Drug plan aims to help seniors.

Byline: TIM CHRISTIE The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 11/20/02): The Novartis Care Card allows low-income seniors to buy certain Novartis outpatient prescription drugs for a flat fee of $12 per month per prescription. A story in last Thursday's City/Region section about senior discount drug programs incorrectly described the Novartis card benefits.

Double-digit increases in the price of prescription drugs force low-income seniors to make some unpalatable choices.

Do they buy drugs or groceries? Do they skip a dose here and there to make the prescription last longer? Do they try to save money by buying drugs online from foreign pharmacies?

Two programs - one sponsored by the industry, the other by the state of Oregon - address the problem of expensive medicine from very different perspectives.

A number of pharmaceutical companies are offering prescription drug discount programs for low-income seniors.

Even Pfizer, which will be enrolling eligible seniors in its Living Share Program on Friday in Eugene, acknowledges the approach is a stopgap solution until Congress passes a Medicare drug benefit.

Pfizer representatives will be signing up low-income seniors in the Living Share Program from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Santa Clara Fred Meyer store, 60 Division St. The Fred Meyer pharmacy will operate a flu shot clinic during those same hours.

Seniors enrolled in the Pfizer program pay a $15 flat fee for a 30-day prescription of any Pfizer drug. Pfizer makes nine of the 50 most prescribed drugs for seniors, including Viagra, Lipitor and Zoloft.

To qualify for the Pfizer program, a person must be enrolled in Medicare, have no other prescription drug coverage, and have an annual income less than $18,000 for individuals or $24,000 for seniors.

Seniors who wish to enroll at the Fred Meyer event should bring their Medicare card and a 1040 tax form to prove they are eligible.

Pfizer said about 75,000 Oregon seniors are eligible for the program. The company plans to enroll 240,000 seniors nationwide.

The American Association of Retired Persons and other groups that lobby for seniors view the senior drug discount programs as better than nothing, but not by much.

"Anything that's going to save anybody any money on prescription drugs is a good thing," said Steve Hahn, an AARP spokesman in Washington, D.C., "but industry-sponsored cards have strict eligibility requirements and only cover drugs covered by those particular companies."

The programs cover only a fraction of the 39 million Medicare beneficiaries, Hahn said.

The state is taking a different tack by making unbiased, comparative information on drugs available to doctors and consumers, an approach the AARP supports.

A law passed by the 2001 Legislature authorized state health officials to develop an evidence-based list of drugs it would cover under the Oregon Health Plan.

"The cost of prescription drugs are increasing faster than any other part of the Oregon Health Plan," said Dr. John Santa, administrator of the state Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research.

"The goal is to keep a check on costs by identifying for practitioners and patients the most effective and cost-effective drugs and encourage their use," he said.

The plan covers drugs on the list. If a doctor wants to prescribe a drug that's not on the list, he or she needs only to write a note on the prescription saying the drug is "medically necessary," Santa said.

Taxpayers and consumers care most about the cost and effectiveness of prescription drugs, he said, noting, "Our findings confirm that most costly does not always equal most effective."

For example, studies have found no evidence that expensive prescription arthritis drugs such as Vioxx and Celebrex are any more effective than Aleve, an over-the-counter drug sold generically as naproxen sodium, said Enid Moore, associate director for advocacy at AARP in Oregon.

Seniors aren't looking for handouts, she said, but rather a "functional, fair market place." Providing unbiased, evidence-based information on drugs will put market forces to work on drug prices, she said.

The state has completed evidence-based studies of four classes of medicine and plans to do 21 more, Moore said.

PRESCRIPTION DRUG CARDS

A number of drug industry-sponsored programs offer discounts on pharmaceutical drugs for low-income seniors. Eligibility varies but generally requires that participants have no other prescription coverage, be on Medicare, and have low incomes.

Together RX is a joint discount card offered by seven drug companies. It provides discounts of 20 percent to 40 percent on more than 150 drugs. Information: [phone] or www.together-rx.com.

Novartis Care Card covers selected Novartis outpatient prescription drugs, with discounts of 25 percent or more. Information: [phone] or www.novartis.com/downloads/carecard/care_applic.pdf.

Orange Card is GlaxoSmithKline's medical savings card for seniors, providing average savings of 30 percent. Information: [phone].

Pfizer Living Share Card is Pfizer's discount program for seniors. Enrollees pay a $15 flat rate for each 30-day prescription. Information: [phone].

Lilly Answers is Lilly's discount program for seniors and people with disabilities. Enrollees pay a $12 flat rate for a 30-day prescription. Information: [phone] or www.lillyanswers.com.

- The Register-Guard