Are birth control pills unprofitable?

[Lexington2012]

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I did an IPPE at an independent pharmacy. I was told that the owner has no moral objection to birth control, but he does not stock it because he says it is unprofitable.

Does anyone know if this is true? I am aware that there are certain prescriptions which are dispensed below cost.

Anyone care to talk about the specifics of reimbursement?

 

[Sparda29]

Yeah most of the brand names are $1-$3 profit per script and the generics can be pretty profitable if you can buy your generics at a low cost. We get most of our generics from a company that sells generics that will be expiring within 6 months. Get as much as an 80% discount on cost this way.

Condoms on the other hand, are pretty profitable from what I've seen at our store.

 

[Ackj]

Maybe it was a specific brand/product he referred to? I can't see it being that big of a problem that you're going to not stock any OC at all. Even if you lose $1-2 on them, which I doubt, if you don't stock it you're essentially shutting out all female patients aged 15-45. When they need an antibiotic, ointment, eventually start some other chronic med, they're going to stick with the pharmacy they have been getting their OC from, not your pharmacy.

 

[owlegrad]

It sounds like total BS to me. Most BC products go to private insurance, right? So how you can claim that they are on the whole unprofitable...sounds pretty dubious to me.

 

[Sparda29]

Maybe it was a specific brand/product he referred to? I can't see it being that big of a problem that you're going to not stock any OC at all. Even if you lose $1-2 on them, which I doubt, if you don't stock it you're essentially shutting out all female patients aged 15-45. When they need an antibiotic, ointment, eventually start some other chronic med, they're going to stick with the pharmacy they have been getting their OC from, not your pharmacy.

That's the big picture though. If you turn down one of their scripts, they're just gonna walk on over to a pharmacy that won't turn down any of their scripts.

 

[steveysmith54]

is this a market plan to sell more of plan B?

When I worked retail, independents, chains, etc all stocked the more common bc, like tri-sprintec, gildess, nuvaring, etc. Some independents didn't have too many clients on it bc the young working women preferred to go to chains that are open late for convenience etc. As far as the reimbursement, that differs, it's def more than u get reimbursed compared to atenolol and hctz. i'd say on avg it was 8 buck profit, which is proly the avg for pharmacies these days.

 

[BenJammin]

Why not move to a cash only model for birth control? You could beat chain cash prices and mail them out to patients (in accordance with state laws). Or hell, let them buy a year supply of it at a discounted rate.

 

[wagrxm2000]

This must be an independent thing. I checked out trinessa and most insurances paid $5 over cost.

 

[Deja]

yeah most birth controls are low payers, freaking annoying

 

[njac]

I switched to an independent and had to bargain with them to get them to order my birth control. I'll def go for 3 months to use up the box, but it was annoying.

 

[Lexington2012]

yeah most birth controls are low payers, freaking annoying

How low? Is it below acquisition cost?

 

[confettiflyer]

Yeah I'm thinking this is more of an inventory thing...buy a box, dispense only 1-2 out of it, and discard rest as expired = bye bye meager profit margin.

 

[Sparda29]

I switched to an independent and had to bargain with them to get them to order my birth control. I'll def go for 3 months to use up the box, but it was annoying.

Yeah I'm thinking this is more of an inventory thing...buy a box, dispense only 1-2 out of it, and discard rest as expired = bye bye meager profit margin.

Yeah, I have like 10 boxes with different kinds of birth control sitting there, each box is open. I only order one box at a time though unless someone's insurance covers a 3 month supply and they can take whole box.

 

[steveysmith54]

Every independent is operated differently. Perhaps this independent has a stead flow of geriatric customers or specialty drugs. However, if you just opened your own pharmacy and looking for foot traffic, you need to stock at least the very common BC like generic for ortho-tricylen, orth0-cyclen, gilddess, nuvaring... 1. the cost per pack is 4-20 bucks per pack with exception of nuvaring of course... this isn't a brand name hundreds of dollars med that you may never dispense. this is a MONTHLY med, you are likely to have refills, etc. 2. You are guaranteeing that your pt will come to your place every month. You can sell them OTC items with it. As they get older, they may start a family and bring in their family meds. As they get older, they may go on other maintenance meds. This opens the door for you to earn their FUTURE business.

I know a lot of plans make monthly meds mail order only, so maybe this is the case now, but in my retail days if you are looking for business you can't restrict yourself like that.

 

[Deja]

How low? Is it below acquisition cost?

yeah, below acquisition cost 🙁

 

[knight on horse]

Maybe now that we have the seed (hohoho) of cheap labor in our country the powers that be want to boost birthrates