Pharmacists Protest Insurance Practices But Insurers Say Druggists Should Worry About Lowering Prices

Inland Northwest pharmacists strung up banners and dimmed their lights Wednesday as part of a nationwide protest against “predatory practices” by health insurance companies.

Health insurers pay too little, intervene too much and often steer patients to mail-order pharmacies, druggists said.

The result, they say: Patients lose face-to-face consultations and drugstores go out of business.

“We are fundamentally not being allowed to do our job,” said Spokane Valley pharmacist Bob Redmond. “We invest a lot of emotion, time and professional commitment to patients. But our activities are controlled by these third parties - insurance companies.”

“People are being told they cannot use the local pharmacy they’ve been accustomed to for years,” said Barry Feely, owner of Medicine Man pharmacy in Hayden, Idaho. “People should have a choice where they can do business.”

About 40 drugstores go out of business in America each week, largely due to insurance policies, according to the National Association of Retail Druggists. The group organized Wednesday’s protest, labeled “High Noon at Your Local Pharmacy.”

In many cases, the association claims, health insurers pay drugstores so little that pharmacists lose money. Feely said he’s lost as much as $1 per bottle - and that doesn’t include his overhead, like electricity, rent and salaries.

“They just keep ratcheting the reimbursements downward,” said St. Maries pharmacist Jack Botts, wearing a black armband.

Insurers downplayed pharmacists complaints, saying customers want low prices.

“Rather than concern themselves with ‘High Noon,’ they ought to concern themselves with high prices,” said Richard Coorsch, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Health Insurance Association of America.

In Boise, Blue Shield spokeswoman Georganne Benjamin said the company offers mail-order prescriptions because customers demanded it. It’s cheaper, she said.

Coorsch called the protest a smokescreen for corner drugstores’ inability to compete in the marketplace.

“Clearly, their main concern is maintaining their profit margins,” he said. “The issue should not be whether they are getting enough money. The issue should be whether the consumer’s saving money.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo