Use of prescription discount card growing

EDINBURG -- Vanessa Recio tries to turn all of her pharmacy's customers toward the Hidalgo County prescription discount card, regardless of whether they have insurance.

Recio, a pharmacist with Saenz Pharmacy in Mission, said the card has made it easier for dozens of her customers to purchase pricey prescriptions.

From a man buying medicine for his uninsured family to a woman who uses the card to pay for several prescriptions not covered by Medicaid, Recio said, the card makes it easier for her to do her job of getting people the medicine they need.

The discount varies by prescription but it averages out to about 35 percent.

"You can do the math on each prescription," she said, "but any discount is a good discount in my book."

More than 1,800 prescriptions have been filled using the card since it was unveiled in late November, saving customers a total of about $45,000, Data Rx, the company that administers the card, reported.

And it's growing, too.

Cameron County is in the process of rolling the card out to its residents, and Data Rx is shipping more than 50,000 cards to the two counties.

Residents can pick up the card, available for no charge, for use at local participating independent pharmacies. A single card can be used for a person's entire family.

The card provides a discount ranging from 11 percent to 70 percent on most prescriptions.

Danny Vela, a pharmacist at Lee's Pharmacy in McAllen, said the card works by cutting out the middle man in the prescription process.

The card, which only works at independent pharmacies, cuts down the markup that drug manufacturers and switching companies like Data Rx put on prescriptions, said Vela, the president of the local pharmacy association who worked with Hidalgo County to introduce the card.

It essentially works like a large bargaining system that large employers cut with companies to reduce costs.

With the county's prescription discount card, Data Rx makes only a simple transaction fee that's similar to the one it charges the pharmacy when it acts as a go-between for the pharmacies and insurance companies.

The pharmacies also typically take a hit in their profit margins from what the prescriptions are normally sold, but they're gaining customers from residents who are now buying discount prescriptions they could not previously afford, Vela said.

"We're filling prescriptions for people that would not have filled them otherwise," he said, noting that about 50 prescriptions a day are filled with the card at his pharmacy. "It's the card that's doing it."

On Friday, Recio turned another one of her customers toward the card.

Mission resident Cindy Quiroz stopped in at Saenz Pharmacy to pick up a prescription for her oldest daughter, who has the flu. When Recio found out the flu medication wasn't covered on Quiroz's insurance, she offered her the discount card instead.

Using the discount card, Quiroz spent $5 on a medication that would have otherwise cost $40.

She said the card would come in handy in the future, considering her insurance's high deductible and her daughters' tendency to get sick this time of year.

"It's going to be in there with my credit cards," Quiroz said.

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.