Hospitals buy drugs in bulk from manufactures and distributors for a wholesale price (buying from costco vs target) which theoretically should be a better price than someone going to a pharmacy since they buy in bulk. This was the main idea of the project I set out on in the area of perscription drug prices. I was given some purchasing data, the different prices and buy orders from some hospitals to compare what we paid vs the retail prices in local pharmacies to see if we really receive a good price. What we pay in the end is paid for by the patient whether by insurance or out of their pocket. I ran this analysis for the highest overall expense drugs (price x quantity) to see where we could have the biggest amount of savings. Overall I found there were plenty of fine prices for some drugs, however others were costing us more than it would cost a patient to buy at the local pharmacy. These were the drugs I cared about and will pass on to the hospital to ensure we are being charged a fair price.
I also received data across all facilities that Dignity Health operates for the highest cost drugs in the last year and I am in the process of analyzing that data as well. In the end, this information could save the company money and battle for better prices for our patients. Thanks for keeping updated with my progress.
Kyle Grace
It is so wonderful that you are potentially saving the patients and the hospital money. Can you describe in more detail how you were able to determine whether or not the hospital was getting drugs at a fair price or not?
ReplyDeleteEssentially there are tools out there that give you a list of the price of a prescription drug at all local pharmacies so you can get the best price, GoodRX is an example of these. I essentially cross referenced our cost as a hospital to what they would have paid if they went and picked it up at a local pharmacy. While it may not be completely the same as it may be needed immediately but if we had a 300% markup, it does not seem to be fair, or if they had received it from our hospital pharmacy. It was a test to see if we were competitive.
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