FORT coceens COtaRALO AL &-29~00 Sher Barer Colao ‘SERVICE WITH A SMILE: Sherry Kubiak, pharmacy technician at Shopko, hands Elen Wilging, lot, het prescription at the Fort Coline store Monday 2 Colo. survey finds | it pays to shop for prescription prices’ ‘By SALLY BRIDGES: nonprofit think tank im ‘The Coloradoan Golden, released a price’ ‘George W. Bosh surveyef Ob eae and Al Gon ay to sel phecbecle Tea overs on thet preenp+ eyed pharmatcs tin hug plans oc e- cused te big cise ok searched are" warning well te sash et Setbrraottobuy tn = andpope ‘The message is sim- "The survey revealed ple ifyonwan to ave at ieee pea Fnoneyonyouresce. ou at he oe Soa = ger iene Peak Recs eee CA shop around. i..." SEboapeeseboeeberraerareenee Last week, the Inde- Compare prices at pecdenseTisttutes g__Selstad storas/At ered by (some kind of) insur- ) jsiatne Continued from Page Al for a year could be a $2,000 mis- take, The cost of a month's supply of four common prescriptions = Prlosee, Zocor, Norvasc and Claritin — ranged from alow of $309.78 at “Aurora's ‘Costco Wholesale P to a hi of $47265 at Pueblo’. Mesa Pharmacy. “Twas flabbergasted by the dilferences.” said Jon president of the Independence | Fasttte The survey ichded 10 Fort Collins pharmacies where prices ranged trom $321.86 at Shopko Pharmacy, 13 Bockman Dave, | to S4l476 at Rite Aid, 103 W._ Prospect Road. ‘Caldara said the drugs in the | survey were sleced betnwre | they dont have a genexe equiv= alent ‘That means all the phar | ‘uacies must order each of the | drugs from a single manufactur- | “A lot of the mom-and-pops and independents did Bey | well inthis surveys" Clldars said. “A real chain store villain is | Rite Aid, which wes the second | ‘most expensive overall” Tn Littleton, a shopper at ‘Aid could save $8380 on the sur: ‘vey’s monthly Rx cost by walle ing Jess than 300 feet to the neighboring: pharmacy at King Soopers. “This infomation has een | very valuable to us" Pennsylva nlabased Rite Aid spokes. Baan Sanh Dats ad Teo Ww what the pricing, pol Iie bean in the yas, but wee | ooking into how we determine cash pricing | “Very few (prescriptions) are | paid for by eash (without insur- lance), over 90 percent are cov | Be But Rite Aic’s local manager, Ramona Lokamas, said about 20 | percent of the Fort Collins cus~ tomers are cash payers. The survey results were no ‘surprise to Fort Collins resident Jupe Tesh, who leamed the lue of shopping around from her mother. Before her mother, Maybelle ‘Tucker, died in 1996, she was liv {ng on @ fixed monthly income ‘of $948 while her monthly pre- scription costs were more thanui ULUY GUDE GUITEAL SUNS: ce nit aan resin cost curay ct 100 Colne prema, Te saey eek the pin ceoaamania eons) acetates Site ep bbe Leno nds | Phy tea woe. Toget_ Pach Phone S| Her ace | Sa | Bae | ge. | ersten a, sizeas “| “sranno [sieese | susan | teen | sna | snien | ster | sia frase [snare | sam | svase | cram | sry | sree | some | sine] sis | sivas | see | sare | seo | sare] sss | sae | aera gem | seer | gazes | geno | sraa0 | seca | ssa | sem | srt soso | Soom | scare | suze | soasos | setae | steear’ | swiss | soad’| “rites tin seat ees ae cabarets 2 a rk afford Poudre Health Services peed 255 at ots a meiner a Renee a mice gee ina at Sey epee Sm nee et ere i teas ore $700 month. ‘Tucker, amember ofthe cles Senior Adin Head wih reports al con teed «star vey of Se Collins ‘harmacles comparing. five diferent crags about three ‘mash ago, peers eee eae ene eoeeed Seren other oie ae oe Seorlese expensive sh Ser ee aees poorer eon Seo Sees aces Eaeeule eee Dons yt aoa armas ‘Sway 1781 pare High Rx prices can be minimized Li ys the dat x cid the program by mere Uae oie Val en {2h and serving 10s8 nak ais and. providing, $416,000 ‘worth of fee medications The heath dst wil help individtals apply for. ai ‘gece ogame oir iy he ip companies The compe: Sey ote fer Lime sp: les of discounted or fee ‘The. procean tien compiteated, ‘Cox sid ‘The health district recon ‘mends thee tips for saving money: 'W Shop around to find the best price ‘when possible, use gener “We were specifically looking at people on ‘Medicare and living con a limited, fixed in- come, ... We have seniors who can’t af- ford their preserip- tions and have to do without. t's not a pretty picture.” dun Tucker sec Ay se shee armacy,anater Fores price for te same pre scription to see if they wl Bon Orie Tucker sid, Vicki Einhelli, owner of Spring Creek and Doug's phar cles, sald there Was mote to sclcttg a phy ta jt Dee. Spring Cree was inca ed in the survey with a monthly castor sa575. “Wie werent the iowest and not the highest. We were pretty ‘uch where we wanted to Bee Einhellig said. “These prices dont reflect the prices of our other prescriptions ar out tern we seeps true heen ‘ar ror spe drug that us on sbout 230 peent ese tha ae ‘rand country ask your doctor for fre samples Of now pretcibed Split tablets higher dose taht ate fin eh Te ce ac cored ns whe the abi rol ia drug company, or me tomation,C suggested these oslne set ‘wiwnecdymedscom “and onesetcor st amumber of ferent pharma ies lo save money, thy could Eetshing ther ves beccue tbe Plarmac wil be unable to ‘Ste pote dr aeration probes ‘Recording o the Amecin armen a, 3 een of Rosa! asa [Bethe elderly a rom mesic Aionelsted. probes such as lnupproprie Sosing or git terations contng eatin ‘50D bilon each pea she snd got wah se traps Ea aed that leds to higher drag cost” Ehahelig said Ws realy the drug companies that set the coats not the pharmacies" ‘Shopko plarmacist” Paul ‘they azced with Eihellig, pry Ai a cot phar” Ae) a teal See ent hee pos Gener dues hel somers save money he sid But Sica at paces ‘ary nly one gene of sever sl poche genes fora single tie band ‘ieee oo ik St he reseription pice woos Ca EEM Monday tay tke yeas ‘before polins can inp‘ance pungeseppesyas oe —\69N— YN TRON ETTE TESA SARUN I ANVINORE SUIS oy'sots 66'eTTS e96z13 overs NET BETS! ea'erTS sesers errers aeerts pse0ts = AOTSONTES A ou UE ‘Dy ss ‘eae | sPrup paouosoid ‘210 spewed opeso109 ODT fa pam SaOUK uonsiosond Jo fans sina sos