otc co-op?

[TroyMclure07]

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Hello... I have searched all over the place for the answer to this question and I can't find an answer. Does your hospital pharmacy (or retail pharmacy, for that matter) offer staff the ability to purchase otc products at cost from the wholesaler? Like the hospital staff member chooses a product and the pharmacy purchases the product from the wholesaler and sells it at cost? Any idea of what the legality of this is? It feels like a gray-type area. I appreciate any help.

 

[Pharmavixen]

Depends on the policy of the place. The drugstore chain I used to work for allowed staff (including temporary placement students) to buy OTC products at cost, and prescriptions without the dispensing fee.

One of my bosses even used to fill rxs for one staff member and her extended family without the fees, but he put the receipts through as if they paid full-price so that when the staff member's mum (staff member was a young person living at home) submitted the receipts to her drug plan, she got reimbursed for more than she paid. But that's fraud (and I couldn't understand why the boss extended this courtesy to a part-time cashier).

 

[Krismeese09]

I have not seen "at cost" provided to employees yet. Usually the standard cost + x%, or price -y%. 😀

 

[Farmercyst]

I get mine at cost, but it's run by the SOP, so that might be part of it.

 

[johnep34]

I think it may have been Carnegie who said 'do not make a charity of your business or you will have no business. Make good profits and donate to charity from these'.
Policy in UK is that staff get a discount on OTC but not on scripts. They expect to get paid even if stuff given away at cost.

Every element of a business must show a profit to survive. Our govnmt gave millions to dying industries to no avail. Whether or not the banks should have been bailed out is a moot point.
johnep

 

[genesis09]

At Walgreens, if you buy the Walgreens branded OTCs, you get a 20% discount, and if you buy anything else, it is a 15% discount.

 

[njac]

the hospital where I work has an employee-only outpatient pharmacy where everything is sold at cost - they can't even charge a dispensing fee, so they're losing money by running it. But the at cost goes for the OTCs as well. They were trying to add a $5/script dispensing fee, but the union (that requires we have the pharmacy) shut that down.

ahh, union country.