Low-cost drugs offered
Medical center announces new program for patients
Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
A medical center with offices in Monmouth, the DFD Russell Medical Center, this week announced a new program offering low-cost prescription drugs to its patients.
The Monmouth center, which opened in April, along with other Russell centers in Leeds and Turner will be joining with Bedard's Pharmacy in Lewiston to offer patients in the three communities prescription drugs at 25 to 30 percent off current prices.
Prescription medication will be made available at the different Russell medical centers, with Bedard's stocking the facility in Turner. The Turner center would then act as the main distribution point for the other centers.
Bedard's will handle the billing and insurance for Russell patients. The new program will allow for lower cost drugs for Russell patients only, but non-patients can have their prescriptions filled through the program at regular cost.
Russell Chief Executive Officer Pat O'Brien said it will be necessary to set up a storage and inventory system at the medical centers, as well as network all the facilities with Bedard's for billing and insurance purposes.
The entire program is expected to be in place by the end of September.
O'Brien said the new program will allow them to better serve the needs of central Maine's communities.
"We believe this will show that there is a way to get low-cost prescription drugs in Maine," O'Brien said.
The Russell board of directors is taking advantage of a federal drug-purchasing program as part of the Public Health Service Act.
Because the Russell medical centers are run by a board of directors made up of community members and the centers adopted a sliding fee scale for patients, they qualified for the program.
To fully meet the program's requirements it was necessary for the Russell centers to establish a pharmacy, but because of the cost of building the new facility in Monmouth and Turner, they decided to cooperate with an established pharmacy instead.
Health-care groups in other states have participated in the federal drug-purchasing program, which allows pharmacies to purchase prescription drugs at rates as high as 80 percent less than other pharmacies, O'Brien said.
O'Brien says the decision to launch the program was based on the state's failure to lower prescription drug costs. He said some of central Maine's elderly are being forced to go to Canada for cheaper medication or go without their prescriptions.
"The Legislature's getting no (prescription drug) assistance to the people who need it," O'Brien said. "When people are skipping doses because they can't afford it, that's not good medicine."
Rising prescription drug costs have been a hotly contested issue in Maine's U.S. Senate race. Democrat Chellie Pingree and Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins both have made lowering prescription drug costs a part of their campaigns.
Justin Ellis — 623-3811, Ext. 433 jellis@centralmaine.com