Blagojevich said, the drug Lipitor is manufactured by the U.S. company Pfizer in Northern Ireland. Instead of bringing the medication through wholesalers and other middlemen, the program goes to Northern Ireland to purchase Lipitor directly.</p> <p>On the legal front, Blagojevich said Americans had been buying drugs from Canada for years with no interference from the federal Food and Drug Administration.</p> <p>He said he had tried to work with Congress and the FDA to put together a federal program for re-importation of drugs. A legion of more than 600 drug company lobbyists has tied the federal government in knots on the issue, he said.</p> <p>“The FDA for the past 16 months has put the interest of the big pharmaceutical companies over and above the health and welfare of the seniors and working people of our country,” Blagojevich said.</p> <h3>Short-term effects</h3> <p>Because the federal government can’t move on the issue, some states are either purchasing on their own or forming alliances, he said.</p> <p>Earlier this month, Sebelius unveiled a separate $50 million health-care initiative that included plans to network Kansas pharmacies to supply generic drugs to low-wage working Kansans. Sebelius said then she was studying the Illinois program.</p> <p>Sebelius also said Tuesday her administration was studying whether the state should import drugs directly to save money in providing medical services to low-income residents.</p> <p>She said she sympathized with pharmacists who “are caught in the middle,” but said she felt she had to side with folks unable to buy medicine because of increasing costs.</p> <p>Blagojevich said some pharmacists would be hurt in the short run.</p> <p>But, he said, “I believe if we put more pressure on this system and more pressure on these big drug companies and more pressure on those who set policy in Washington to change the rules to free up the marketplace, the local drug store will come out the big winner.”</p> <h3>Curious, skeptical</h3> <p>Katie Glendening, a health insurance counselor at Douglas County Senior Services, welcomed news of Kansas joining the multistate compact.</p> <p>“Anything that helps reduce the cost of prescription drugs is good,” she said.</p> <p>In Lawrence, Glendening said, it’s not unusual for senior citizens to spend $1,000 a month on prescription drugs.</p> <p>“That’s more than I pay in rent,” she said. “But I also have people trying to live on $400-a-month fixed income who are paying $100 or $200 a month for prescription drugs. It’s all relative — $1,000 is a lot, but for some people $100 can be just as hard to come up with.”</p> <p>Glendening said she’s not aware of seniors skipping meals or going without heat to pay their prescription drug bills.</p> <p>“But what I do see,” she said, “is people cutting their pills in half to make them last longer or, instead of taking them every day, they’ll take them on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays.”</p> <h3>‘Check it out’</h3> <p>Don Callaway, 68, a retired printer in Topeka, was at Papan’s Landing Senior Center for the announcement and said he liked what he heard.</p> <p>“There ought to be some kind of price controls on these drugs,” he said. “I’m going to check it out for sure.”</p> <p>Asked about I-SaveRx, Gordon Shreves, the former shoe store owner in Lawrence, said he would approach it with skepticism.</p> <p>“I’ve seen these kinds of things before. But every time we look into them, we’re better off staying where we are,” he said, noting he and his wife have been customers of Round Corner Drug, 801 Mass., for 47 years.</p> <p>“And when we’ve looked at going other places, they always want to give you a substitute (generic brand),” Shreves said.</p> <p>But he said he and his wife might look into dividing their drug purchases between I-SaveRx and Round Corner.</p> <p>“We’ve got to do something,” he said.</p> <!-- Taboola PRE --> </section> <div style=