State Web site to offer Rx cost comparisons

Start-up cost of project estimated at $322,000

BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer

BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

New Jersey residents will be able to shop for medicine smarter by using a new state Internet Web site. Appearing in East Brunswick on Aug. 21, Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill into law that created the Web site, to be run by the Department of Consumer Affairs, that provides retail pricing for the 150 most popular prescription drugs. This will allow people to more easily comparison shop for their medicines.

The bill arrived in the wake of a study conducted by the organization New Jersey Health Quality Institute that revealed tremendous variation on drug prices, even in stores in the same neighborhood. The price difference between the same drug in two different stores was found to be as high as $80.

Supporters of the bill believed that people, especially senior citizens, could save large amounts of money simply by knowing where to shop, especially in an age of rising prescription drug prices.

The Web site is estimated to have a start-up cost of $322,000, with an annual cost of $72,000, according to a fiscal estimate written in July.

The onus of providing the information rests upon the drugstores, not the state, a fact which at first concerned some owners. A solution was worked out between the drugstore owners, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Division of Consumer Affairs, however.

Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex and Mercer), a sponsor of the bill, said this measure might actually benefit smaller pharmacies once the information gets to the public.

“The larger drugstores had some of the higher prices, so if someone were really comparison shopping, they might be more apt to go to the small drugstore,” said Greenstein.

The law is similar to a measure that had been passed in New York state, although the New Jersey approach also takes into account people who might not have the technical acumen to search through the Web site by adding touch-tone phone access to the same database.

Greenstein said the increased information will lower prices in general, and while it will, at first, benefit those who are uninsured or those who have multiple prescriptions, the lower prices that she said will result from competition will eventually benefit everyone.

“I’m excited about this and because of its simplicity, it’s one of those things you might think gee, isn’t that already done? And I’m very proud to be a part of the effort there because I think it will have a measurable impact on people’s lives, and it’s the kind of legislation I like to do,” said Greenstein.