AARP 'Check Up On Your Prescriptions' Campaign To Help Cut Prescription Drug Costs And Improve Health

4/18/2002

From: Steve Hahn or Barbara Foelber, 202-434-2560, both of AARP

WASHINGTON, April 18 -- If 70 year-old Rita Cohn had asked her doctor about the generic equivalent of her cholesterol medication, Mevacor, she could have saved 45 percent a month in out-of-pocket drug costs. Today, AARP is launching a new program to help Cohn, and millions like her, save money on prescription drug expenditures and improve their health status.

The AARP "Check Up on Your Prescriptions" campaign will help consumers talk with their health care providers and make good decisions about the efficacy and value of generic drugs. AARP research, also released today, shows that consumers have a limited understanding of the potential benefits of generic drugs.

The campaign will reach millions via national television and print ads, broadly distributed materials and other joint efforts with the American Geriatrics Society, United Health Group and the American Medical Women's Association. The messages will also be carried by AARP's own publications, AARP Modern Maturity, My Generation and The AARP Bulletin.

AARP expects to increase understanding of generics as alternatives to brand name drugs (when appropriate), improve patient compliance with prescribed drug regimens, and reduce harmful drug interactions and overmedication.

In announcing the campaign and its partners, AARP CEO Bill Novelli said, "this education initiative is a key element in our three-pronged attack on the high cost of prescription drugs, which has reached crisis proportions." AARP is also engaged in a legislative effort to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and is participating in state litigation to hold down the high cost of prescription drugs. "We are also planning to join several high-profile federal cases that would make generic drugs more readily available to consumers," Novelli added.

The study released today found 75 percent of Americans age 45 and over use prescription drugs on a regular basis. However, one-third said they don't always tell their doctors about other medications they are taking, putting them at risk to adverse drug interactions. Twenty-eight percent stopped taking a drug before the prescription ran out and one in five said that they have had a prescription from their doctor over the past two years that they did not fill. Cost is the number one reason people said they did not have a prescription filled.

AARP Director of Knowledge Management Shereen Remez pointed out the most troubling finding in AARP's survey. "While AARP research shows a high recognition of generics, we also found that there was little real understanding of the value that generics may provide in people lives and pocketbooks."

Skipping doses, not filling prescriptions and unauthorized pill splitting are some of the measures consumers take in the wake of rising drug costs. Unfortunately, these cost-saving measures can also prolong the illness or medical condition as well as the expense of the treatment. "Improvised remedies that run counter to doctors' orders are a prescription for disaster," Novelli said.

A new report, "The Impact of Drug Pricing Policies on the Health of the Elderly", for the Center for the Advancement of Health at Rutgers University bolsters AARP's contention that high costs of prescription drugs are negatively affecting drug use. The Rutgers study shows a high correlation between drug prices and the health of older people. This report found lower drug prices "buy" more health for people on Medicare. For instance, purchasing a popular heart medication at 40 percent below the average wholesale price (the price the government pays) buys 90 years of life. But the same drug purchased at the average wholesale price (closer to the retail price paid by the uninsured), buys only 48 life years.

Novelli said, "It is estimated that the proper use of generic drugs under Medicare prescription drug plans now being debated by Congress could possibly save the program up to $100 billion over 10 years -- real savings that could cut the cost of the program. And when it comes to drug affordability, cutting costs is essential."

Novelli concluded, "Our prescription check-up is simple. Ask your doctor and pharmacists if there is a generic equivalent for your brand name prescriptions. If you are taking more than one medication, make sure your doctor or pharmacist knows everything you're taking. Always take the right dose and full course of your prescriptions and last but not least, don't let drug advertising talk you into believing you need a drug your doctor hasn't prescribed. These and other "Check up on your prescriptions" tips can help bolster health and boost savings.

More information about the "Check Up on Your Prescriptions" can be found at the AARP Webplace at www.aarp.org

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people 50 and over. We provide information and resources; advocate on legislative, consumer, and legal issues; assist members to serve their communities; and offer a wide range of unique benefits, special products, and services for our members. These benefits include AARP Webplace at www.aarp.org, Modern Maturity and My Generation magazines, and the monthly AARP Bulletin. Active in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP celebrates the attitude that age is just a number and life is what you make it.