Good news for Medicare enrollees who are on fixed incomes and counting pennies as well as pills: The price of prescription drug premiums in the program are expected to slightly dip next year. [More]
Pharma Medicine
You Can't Return This Phone To Walgreens, So Take It To Another Walgreens
By 8.4.11
Robert bought a prepaid AT&T Wireless cell phone at Walgreens in order to try out the company’s service. He never ended up using the phone, so had the crazy idea that he might try returning the unopened phone to a different Walgreens for store credit. The store wouldn’t hear of any such madness. [More]
Make Sure The Nursing Home Isn't Dosing Grandma Into Submission
By 8.3.11
A pill is just so much easier. Drug ’em up and shut ’em up. Rather than deal with all the individual needs of elderly persons with dementia in their care, some nursing homes are dosing them with powerful antipsychotics. Not only have the folk not received a diagnosis that the medicine was designed to treat, not only does the drug turn them into zombies their families don’t recognize, but the FDA has warned that using antipsychotics on older patients with dementia nearly doubles their risk of death. [More]
Guy Arrested For Posing As Drug Rep To Steal From Samples Cabinet
By 8.3.11
As we all learned from watching Love and Other Drugs, there’s plenty of good reasons to keep drug sales reps out of doctor’s offices. They use persuasion and charisma, and sometimes less savory methods, to get doctors to prescribe the drugs they’re pushing, privileging profits over patients. But rather than just be worried about what they’re putting on the doctor’s shelves, doctors should be also worried about what the salespeople might be taking off. That’s the case with a man who was arrested in Northport, New York, for posing as a drug sales rep and then stealing meds from the sample cabinet. [More]
CVS Refuses To Put ExtraCare Rewards On Your Card Because Super-Long Receipts Are "Exciting" To Customers
By 7.28.11
The CVS ExtraCare program lets customers get Extra Bucks rewards, but instead of putting those rewards on your ExtraCare card, they are printed at the bottom of CVS’ infamously long checkout receipts. A year ago, the company’s chief marketing officer told L.A. Times reporter David Lazarus that this would soon change and Extra Bucks would be placed directly on your card. But now CVS is saying just the opposite — that it deliberately wants those Bucks on the receipt because it’s a real thrill to the consumer. [More]
Walgreens Wants To Be The Spot Where You Charge Up Your Electric Car While Filling Your Prescription
By 7.21.11
As electric vehicles continue to hit the market, some retailers are seeing an opportunity to offer a new service by adding EV charging stations to existing stores. [More]
Tips For Spending Less At The Pharmacy
By 7.15.11
When you’re in the market for crucial, life-improving medication, saving money may not be your top priority. But keep a level head, know what to look out for and you can avoid being gouged when you’re at your weakest. [More]
Target, RiteAid, And Publix Change Policies To Cripple Extreme Couponers
By 7.5.11
In the past few weeks, three big stores have changed their coupon policies in ways to curb some of the more lucrative coupon tactics. It appears to be fallout over noob extreme couponers inspired by the TLC show Extreme Couponing, who are ruining the game for everyone else. [More]
Post Videos Of Your Pot Garden, Wind Up In Prison
By 6.29.11
If you happen to be proud of your involvement in a pot growing operation, it’s probably best to resist the urge to brag about your accomplishments on YouTube. A Southern California man led investigators to his alleged criminal enterprises by posting videos of his pot-growing setup. [More]
Walgreens Thinks $1.99 Mouthwash Is Worth $2.99
By 6.29.11
Reader Joy spotted an odd price discrepancy between the MSRP on the label of this bottle of mouthwash at Walgreens and the price on the shelf. So she whipped out her iPhone and sent in a picture of it to us using our new Consumerist Tipster App. She chose “2” as her “Anger Level,” indicating “a failure to communicate.” The real question is whether the rinse rings up as $1.99 or $2.99 at the register. Either way, annoying. [More]
Marijuana In Drug Case Vanishes From FedEx Truck
By 6.28.11
Authorities say marijuana that was meant to be used as evidence in a Long Island drug case and was shipped via FedEx disappeared during shipment. Someone apparently opened the box, removed the contents, then resealed the package. [More]
Boston Mayor Calls Out Nike For "Get High" T-Shirts
By 6.27.11
Boston’s mayor has asked Nike to stop its use of questionable phrases on a line of new t-shirts. The phrases “get high,” “dope” and “ride pipe” all have double meanings pertaining to drugs, the mayor complains. An anti-drug group sent a similarly themed letter to several members of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. [More]
Why I Won't Ever Go Back To Kmart
By 6.24.11
Everyone has those moments as a consumer where we say, “Screw you guys, I’m not coming back.” For M., that moment came for her at Kmart when she came back to pick up a refill and learned that in order to take part in Kmart’s $10 for a 90-day supply generic drug program, she would need to enroll in the discounter’s new Kmart Pharmacy Prescription Savings Club for only $10 per household per year. M. chose instead to transfer her prescriptions to one of the many pharmacies offering the same price for her generic drugs, without having to sign up for any memberships. [More]
If I Hadn't Checked, CVS Would Have Charged $228 For A $28 Generic
By 6.22.11
Had David’s wife not probed closely, she could have ended up paying $228 for generic Fosamax that could have been easily gotten for $24. He’s sharing the story as a cautionary tale so that other people who are getting their maintenance prescriptions covered by their employer’s insurance don’t end up overpaying for generics. [More]
Walgreens "Sorry" They Gave Patient 10x Recommended Dosage
By 6.15.11
She was hit with incredible pain and muscle spasms in her chest so bad that Arizona woman thought she was going to die. The strike was so severe she would turn red and purple. Sometimes she would have a hundred of these attacks each day, each time thinking that this would be the one that would kill her. Now Walgreens tells ABC15 that they’re “sorry” for refilling her prescription with 50mcg pills. She was only supposed to get 5mcg ones. [More]
Studies: 2 New Drugs Can Slow Advanced Melanoma
By 6.6.11
Physicians apparently have two strong new weapons against melanoma, according to studies that show a pair of drugs are effective at slowing the cancer in its advanced stage. The drugs could be game-changers for doctors and patients who have long struggled to find effective ways to treat the type of skin cancer. [More]
Florida Will Screen Welfare Recipients For Drug Use
By 6.6.11
Florida has passed legislation that would force welfare recipients to undergo drug tests before they’re able to receive aid. The law, set to go into effect July 1, would make applicants to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program pay for the tests upfront, but ensures they will be reimbursed if they pass. [More]
It Takes 12.5 Million Spams To Sell $100 Of Viagra
By 5.26.11
Considering how insistent and persistent the emails are, you would think there was big bucks in pushing pills that increase the flow of blood to one’s penis for an extended period of time. That may be true, but only because the costs of spam advertising are so low, as revealed by this nugget in a New York Times article that reveals it takes 12.5 million spam emails just to sell $100 worth of Viagra. [More]
