Unnecessary Prescriptions = Higher Insurance Costs & Water Pollution
I couldn’t see if I had a piece of glass in my foot or if it was some kind of wart (it was at a weird angle for viewing) so I went to my doctor. She sent me to the podiatrist. He told me it was a plantar wart and he started to fill out a prescription and an OTC medication. I asked him why I needed both and he said the cream would help and there would be a co-pay but my insurance company would pay most of it.
I told him I did not have a drug rider and he quickly back-peddled and told me to forget about the cream and just get the OTC med. He muttered the cream was $100/$200 and probably unnecessary.
I went to the pharmacist who told me the OTC med, Mediplast cost $1.75 and worked very well. The cream was $800+!!! It is Aldara 5% and is used for patients with carcinoma. I am still fuming about this. It seems to me this doctor was very cavalier about prescribing a drug I did not need because he thought my insurance would pay for it. Why do doctors push drugs that patients don’t need? Pharmaceutical company encouragement.
Every time a patient accepts a drug s/he doesn’t need and insurance pays for it, the costs go up to the consumer. When my husband had a kidney stone, every specialist he saw wrote a new prescription for painkillers (20 pills, 40 pills). We only had the first one filled and I asked for half the amount. Otherwise, we would have paid a lot of money for drugs to sit in our medicine chest.
What happens to unnecessary medication in a medicine chest? It is available for members and visitors of your household to take (which if you have teenagers may not be a good idea). Eventually when the medicine expires, many people throw it down the toilet and into the water system.
Next time your doctor prescribes medication, remember to ask questions. Is there a generic? And if you don’t need that many, cut your cost at the pharmacy. You can always refill it if necessary.
May 25, 2009 - 7:50 PM No Comments
