Your Doctor Could Save You Money
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (9/7/01), doctors are often in the best position to help patients lower their prescription drug bills. Instead of prescribing high priced, well-advertised name brand drugs, there are many generic or chemically similar drugs that are as effective, but cost much less. However, studies have shown that doctors are often unaware of the high price of the medications they are prescribing, and therefore do not seek out a more cost effective alternative drug. In one study outlined in the Wall Street Journal, 80% out of the 134 physicians surveyed said that they often did not know how much their patients were paying for prescription drugs. When the same physicians were asked to estimate the cost of 33 commonly prescribed drugs, they underestimated the cost 40% of the time. Physician education is clearly a key way to reduce the burden of the high cost of prescription drugs on consumers and employers alike.

Prescription drug benefits are an important part of the Health Benefits Plan offered by your Health Fund. The cost of this benefit has been growing by over 17% each year for the last two years. We expect that the annual rate of increase in the cost of dug benefits will remain in the 13%-16% range through the year 2002.

What factors are behind this significant trend?
There are several key reasons that contribute to this result:

• With Americans getting older, many require more medications to maintain their quality of life.
• Ingredients costs of prescription drugs are increasing.
• Drug therapies are used more effectively than those they replace.
• New drugs are often more expensive than those they replace.
• FDA approvals of new prescription medications are increasing each year.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturers advertise brand name drugs directly to consumers.

What can we do about renewed prescription drug cost inflation?
Use only those drugs that are appropriate to your medical condition.

• Be sure to follow exactly your doctor's instructions for taking the medication.
• Throw away any unused, unneeded, or expired medications.
• Talk to your doctor about using an equivalent generic medication instead of taking a more expensive brand name drug.
• Ask your doctor to consider ordering a 14-day supply of medication that you're taking for the first time. You'll want to be sure you don't have any side effects that you can't tolerate before you buy an expensive medication.
• Order maintenance medications by mail, instead of going to your local retail pharmacy more frequently. It may also save you money!

There is no simple answer to the challenge of managing the costs of your prescription drug benefits. Also, the Trustees of your Health Funds want to ensure that you and your family members receive the appropriate prescription drugs at prices that we all can continue to afford.

If we pull together, and each of us does what we can to use needed medications wisely; both you and your Health Fund will be better off over the long haul.

If you have questions about how best to use your prescription drug benefit, please call your fund administrator for information.