From The Columbus Dispatch
September 24, 2005
2 Local Hospitals Sign Up To Cut Cost Of Drugs For Needy
By Suzanne Hoholik
Two local hospitals have joined a federal program that promises savings on drugs
prescribed to poor patients.
Public hospitals and private, nonprofit facilities that serve a certain
percentage of needy patients are eligible to participate and save at least 15
percent on the cost of brand-name drugs and 11 percent on generics. About 550
hospitals participate nationwide, with average savings of about $2 million a
year, according to the Public Hospital Pharmacy Coalition.
Doctors Hospital and Grant Medical Center are the most recent to sign up.
Hospitals say they fall short when they prescribe drugs to low-income or poor
patients who can't pay. They are either not reimbursed at all by Medicaid, or
the reimbursement doesn't cover their costs.
"The price of prescriptions continues to go up much higher than the rate of
inflation," said Ted Slafsky, executive director of the coalition, a group of
hospitals that share a goal of making health care accessible to the poor.
"The hospitals benefit because, as they try to continue their mission to
continue to provide care to anyone who comes in the door, they can also try to
control that budget that keeps going up and up."
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a private, nonprofit research group,
prescription-drug costs for hospitals climbed 10 percent from 2001 to 2002.
The discount is for medications given in outpatient care at emergency
departments and hospital clinics. A bill introduced in Congress would extend the
reduced prices to inpatient medications.
The savings in the program come at the beginning, when the drugs are purchased.
For example, a cholesterol medication that costs about $3 per pill would go for
about $2.25 per pill for hospitals enrolled in the program. This adds up when
millions of pills are purchased every year.
"It's a way to be compensated by the government for this process and opens us to
take care of an even larger portion of these patients in the community." said
Peg Huwer, pharmacy director at Doctors.
Hospitals are eligible if more than 11.75 percent of their patients can't pay
for care.
At Doctors, about 17 percent of the patients fit the criteria, while at Grant,
about 14 percent are unable to pay, officials say.
Because they are private, nonprofit hospitals, Doctors and Grant had to enroll
through the Columbus Health Department.
In return, the hospitals agreed to report back to the department on the program,
accept patients referred by the city and participate in a discussion with other
hospitals about the pricing program, said Dr. Teresa Long, Columbus health
commissioner.
While this is new for Doctors and Grant, almost 290 health-care centers are
participating throughout the state.
Besides hospitals, other centers include family-planning clinics, state-operated
AIDS programs and tuberculosis centers.
Slafsky said the reduced-pricing program has helped the bottom line.
"There are many cases where hospitals have had to close their pharmacies and
strongly considered it," Slafsky said. "This has helped them at least stay out
of the point where they're going into bankruptcy."
shoholik@dispatch.com
Saving on medicine
Because of the high percentage of poor patients served, 13 Ohio hospitals --
including four in Columbus -- qualify for a federal program to buy prescription
drugs for outpatients at a discounted price. The program saves hospitals
millions of dollars.
The hospitals:
University Hospital, Cincinnati
MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland
St. Vincent Charity Hospital, Cleveland
University Hospitals, Cleveland
Doctors Hospital, Columbus
Grant Medical Center, Columbus
Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus
OSU Hospitals East, Columbus
Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton
Brown County General Hospital, Georgetown
Southern Ohio Medical Center, Portsmouth
Community Hospital, Springfield
St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, Toledo
Source: Public Hospital Pharmacy Coalition