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I just had this message forwarded to me. This might help those of you who use generic drugs.

Subject: Costco Pharmacy - Very Informative

: Costco Pharmacy Very informative article

> Since the cost of prescription drugs are so outrageous, I thought
> everyone I knew should know about this. Please read the following and
> pass it on.
>
> On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for channel 7
> News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by
> pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic
> drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a
> typo..... three thousand percent!
>
> So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, And
> usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with
> the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription
> drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The
> pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they
> would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the
> pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have
> only cost him $10!
>
> At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether
> Or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and
> He said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the
> Generic drugs.
>
> I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get it's
> online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the
> online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own
> experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent
> nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99
for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought
> 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could
> have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.
>
> I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type
> store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it
> is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that
> you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.

Thanks for sharing this Julie

I had a Costco memebership when I lived in the Seattle area, since I had a hungry boy in the house and only lived 4 blocks away from one of their stores. Now that I am in the Washington DC area and the boy is not living with me any more, I dropped my membership, even though there are Costco stores here too.

I tried going to the Costco online site and it looks like you might have to be a member to use the online service. Then your doctor calls in the prescription and you get it by mail. There was also a note that they won't mail Schedule II drugs. Take a look at the site.

If you go to the following web site:

it is a phone number/address lookup. In the business box, leave the first line (type of business) blank, in the name of business field type in Costco, and then enter you city and state and it should give you a store. Of course if you live in a little town, you may want to enter the next biggest city near you, or maye see if it will let you leave the city blank and just go for the state.

Hey Julie thanks for this information. We have a Costco here in Fort Worth but never thought of checking prescription prices there. So I'm going to make s list of our meds and compare. Thanks again Julie.

a lot of banks offer check cards which is an ATM card with a VISA logo. It works just like a credit card in that you can order stuff with it, but it takes it out of your bank account instead. Check with your bank and see if they offer this. I have one and really like it!

Well we have COSTCO in Canada but the one near me does not sell prescription drugs, I don't know if any other ones in Canada do.

This was a very interesting thread. I will have to look for a Costso in my area. My copays come to about 250 a month. I usually look for generics. Thanks for the info.

There's 2 here in Quebec that I know off, but there is no pharmacie in them...Saphire

We have a costco in Halifax, NS. I was just there actually. I buy my infusion sets from them. They're cheaper than Shoppers Drug Mart; I get reimbursed 100% anyway, so I figured I'd save the insurance company some money.

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