Study says MSPs are not bad guys

Drug Store News, Nov 19, 1990

Study says MSPs are not bad guys

Mail service pharmacy leaders are applauding the results of a recent study by Brandeis University, which states that mail order firms may not be the monsters of the pharmacy industry after all.

The study, sponsored by a grant from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), was mandated in the Medicare Catastrophic Act of 1988, "to evaluate the potential to use mail service pharmacies to reduce costs to the Medicare program." Because of the repeal of the Catastrophic act, the report was never presented to Congress.

The report offers conclusions of some pertinent aspects of mail service pharmacies (MSP), which other pharmacy leaders have questioned in the past. Topics covered include the quality of products dispensed, working conditions for pharmacists, counseling procedures, and costs to consumers.

The study concluded that the quality of products dispensed in MSPs was good and dispensing procedures compared favorably with community pharmacy operations. The study team also reported that they "felt better working conditions, including regular work hours and the opportunity to concentrate on prescription products, improved the quality of the service they delivered."

With regards to the hotly debated issue of counseling, the study concluded that MSPs provide more than written drug leaflets by offering toll-free 800 lines for patients and providers.

On the other hand, the report on costs associated with MSPs have encouraged some leaders in community pharmacy. For example, the study uncovered that MSPs charge an average of 56 cents per day, while retail pharmacists charged an average of 58 cents per day. "It's clear that mail order may not provide the windfall of savings that those companies may represent it to be," said Tom Menighan, senior director of external affairs for the American Pharmaceutical Association.

Yet, while retailers center on the cost issue, mail service leaders contend that they should look at the entire spectrum of the study, not just one aspect. In a letter to APhA executive vp John Gans, Delbert Konnor, executive vp for the American Managed Care Pharmacy Association disputed an article in the association's journal centering on the cost issue.

"We urge your readers to obtain copies of the Brandeis study, because even a casual review of it will reveal little similarity between the article and the study itself," he wrote. "The Brandeis study was, in fact, extremely detailed in its praise of the quality and standards of mail pharmacy services.

"All I ask is for an element of fairness," Konnor told Drug Store News/Inside Pharmacy. "The study was, in fact, favorable to our industry. The real key is that even though a number of studies disagree whether mail service pharmacy is cost effective, if it weren't, the majority of Fortune 500 companies would not be using it to begin with.

"Time will be our best ally," he continued. "Hopefully, we'll do a good enough job necessary to prove that we have a significant contribution to make in the pharmacy industry."