When I did my rotations in an independent I went to go fill a generic pantoprazole Rx for a customer .. I saw there were 2 generic manufacturers .. I picked the one in which the tablet said "PROTONIX" and looked just like the brand ...
I took it off the shelf and the pharmacist, such a smart woman, said "No, no, no, no.. that's the one we use for the customers who want the Protonix brand.."
You bill the insurance for brand, dispense the identical medication (which is made by the same manufacturer), and wind up saving money bc you did not spend the actual amount of money buying the brand..
Why wouldn't you do this? We all know winthrop makes both Xyzal and generic levocetirizine and its made in the same place, but just distributed differently. The pill is the same. Same thing with the generic Concerta by Alza and brand Concerta by Alza, and etc, etc.
Is it really fraud? So the difference between these brand and generics manufactured together is who distributed them..
When I own an independent (if that ever happens with this economy and what the third party's and CVS is doing right now) that's what I would do, which is what a lot of places do.
.. Lastly, when Lipitor generic first came out, it was made by watson, it was the same exact pill saying PD155 or whatever. I wrote the note on the Rx for atorvastatin that THIS IS THE SAME MEDICATION YOU BEEN TAKING, the only difference is literally the writing on the bottle. One woman said she would not take the generic, that she would pay $50 more for the brand.. I had my tech talk to her, and I took the bottle back from her, switched the Rx to "LIPITOR" on the computer, and slapped the new label right on the same bottle without her knowing, and she was content. Snot is snot.