Frustrated pharmacists are opting out of....

[kadee79]

The insurance system.  Scripts are not always cheaper with insurance...

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — For years, Sharon Kitchen and her husband, Mike, went to the same pharmacy just 2 miles from their house in this suburb of Columbus. But last June, their pharmacist, Nate Hux, suggested that Sharon switch to a new pharmacy he had opened — right next door to his old one — which he said would save her more than $500 a year.

Hux has owned Pickerington Pharmacy, which takes nearly every kind of insurance, since 2016. In 2020, he launched Freedom Pharmacy, a separate business with an unusual model: It’s a pharmacy that takes no insurance, instead selling generic medications at wholesale prices, plus a small markup that goes to the pharmacy.

“At first I thought, ‘How do they do this?” Kitchen said. “But it turns out, if I go through my insurance, it’s going to be a higher cost for me.”

Freedom Pharmacy is one of a small but growing number of “cash” or “self-pay” pharmacies, sometimes able to save customers hundreds of dollars on a single medication. As patients struggle with rising prescription drug prices and insurance deductibles, everyone from members of Congress to entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban and small-business owners like Hux are trying to lower drug costs. By opting out of the insurance system altogether, Hux and other cash pharmacy owners are able to avoid many of the fees and rules that inflate medication prices. Consumers say they are reaping the benefits.

www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/frustrated-pharmacists-are-opting-insurance-system-saving-customers-hu-rcna36706

[busymom]

If the consumer wins, I'm all for it.