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I think you misunderstood my point and this information could keep you from looking like you didn't provide full disclosure if an agent like myself meets with your clients after you and shows a plan where they could have saved 500.00 if they were willing ti switch pharmacy and even if the carriers contracted cost is lower at a grocery store vs. the big pharmacy chain stores ,which I haven't seen to be the case here in Florida anyway , it's a moot point for someone who doesn't go in the gap and are just looking for the lowest co payments. Sometimes a client will ask what is the most cost effective pdp plan and is willing to go to any pharmacy to save money.The medicare drug finder only allows you to add 2 pharmacies at a time so the first run I will put in whatever pharmacy they currently use and Walgreens.The next run I will enter CVS and Walmart because if a PDP carrier that has special pricing at a particular Florida pharmacy i.e. Humana /Walmart it is going to include either Walgreens,CVS or Walmart.I can't think of a part D sponsor that has a grocery store pharmacy as the ONLY preferred pharmacy. The preferred pharmacies may be different in your state.I ran a drug finder the other day and on the first run used the clients preferred pharmacy the grocery store Publix and Walgreens and the total annual cost was about the same for either of those two pharmacies at around 1500.00 .The next run I entered CVS and Walmart and all of the sudden Humana plans came in at about 1000.00 total cost which was was 500.00 lower compared to what the client would have paid if they used their Humana PDP at Walgreens and Publix.If i hadn't ran this drug list with Walmart in the mix and they had found out after the fact they wouldn't have been to happy and I would imagine the accusation of lack of full disclosure/ manipulation of the data when using medicare.gov for comparisons would be grounds for filing a complaint.
I agree that most people won't change pharmacies for a 500.00 savings but I also believe that most people would be upset if they find out later that they were not made aware about the potential savings, if they were willing to switch pharmacies, from an independent agent they trusted was practicing full disclosure.
