Walmart generic drug discounts often offer more patient savings

Walmart generic drug discounts often offer more patient savings

(HealthDay)—Walmart's Generic Drug Discount Program (GDDP), which sells many commonly used generic medications for $4 per 30-day supply, offers savings over Medicare for some generic cardiovascular medications, according to a research letter published online July 24 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Patrick Liu, from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues compared Medicare beneficiary out-of-pocket costs through prescription drug plans (PDPs) with $4 GDDP cash prices using Walmart's September 2017 GDDP list, focusing on used to treat seven prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related conditions. The proportion of plans requiring patients to spend more than $4 out of pocket to obtain a 30-day supply for covered medications and each drug's median out-of-pocket cost were examined as the primary outcomes.

The researchers identified 27 generic medications from Walmart's list used for prevalent CVD-related conditions; Medicare PDPs covered a median of 25 medications. A median of 21 percent of plans required patients to spend more than $4 out of pocket for covered medications. Across all tiers, the median total out-of-pocket cost of covered medications was $2; significant differences were seen in costs for Medicare Advantage-PDPs (MA-PDPs) and stand-alone PDPs, with MA-PDPs consistently requiring patients to spend more than stand-alone PDPs.

"A substantial proportion of Medicare PDPs in 2017 required patients to spend more out of pocket than Walmart's GDDP for 30-day supplies of 27 generic medications used to treat prevalent CVD-related conditions," the authors write.

More information: Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

Journal information: Annals of Internal Medicine

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