BULLETIN 2005 - 04
TO ALL BENEFIT CONTACTS
Via Fax

Effective January 1st Walgreen’s drug stores no longer fill prescriptions for Ohio Med enrollees. CVS has announced that it will stop filling Ohio Med prescriptions on April 18th. Please keep in mind that this does not affect enrollees in any of the HMOs.

When an Ohio Med enrollee receives a prescription from his/her physician, it can be filled at the local pharmacy for up to a 30-day supply. If the prescription is for a drug that will be taken on an on-going basis, up to a 90-day supply and any refills must be obtained from Ohio Med’s mail-order pharmacy, Express Scripts, Inc. (ESI).

Walgreen’s and CVS object to the requirement that refills of on-going medications must be filled by a mail-order pharmacy instead of a local retail pharmacy.

Mandatory mail order was introduced in the Ohio Med plan in 1992 as a cost-saving feature. Over those 14 years, mandatory mail is estimated to have saved the state and its employees millions of dollars in pharmacy costs. The cost-saving effectiveness of mandatory mail-order remains valid and a Harvard Business School analysis estimates that mail-order pharmacies will save American consumers and employers $100-billion in the next ten years over retail costs.

It is unfortunate that Walgreen’s and CVS have made the decision to not serve state employees. The number of employees affected will significantly increase with CVS’ planned implementation in April. However, even with Walgreen’s and CVS unavailable to them, 98.9% of Ohio Med enrollees have another retail pharmacy within 1.5 miles of their home, and five pharmacies within four miles.

A list of ESI-contracted pharmacies is available to enrolled Ohio Med members on the ESI Web site at: www.express-scripts.com. They will need to sign-in to the site. Attached to the on-line version of this Bulletin is a complete list of all the Ohio pharmacies in the ESI network, sorted by county.

As occurred when Walgreen’s elected to not serve state employees, we will be sending a letter to all employees impacted by the CVS decision.If you have any questions, please contact Benefits Customer Service at (614) 466-8857 or send an email to benefits@das.state.oh.us.