INSURANCE Walgreen rejects mail-order demands

Walgreen says mail-order undercuts the patient-pharmacist relationship.
DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The nation's largest pharmacy chain is rejecting insurance plans that require mail-order prescription refills, a trend that threatens to reduce its business.
Walgreen Co. said this week it will not do business with new plans that require patients to refill their drugs by mail, but that its decision does not affect consumers whose insurers have mail-order plans with the chain now.
The move counters a growing trend of insurance plans that allow consumers to fill initial prescriptions at a pharmacy but require refills to be made via the mail. It also takes a swipe at the new Medicare drug bill awaiting President Bush's signature. The bill gives seniors the option of using private pharmacy management companies that encourage or require mail delivery of maintenance drugs such as those used to control cholesterol.
Walgreen officials said plans that require mail-order prescriptions undercut the patient-pharmacist relationship and hurt patients.
"The people who most want that relationship with their community pharmacy, and the ones who need that extra consultation most, are the seniors," Walgreen spokesman Michael Polzin said. "They are the ones who take most of the [maintenance] medications and who are more likely to find mail service confusing."
Losing business
Walgreen also stands to lose business if mail-order prescriptions keep customers from entering stores and buying incidental items.
Pharmacy sales at Walgreen stores account for 60 percent of revenues. The company conducts less than 5 percent of its business with insurers requiring mail-order prescriptions for some drugs, though mail-order business is booming industrywide.
Mail-order drug sales are up 17 percent in the past five years, and this year accounted for 5.5 percent of prescriptions filled nationwide through October, according to the health information firm IMS Health.
Pharmacy-management companies often seek to save money for employers by buying bulk medications and by encouraging customers to mail-order a 90-day supply after filling the initial prescription at a pharmacy. They say they have pharmacists available by phone.