Comparison of Discounted and Undiscounted Cash Prices for Cardiovascular Medications by Type of US Community Pharmacy

• Published in: Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 114 - 120
• Main Authors: Hong, Minji, Shcherbakova, Natalia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.01.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Brand names; Cardiovascular Agents; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug Costs; Drug development; Drug stores; Drugs; Drugs, Generic; Humans; Internal Medicine; Mass merchandising; Mathematical analysis; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Research; Pharmacies; Pharmacy; Prescription Drugs; Prices; Supermarkets; United States > US; community pharmacy; drug prices; discount programs; analytical pharmacy; cash prices
• ISSN: 0884-8734; 1525-1497
• DOI: 10.1007/s11606-020-06149-7

Background Cash prices for prescription drugs vary among community pharmacies in the USA. GoodRx is a discount platform that provides coupons for use in community pharmacies without a membership requirement. Analytical pharmacy is a new type of pharmacy that tests drugs before dispensing to verify medication quality. Objective To compare undiscounted and GoodRx-discounted cash prices for common cardiovascular (CV) drugs by pharmacy type. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting GoodRx-discounted and GoodRx-undiscounted cash price data; analytical pharmacy cash price data (all data collected in July 2020). Measurements GoodRx cash price data for 30 units of 41 generic and 16 brand-name common cardiovascular medications at mass merchandiser, regional supermarket, two national chains, and analytical pharmacy (only one of its kind in the USA). Results The average (SD) undiscounted generic CV medication cash price was $42.41 (44.1). The average GoodRx-discounted generic CV medication cash prices were $11.01 (8.6), $9.88 (6.7), $17.85 (10.5), and $21.73 (14.1) in mass merchandiser, supermarket, and two national chain pharmacies, respectively. The average generic CV medication cash price was $20.84 (25.7) at the analytical pharmacy. The average (SD) undiscounted brand-name CV medication cash price was $368.33 (127.00). The average GoodRx-discounted brand-name CV medication cash prices were $269.16 (118.1), $258.84 (108.6), $270.28 (118.4), and $274.60 (122.50) for mass merchandiser, supermarket, and two national chain pharmacies, respectively. The average (SD) brand-name CV medication cash price was $365.12 (116.20) at the analytical pharmacy. Conclusions GoodRx-discounted cash prices of generic CV medications were significantly lower than undiscounted cash prices at supermarket, mass merchandiser, and national chain pharmacies. Analytical pharmacy cash prices too were significantly lower than traditional pharmacy undiscounted cash prices. GoodRx-discounted prices for brand-name CV medications did not differ significantly from undiscounted cash prices and between pharmacy types.