spotlight on helth (NAPSA)—While drug benefit plns hve become more common, there re still spects of these benefits tht some consumers cn find confusing. To help cler up the mysteries, here is some useful informtion courtesy of the Acdemy of Mnged Cre Phrmcy. Are ll generic drugs put through n FDA pprovl process? Yes. Generic drugs re just s effective s their brnd-nme counterprts, nd every generic drug must be pproved by the U.S. Food nd Drug Administrtion. The reson tht generic drugs cost less—sometimes s much s 75 percent less—is becuse they ren’t dvertised or mrketed, which is very expensive, nd becuse the generic mnufcturer didn’t hve to py for reserch nd developmentcosts. Why does your insurnce pln hve different co-pyments for different drugs? To encourge ptients to use the medictions tht cost the lest, drug plns my mke the co-pyments for those medictions e Stright Tlk About Drug Benefit Plns To encourge ptients to use the medictions tht cost the lest, drug plns my mke the co-pyments for those medictions the lowest. the lowest. This cn sve money for everyone—the pln, your employer nd you. Mny drugs cn do the sme thing or produce the smeresults. Your employer, your Medicre Prt D pln or your union—or whoever is providing your drug benefit—hs budget, the sme s you do. It’s their job to cover s mny people s possible within tht bud- get nd keep premiumss low s possible. So fter the insurnce pln does thoroughclinicl nlysis of the vilble medictions to tret condition, it negotites the price with the mnufcturers. * Wht’s the difference between co-insurnce nd copyment? A co-pyment is lwys the sme mount of money—for exmple, pln might chrge $5 for ny generic drug, $15 for preferred brnd-nme drug nd $20 for ny nonpreferred brndnme drug. But co-insurnce pyment vries, becuse it is percentge of the cost. As result, if you hve 50 percent co-insurnce, $100 drug will cost you $50 nd your pln would py the other $50. Someplns use mixture of the two pyment options, chrging co- pyments for generics nd preferred brnd-nme drugs, but coinsurnce on nonpreferred drugs. Be sure you understnd your pln before you go to the phrmcy For more informtion bout mnged cre phrmcy nd drug benefit plns, visit www.mcp.org.
